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| Leader of BBOG, Dr. Oby Okwesili, consoling a distraught Chibok mother |
To talk about the third anniversary
of the abduction of innocent teenage school girls by a mindless gang of
demonized persons makes it sound as if we are not in shock and mourning.
Nigerians woke up on 14th April 2014 to the news that 276 girls of
the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Bornu State, had been abducted by
Boko Haram insurgents. They pillaged the school’s food store, set the dormitories
on fire and herded the school girls into rickety trucks and drove them into the
bush. Since then, 57 of the girls managed to escape on their own while 24 were released
following negotiations with the Islamist group. Lest we forget, 19 parents of
these girls have died within the last three years. The events of that day
shocked the world and left a scar on humanity.
It has been reported that some of
the returnee girls said they were initially kept in houses owned by top
politicians for the first eight months. The Nigeria Airforce bombed one of the
residents and killed some of them before the rest were taken in the forest and
married off to members of the Boko Haram group. The den of the group in Sambisa
forest has been raided by Nigerian troops without a trace of the remaining girls.
So where are they now?
Harrowing stories of rape,
torture, forceful islamisation, forceful marriages, child births and death have
also been told by some of the returnees. These all beg the question, what is
Government doing about the girls still in captivity? The leadership of the military
have become screen models. The faces of the Chief of Defense Staff and the
Chief of Air Staff are on seen on national television daily as if television is
theater of war. We thought military operations should be covert and discreet
until the battle is won or lost.
We must single out the Bring Back
Our Girls (BBOG) campaign team for commendation for their dogged stance in
mounting pressure on the country’s authorities to live up to their
responsibilities and for creating international awareness of the plight of the
missing girls and their parents. God will reward them for their humanitarian
work.
After three years, none of the
missing 195 girls can still the same. Disease, sickness, trauma, confusion, physical
and psychological torture must have turned them into angry and confused humans.
Their return to civilization is honest wish for them. We ask all people out
there to please offer prayers continually until their return.
