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Tag: Bring back

Bring back Leah

She should not be left to suffer because of her faith

FROM the look of things, contrary to the claim by the presidency that the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls were released “unconditionally,” their abductors actually attached a faith-based condition to their release. Those who were released were Muslims.  The only Christian among them was not released because she reportedly refused to renounce her faith and convert to Islam.

This religious condition kept Leah Sharibu in the cage and dampened celebration of the March 21 release of the others abducted with her from the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19 when the school was attacked by Boko Haram terrorists in military fatigues who reportedly took away 110 schoolgirls in 11 trucks.

The insurgents reportedly brought their captives back to the town and set them free after a month in captivity. Soldiers fighting the anti-terror war were said to have made a “tactical withdrawal” to allow the terrorists to bring the girls back. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was quoted as saying:  ”What we have now is 105 girls and a boy; that makes it 106 persons released.” Sadly, five of the kidnapped girls reportedly died in captivity.

By holding Leah because of her faith, the Islamists demonstrated not only extremism but irrationality. Their faith-based partiality in this case reflected their fanatical elevation of Islam above all other religions as well as their disrespect for adherents of other faiths. This mentality violates freedom of worship. It is unacceptable in the context of diversity.

Leah’s defiance makes her a heroine of faith. She has displayed exemplary devoutness remarkable for her young age.  At 15, the Senior Secondary School 1 pupil has shown spiritual maturity that all people of faith can learn from.

Leah’s mother, Mrs Rebecca Sharibu, said: “The released girls told us that the insurgents insisted that my daughter must renounce her religion. But she told them she had no single knowledge of Islam and could not be a Muslim. She was then left out of the Dapchi trip. They told her that any day she accepts Islam, she will be released. Leah, we were told, was left behind with three Boko Haram women but she sent the message through her mates that we should pray for the will of God to be done in her life.”

But Leah’s fate should not be left to her fatalism. While the Federal Government is busy congratulating itself, and expecting to be congratulated, the authorities must keep Leah’s situation in focus and take steps to get her released without further delay. It is curious that she was left out of those qualified to be released in the first place. How did that happen? Why did those who negotiated the release of the schoolgirls allow the abductors to keep Leah? Why did they not insist on her unconditional release as well?

The Dapchi mass kidnapping compounded the still unresolved Chibok mass kidnapping in Borno State in April 2014. Many of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls are still in captivity.  It is disturbing that the terrorists were able to carry out the Dapchi kidnap despite the presence of anti-terrorism troops in the region. The northeastern states of Borno and Yobe have been vulnerable to Boko Haram attacks since the insurgency started in 2009, meaning that there was always a possibility the terrorists would strike again like they did in Chibok as long as they had not been defeated. The military protectors should have seen this possibility and should have made it impossible.

Leah should not be an addition to the list of kidnapped schoolgirls who have not been brought back. Her case deserves urgent action; her time in captivity must not be allowed to stretch just because she stuck to her faith.

April 2, 2018
Bring back our country
On April 14, 2014 news filtered in about the abduction of 276 young girls from a government school in Chibok, Borno State. The aftermath of this event has been a tapestry of reactions from the Nigerian government and civil society groups, a larger part of government reactions has been cavalier, polarized along religious and political lines. The political undertones was that of an abduction carried out to discredit the then incumbent while some believed these students were kidnapped given their Christian backgrounds. The phrase ‘BRING BACK OUR GIRLS’ became a popular mantra by civil society groups and all other transcendental visions of the Nigerian statehood.

However, rather than for the Nigerian government to be pressured to ensure that these young ladies are released, she rather turned the mantra into a jingoist ploy to accentuate her phony and populist tendencies. I pondered deeply and asked a lot of questions before I could agree with my mind to put this piece down: ‘what is bring back our girls’? Has it not become a toothless rhetoric rather than a statement of fact?

