Against her will

Lawal Ogienagbon

WITH HER abduction two years ago, fate dealt Leah Sharibu, the girl from the rustic community in Dapchi, Yobe State, a cruel blow.

She and 104 other girls did not bargain for what happened to them that fateful February 19, 2018, about four years after a similar incident in Chibok, Borno State. Leah was in school with the other girls when the Boko Haram insurgents struck in their characteristic manner.

It was something the nation had thought would never happen again following the April 14, 2014 abduction of 112 pupils from  the Chibok Girls Secondary School.

The 2014 incident should have prepared the government for any eventuality by Boko Haram and everything done to nip whatever the sect’s plan is before it is executed. It never did and Boko Haram successfully struck in Yobe four years later.

Since then, Boko Haram has continued to strike here and there, abducting aid workers, clerics, farmers, women, pupils, undergraduates and even policemen and soldiers. Nobody is safe from the clutches of Boko Haram, except those who are far away from the epicentre of its operation in the Northeast, especially Borno.

The sect remains determined as ever to continue with its bestial act. Just last week, it beheaded Rev Lawan Andimi, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State. His offence: he allegedly refused to renounce his faith after he was kidnapped.

Boko Haram is waxing stronger despite the government’s claim that the group has been ‘’technically defeated’’. How can the group still be wreaking havoc on some parts of the country despite the government’s claim, many are wondering.

The military keeps reassuring all that it is on top of  the insurgency war but the results indicate otherwise. Leah’s case keeps haunting the nation because of the undercurrents surrounding her continued captivity.

She was said to have rejected freedom on the condition of renouncing Christianity. By her action, she was only living her faith as Jesus says in the Bible: ‘’whoever denies me before men, I will deny before my father in heaven’’.

Read Also: Leah Sharibu’s father: we’ve surrendered our fate to God

To show her who is in control, the abductors released others, but held on to her. This same Leah has become a mother. Surely, that too, just as her abduction, cannot be according to her wish.

As she is being forcibly held against her wish, so has she been forced into early marriage by her abductors. News that she gave birth to a baby boy shook the nation last weekend. The father of the baby is described as a Boko Haram leader in Niger Republic.

Nothing can be changed now after Boko Haram has had its way with the poor girl. Fate could not be more cruel to her and her family than this.

With the underground negotiations said to be going on for her release, the nation was looking forward to her returning home and not the shattering news of her giving birth to a baby.

Will her abductors allow her to go now? What more do they want from her? Another baby so that their evil tribe may continue to increase? The fault is not Boko Haram’s, but that of the government which allowed this matter faster.

Ahmed Salkida, who is said to be close to the group, put it aptly: ‘’why, I wonder, do we pretend that leaving Leah behind won’t result in pregnancy? Since the terror group announced condemning her to slavery is there any step or collective focus on preventing similar occurrences?

She is a mother, but I do not know the gender of the baby’’.  Leah would have looked forward to being a mother one day, but nothing in her wildest dreams would have prepared her for what fate has now thrust on her.