Time to bring Chibok girls home

Last week, for the first time in nearly two years, evidence surfaced that at least some of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in April 2014 are still alive. A video clip obtained by Cable News Network (CNN) showed 15 out of the 219 Chibok girls paraded before a camera. This video clip […]

Last week, for the first time in nearly two years, evidence surfaced that at least some of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in April 2014 are still alive. A video clip obtained by Cable News Network (CNN) showed 15 out of the 219 Chibok girls paraded before a camera. This video clip at once caused anger and frustration but it also raised the hopes of parents of the abducted girls, all Nigerians and of well- wishers around the world that the girls would soon return home.
The video was released a day to the second anniversary of the abductions of 276 students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State. Before that, no evidence had surfaced to suggest the girls were either alive or dead. President Muhammadu Buhari told a television interviewer that he had no idea where the girls were. This video therefore raises hope that if the right things are done, the girls will be reunited with their families.
The video was released by Boko Haram as “proof of life” in negotiations. Even though only 15 out of 276 abducted girls were shown in the video, one of them stated that “all of us are well.” The intermediary who supplied the video to CNN indicated that talks are going on between government and Boko Haram to secure the girls’ freedom. The insurgents are said to be demanding huge sums of money and release of their captured Amirs in exchange for the girls. This is a difficult demand for the government to accept at a time when Nigerian troops, with help from troops of neighbouring countries, have recorded tremendous successes in the fight against the insurgents.
When 276 girls from GGSS Chibok were forcefully loaded into lorries by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14, 2014, 57 of them managed to escape by clinging unto branches of trees. For the first twenty days, the federal government under the leadership of former President Goodluck Jonathan did not believe that the girls had been abducted. Instead, it suspected Borno State Government and the opposition All Progressives Congress [APC] of hiding the girls in order to score a cheap political point.
It was only after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video clip showing all the abducted girls, clad in the Muslim Hijab even though majority of them are Christians and an international #BringBackOurGirls campaign was sparked off, that the government began to take the matter seriously. But by then Boko Haram had the chance to hide the girls. Attempts made by local and foreign mediators in the run up to last year’s elections to negotiate the girls’ release did not succeed.
That primary error has been haunting us till date. Despite the military’s sweeping gains in the war and despite intelligence and logistic support from the United States, United Kingdom, France and China, efforts to find and rescue the girls have not yet succeeded. Though President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier said there was no hint on the girls’ whereabouts, Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed confirmed on the second anniversary of the abductions that government has a copy of the new video, which was shot on Christmas Day, last year. The minister also said, “There are ongoing talks. We cannot ignore offers, we cannot ignore leads, but of course many of these investigations cannot be disclosed openly because they could also endanger the negotiations.” Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima also expressed optimism that the Chibok girls will soon be reunited with their families, saying available information suggests they are still alive.
We share the optimism of both Federal Government and Borno State government. We urge the authorities to do all within their power to accelerate efforts to bring the girls back home and bring this very painful national tragedy to an end as soon as possible.