I concluded that the ‘ bring back our girls’ campaign is not literally only about bringing some lost girls but rather a metaphor that underscores a nation lost to its very own whims and prejudices. To bring back our girls is to bring back a nation lost to her very own cruelty.

Those who see the bring back our girls campaign as only a return to freedom of some helpless girls and believe any government that ensure such freedom should be massaged with a pat on the back fail to connect to the ideological symbolism of the campaign; the campaign is rather an ideological movement that subsumes all that is to be brought back, for the girls that were lost were only microcosms of all that has hitherto been lost. Before we lost our girls we had lost our values, we had lost our essence and the core of our humanity, we had lost pipe borne water, we had lost education, empathy and the very basic that defines a society.

Before we can propose to bring back our girls, we must bring back our society, we must bring back our nation, we must return to an era when justice becomes the only condition of humanity, a dispensation not defined by ethnic and ideological prejudices. Before we lost our girls we have become a nation suffering from an empathy deficit, the very beginning of valuing justice is to see the humanity of others as an extension of your own humanity, our empathy deficit had allowed us to tolerate schools that are chronically underfunded, understaffed and under inspired.

If we had thought that the children in them were like our children we could have acted differently for empathy brews responsibility. It is such demise of empathy that saw us lose our girls to sectarianism for it was our empathy that was lost ab-initio before we lost our girls.

In every society (and in every individual), the twin strand- the individualistic and the communal are in tension, the tensions ours face is the tension of selfishness, proselytism and self centeredness, ours is a nation driven by ‘Me, myself and I’ mantra. Until the nation becomes a nation where justice is meted on the value of humanity rather than that of ethnicity and political affiliations, we would remain lost finding our girls rather than finding the country

For we are a nation with a lost heart.
- By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde
Abeokuta, Ogun State.
September 24, 2017
Bring back our money

•The West must respond to this cry; but Africa too must provide it with accurate and adequate details

Although no one knows its exact size, almost everyone is agreed that vast fortunes, stolen by political officials in Africa from the very people they claim to serve, lie domiciled in European and American banks; and in Caribbean safe havens for funds of questionable origin.

The practice goes back to the 1960s, when a majority of African countries won independence from their colonizers; and governance passed into the hands of indigenous leaders, who had led or participated actively in the independence struggle.

Some of the new leaders ran their states as fiefdoms. The most notorious of them, President Mobutu Sese Seko, was rumoured to be wealthier than Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). It was, therefore, not unusual for him to lend some money to the national treasury whenever it was empty, so that Zaire could keep up the appearance of being a thriving state.

Jean Bedel Bokasa thought it beneath his dignity to be a mere president of the Central African Republic. So he renamed it the Central African Empire and crowned himself emperor in an orgiastic festival that drained the state treasury; while his vast personal fortune lay secure in the vaults of the most secretive banking institutions in France and Switzerland.

The loathsome Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha pursued the twin goals of personal enrichment and self-perpetuation with maniacal frenzy. Funds so far recovered from his secret accounts – a fraction of his loot, according to the best authorities – is bigger the budget of some African countries for an entire year.

Only a vast fortune stashed offshore can sustain the obscenely lavish lifestyle of Teodorin Obiang Mangue, son of the president of Equatorial Guinea. He lives in a five-story 101-room mansion, a monument to excess, on the fashionable Avenue Foch, in the French capital, Paris. Last year, he forfeited to the United States assets worth $30 million that government officials say was looted from his country.

His father the president, Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo and his family are widely believed to be at least as wealthy as their oil-rich country.

It is paradoxical that Western nations that will not tolerate any fiddling with public funds all too readily serve as hospitable depositories for the pillage that political officials in Africa systematically visit on their countries.

According to informed estimates, if just a fraction of it were repatriated and used judiciously, the impact on the economic and social development in Africa would be nothing short of transformative.

The church, public-spirited organizations and persons of conscience worldwide have called again and again on Europe and the United States to move their financial institutions to repatriate this wealth, as have the United Nations and the African Union.

The chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abubakar Lamorde, who has been leading investigations into money laundering and illegal financial flows, recently joined the call for repatriation of Africa’s stolen wealth.

The call is warranted. But it does not go to the heart of the matter.

Those who looted the funds must be identified. The amounts looted should be documented as far as possible, and their location should be ascertained.

These are complicated tasks requiring a great deal of expertise. No effort should be spared in procuring such expertise. Armed with the data amassed by the experts, African countries can then confidently face the authorities of the nations where the funds are domiciled to demand repatriation.

It is an indictment on the systems of checks and balances in African countries that such vast sums were ferreted out undetected in the first place.

African countries must devise a robust mechanism of accountability; and enforce it to prevent such illegal flows, and to convince a skeptical world that they are serious about fighting corruption in its many guises and disguises.

October 28, 2015
Buhari tasks Golden Eaglets: Bring back the World Cup

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday extended his best wishes for a triumphant outing to the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria.

The team is in Chile to participate in this year’s under-17 FIFA World Cup tournament scheduled to start today.

President Buhari, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu urged the Golden Eaglets to do their utmost best to match the outstanding performance of their victorious predecessors who have won the competition four times including the inaugural edition in 1985 and the last tournament in 2013.

He assured them and their handlers of the full support of the Federal Government and all Nigerians as they strive to bring more sporting glory to their fatherland by outplaying all their opponents in Chile and winning the Under-17 World Cup for a record fifth time.

It reads: “President Buhari will follow the team’s progress through the tournament in Chile with keen interest and high expectation in the belief that the boys have the skills, dedication and determination required to make Nigeria world champions at the youth level once again.”

The President called on the players to stay focused, avoid all distractions and put their globally acknowledged skills, ability and doggedness on display against USA today, Chile on October 20, Croatia on October 23 and in all their subsequent matches to win the tournament and give millions of soccer-loving Nigerians the perfect end-of-the-year gift.

October 17, 2015
Yes, bring back this nation’s loss

It might indeed be true that Nigeria being the most populous country in Africa has become topmost in economy. But in reality, majority of the populace is in poverty and in pain as peace is being taken away. Instead of the ache being nursed for healing, the hurting has been persistent for a long time – and now becoming more agonizing with terrorism degrading the glory of the land.

That Nigeria is being backed up globally today over internal mutiny is an indication of inability to resolve self-afflicted misery that has wasted several thousands of innocent lives. Before the bulk schoolgirls were abducted in Government Girls School, Chibok, Borno State on April 15, Boko Haram’s insurgency has been passed out more as political issue. As a result, security forces failed serially with the government being carefree in keeping pace with the terrorist’s escalating vulnerabilities.

Even when the schoolgirls’ abduction scattered the spirit and soul of the parents and relations of the affected, authority at the top was still too slow acclimatizing response to the national burden, perhaps because it was manifesting in the ‘faraway’ North-east. Calls to reform approach to handling the wicked sect were being perceived more as reproach to the number one citizen who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the nation’s armed forces. Perhaps, that was why when the nation was weeping, our president was in Kano rally dancing ‘tongolo’ – with heart ahead of crossing to Maiduguri days after to celebrate political aspiration. After all, we saw on television how his wife, the country’s dame was also crying God and shedding tears in disbelief that the girls were actually snatched.

With all these incongruities, that the mass abduction has drawn universal condemnation, inclusive of United Nations, with “#BringBackOurGirls” rally spreading globally and world leaders supporting the retrieval of the stolen girls, sending down video by Boko Haram to disclose portion of the abducted is an indication of the beginning of restoration of lost glory.

First, let’s remind ourselves that the conception of Book Haram’s as an Islamic sect is fallacious. This is because it has not only been killing Christians and bombing churches, it has also variously murdered Muslims and destroyed mosques as well. Even as most of the schoolgirls are Christians allegedly being converted to Islam, the Muslims among them are under the same agony of the wicked. Religion is merely being attached to divert attention from the repercussion of the devil upon a nation in captivity. Intention to cause religious conflict was to be used to scatter the country. This is why God describes our spiritual enemy in many different ways, telling us that Satan is a murderer, a liar and a deceiver. The Devil is even pictured as a serpent, a roaring lion and a dragon.

Abubakar Shekau’s demand for the release of his arrested evil vessels who are detained as exchange for the release of the schoolgirls cannot be convincing from a thief that has been stealing, killing and destroying. The Scripture is very comprehensible. Book Haram, coming after Maitatsine and Niger-Delta militants that tired out the progress of Nigeria might have been the upshot of unrighteousness in this land.

Let this be repeated: We are living in a country where things of value have been stolen over time; statistics suggest we are a nation of abundance in trouble of inadequacies. Yet, in compliance with God on our side, all that have been lost can still be recovered.

In 1Samuel 30: 18-19, it is written: “David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken from them; David recovered all.”

Stealing, killing and destruction is the manifesto of Satan. He is a thief. In the story of David, just like Boko Haram, the Amalekites attacked the camp of David and destroyed the whole city with fire, they stole their cattle, and they took all their children and wives including David’s two wives. David was now in serious trouble because his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

Why am I telling this story? Because the moment came when David and his men chose to get up and go after all that were stolen from him – just like we are experiencing today to be together with the whole world to fight the adversary of the peace of Nigeria.

The truth is that Satan has been stealing the peace of this country. Now he has stolen our daughters who are now his captives. But surely, they are in wrong places as captives – being threatened to be sold as slaves of immorality in the enemy’s camp.

At this moment, many Nigerians are looking back on their lives and sensitizing that many years of opportunities had been stolen from them through their land that was divinely assigned with grand economy for goodness and greatness of its citizens. Those with the right mind can recount panorama of leadership errors, self-centeredness, incompetence, besetting transgression, corruption, fraud and untrustworthiness that had outsized administrative impact in many years of the nation’s independence.

Only the unrighteous will discount the lost of the glory of this country that once upon a time was being tagged as potentially great. The word lost could mean perishing in the world – in that we are no longer where we ought to be. It is like a destroyed personality which no longer reflects the image of the Creator.

Yet, we can still have the victory over the enemy. Romans 8:31 states that if God be for us, than who can be against us. There might be trials and tribulations. But those who know and align with God will become victorious. As a nation, we should have a truly transformed heart for genuine and dedicated service instead of focusing on things of the world and political power that would last forever. Our leaders should not see the 2015 elections as their ultimate destinies and then become desperate. Rather, focus should be what will truly be beneficial to the people and the nation.

In these times when we consider the turbulence happening around the world, we can see that the end of times is fast approaching. So, we are surely living in the end times, and nations will go through much persecution in days to come. The wise step to take is to be confident in God who can do all things.

Heaven and earth will pass away but the Word of God will always remain. As the Word remains, and since first there was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, we should put our trust in nothing less than the Word and the Mighty God who will ever remain victorious over agents of terrorism.

Assorted tools in the hand of the wicked have robbed us of the glory of this potentially great nation, luring people into unrighteousness, and trying to weaken our empowerment. But the Lord is now saying: “Enough!” And that If we work together in spirit, He is going to give back to Nigeria, not only our abducted daughters, but all that Satan has taken.

May 19, 2014
Bring back our country

Bring back our girls. This has become the most popular refrain across the world since the abduction on April 14 of over 200 school girls by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State. It is a grand irony. The Boko Haram has the objective of spreading fear and hate. It seeks to erect walls of discrimination and prejudice between people. Its satanic fanatics strive to sunder the bonds that bind people together. They labour to sacrifice human love and solidarity on the altar of a blood guzzling deity. But the rubble and ruins – physical and psychological – of their destructive acts have become the building blocks of human compassion and unity across ethno-cultural and national boundaries.

Thus, the Chibok girls are no more just girls. They are no more just Northerners. They are no more just Christians or Muslims. They are no more just Nigerians. They are now the common property of humanity. Across nations, continents, cultures, languages and faiths, they are simply ‘our girls’ – symbols of our shared humanity. Out of the darkness of the Boko Haram bestiality, the light of human empathy, benevolence and care shines brightly. The terrorists aim to turn neighbour against neighbour. But rather their bestial acts are reinforcing the realization that we are our brother and sister’s keeper. Surely, the merchants of hate are not winning.

Where are our girls? They are somewhere in the cavernous belly of Sambisa forest. What exactly is the crime of these innocent girls? It is simply that they realize that the human mind is a terrible thing to waste. They know that a mind not nurtured degenerates into a barren swamp, an inner Sambisa forest of decay and rot. They thus summoned the courage, despite the threat of Boko Haram to dispel the darkness of ignorance through the light of education. They dared to cultivate and nurture their minds into beautiful and beneficial gardens through the acquisition of knowledge and skills. It is for this reason that they have been forced for one month now to inhabit an environment meant for rodents, reptiles, insects and feral beasts. But even more dangerous than these animals are the Boko Haram monsters in human skin holding these girls captive.

Yes, by all means we must bring back our girls. We must rescue them from the belly of the Sambisa whale. When we successfully do that, we must then face the challenge of liberating our country from the Sambisa fortress of poverty, want, ignorance, criminal corruption, crass inequality, mass unemployment and gross underdevelopment (apologies to the inimitable Tatalo Alamu). A forest is a veritable heart of darkness. After over $16 billion gone down the drain, Nigeria remains helplessly embedded in darkness as electricity supply remains pathetically epileptic. Like Sambisa, like Nigeria. So sad.

During the week, there was this incredible story from Owerri. A hungry lion had reportedly escaped from the Nekede Zoo causing panic in the town. People dashed for the safety of their homes. Parents rushed to pick their children from schools. Much earlier, in the same zoo, a lion had reportedly killed and eaten another lion – an allegation being investigated by an ad hoc committee of the state House of Assembly. Mercifully, the state police command later dismissed news of the escaped lion as the handiwork of a false alarmist.

Well, the story of the Owerri lion may have been a hoax. But believe me, the doors of Nigeria’s national zoo have long been flung wide open and lions, hyenas, jackals, pythons, chimpanzees, baboons and an assortment of other beasts – many in human skin – are on prowl across the land. Do I exaggerate? Are you under the illusion that Sambisa forest is limited to some remote part of Borno State? No sir; that dreaded forest has migrated right to your back yard. Our country has become one sprawling jungle of fuel subsidy scams, kerosene subsidy rip-offs, pension fund fraud, kidnapping, ritual killing, armed robbery, lynching, rape – an arena of sheer anarchy.

Kindly cast your mind back. Very recently, 710, 000 unemployed Nigerians were made to apply for jobs of which there were less than 5000 vacancies. Each applicant was made to pay a fee of N1000. Some still faceless consultants smiled to the bank with a cool N700 million. The applicants were crowded like cattle into various stadia across the country to write shoddily organised examinations. In the riotous process, 16 precious lives were lost and scores of others injured. Yet, not a single head has rolled for this crime. In fact, some of the hyenas responsible for the fiasco are sitting pretty on the country’s highest decision making body presiding over our affairs. Where but a zoo can this kind of thing happen?

Let us take another example. Cast your mind even further back. Do you remember a certain man called Abdulrasheed Maina? He was the chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force (PRTF). Under his watch,over N400 billion was allegedly embezzled. Our ordinarily somnolent and lethargic Senate was alarmed enough to investigate the matter. Maina was summoned to appear before the Senate committee. He bluntly refused. The Senate issued a warrant for his arrest. The police claimed they could not find him. Yet, at that very time he reportedly moved around Abuja in long convoys and in powerful circles heavily guarded by the very same police.

Exasperated, the Senate passed a resolution asking President Jonathan to sack Maina as PRTF Chairman. Citing the need to adhere to civil service procedures, the presidency demurred. Faced with the possibility of a serious show down with the Senate, Aso Rock blinked. The same President directed the Head of Service to take disciplinary action against Maina and also ordered the Inspector General of Police to effect his arrest. Just then, the miraculous happened. Maina simply vanished into thin air. Everybody has since forgotten about the matter. Yet, thousands of pensioners continue to languish in poverty and die in penury. Where but in a community of jackals can such impunity be tolerated?

Yes, by all means we must bring back our girls. The international community can and is doing a lot to help us in this regard. But how do we bring back our country? No one can do it for us. The responsibility is ours. We must be determined to hold our governments accountable and ensure that our votes count in free and fair polls. This column joins the campaign to bring back our girls and our country…alive.

Bolaji Uthman:

For whom the bell tolls

The news came like a thunderbolt. It was on Friday, May 9, that the funeral bell tolled. For whom did it toll? For Alhaji Bolaji Uthman – a consummate journalist, impassioned historian,ardent intellectual, dedicated and industrious civil servant, an adept public information manager, a proud Lagosian and moving encyclopaedia of the state’s history. Always thirsty for knowledge, Uthman was pursuing his doctorate degree at the Lagos State University (LASU). The numerous awards he won in the Lagos State public service testify to his invaluable contributions as an Information Officer in the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy to the development of the Centre of Excellence. Along with Mr Frank Ajayi, a retired Director in the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alhaji Uthman worked so hard, long and assiduously for the establishment of the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB) where he was the Director General until his passing. The magnificent LASRAB building at Magodo testifies eloquently to Bolaji Uthman’s enduring legacy. He gave generously and unselfishly of his time, talent and deep well of knowledge to many younger ones that he passionately mentored. Bolaji Uthman thus lives on through them. Each time the funeral bell tolls for one, it tolls for all as the poet, John Donne, reminds us. One man’s death only signals the imminent death of all men. Dear Uthman, friend, brother, sparring partner and comrade, you have done your bit. Rest in peace in Allah’s bosom.

May 17, 2014
‘Bring Back Our Girls’

DOZENS of heavily armed terrorists rolled into the sleepy little town one night in a convoy of trucks, buses and vans. They made their way to the girls’ boarding school.

The high school girls, asleep in their dormitory, awoke to gunfire. The attackers stormed the school, set it on fire, and, residents said, then herded several hundred terrified girls into the vehicles — and drove off and vanished.

That was April 15 in northern Nigeria. The girls were kidnapped by an extremist Muslim group called Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means “Western education is a sin.”

These girls, ages 15 to 18 and Christians and Muslims alike, knew the risks of seeking an education, and schools in the area had closed in March for fear of terror attacks. But this school had reopened so that the girls — the stars of their families and villages — could take their final exams. They were expected to move on to become teachers, doctors, lawyers.

Instead, they reportedly are being auctioned off for $12 each to become “wives” of militants. About 50 girls escaped, but the police say that 276 are still missing — and the Nigerian government has done next to nothing to recover the girls.

“We are now asking for world power countries to intervene,” the desperate father of a missing 18-year-old girl, Ayesha, told me by phone. He said that the parents had given up on Nigerian government officials — “they are just saying lies” — and pleaded for international pressure on Nigeria to rescue the girls.

The parents pursued the kidnappers, carrying bows and arrows to confront militants armed with AK-47s, but finally had to turn back. The father, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said that the parents are now praying to God for the United States and United Nations to help get their daughters back.

While there has been a major international search for the missing people on Malaysian flight MH370, and nonstop news coverage, there has been no meaningful search for the even greater number of missing schoolgirls.

I spoke by telephone with Secretary of State John Kerry, who is visiting Africa, and asked him whether the United States can nudge Nigerian authorities to do more to find the girls.

“We’re really pushing them … about the situation with the girls,” Kerry said. “Oh, God! Yes, absolutely.” He described it as “not just an act of terrorism. It’s a massive human trafficking moment and grotesque.”

I asked whether the United States could use satellites or intelligence assets to try to locate the girls. “We’re engaged and cooperating,” he said, declining to discuss details. Kerry also emphasized the broader effort to disrupt Boko Haram and its financial flows, while supporting the training of Nigerian authorities to respond to terror attacks without violating human rights. “We’re upping the game with them,” he said.

In hopes of viral pressure on Nigerian authorities to try to recover the girls, campaigns have started on the White House website, on Change.org and on Facebook to demand: “Bring Back Our Girls.” All this may or may not help, but it’s worth trying.

The attack in Nigeria is part of a global backlash against girls’ education by extremists. The Pakistani Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai in the head at age 15 because she advocated for girls’ education. Extremists threw acid in the faces of girls walking to school in Afghanistan. And in Nigeria, militants destroyed 50 schools last year alone.

If the girls aren’t rescued, “no parent will allow their female child to go to school,” Hadiza Bala Usman, who has led protests in Nigeria on behalf of the missing girls, warned in a telephone interview.

Northern Nigeria is a deeply conservative area, and if the schoolgirls are recovered, it may be difficult for them to marry because of suspicions that they are no longer virgins.

While the Nigerian military has shown little interest in rescuing the girls, it has, in the last few years, presided over a brutal counterinsurgency in response to Boko Haram bombings. There is viciousness on both sides.

The best tool to fight extremism is education, especially of girls — and that means ensuring that it is safe to study. The greatest threat to militancy in the long run comes not from drones but from girls with schoolbooks.

“These abducted schoolgirls are my sisters,” Malala told me in an email from Britain, where she is recovering from the Taliban attack, “and I call on the international community and the government of Nigeria to take action and save my sisters.” She added: “It should be our duty to speak up for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who are in a very difficult situation.”

Malala’s right. More than 200 teenage girls have just been enslaved because they had the brains and guts to seek to become teachers or doctors. They deserve a serious international effort to rescue them.

•Kristof is a New York Times columnist

May 5, 2014
Bring back the girls

Let me confess from the outset that the title of this article is taking from the speech of Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka presented at the Port Harcourt Book Festival last week. In the speech titled: Republic of the mind and thralldom of fear, the renowned playwright, in a play of words with the Bring back the book project of President Goodluck Jonathan launched in Lagos in 2010, noted that for now, we should be more concerned with bringing back the pupils.

The pupils are the 234 girls of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted by members of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on April 14. Since these girls’ abdution, we have not heard anything about them. We are all in the dark as to what has become of them. Suffice to say that they may have become sex slaves to some deranged maniacs, who believe that they can instill fear in the populace through their sheer barbaric acts.

For years, Boko Haram has held the nation by the jugular. There is nothing the sect has not done. Killing, looting, maiming, burning, raping, kidnapping, you name it; they have done it. With the abduction of the 234 girls in Chibok in one fell swoop last month, they introduced another dimension to their madness. The main task now is to free these girls from captivity since from the look of things their captors are not ready to let them go. We are between the devil and the deep blue sea.

How do we free the girls without bringing them to harm as Boko Haram may not let them go without a fight? While we fear for the lives of these girls during the rescue mission that may be launched by security operatives, what do we know about their present condition? This is the trauma their parents are going through and it can be killing. We all know what we go through when our children are not within our immediate vicinity. We will be calling at intervals just to know how they are faring.

Can you now imagine what the parents of these girls, who are being held against their wish wherever they are being kept, are going through? Thinking about these children daily and not knowing their condition can run them mad. This is why no matter what it takes everything must be done to bring back the girls. We should be prepared for the worst in rescuing these girls. As we know even in the best planned rescue missions some things do go wrong, but we do not pray for such in these girls’ case.

But, it seems efforts toward rescuing these girls by the government, which is the protector of every citizen, seem to be slow and this is why there has been a public outcry that it is not doing enough. Yes, the government may say that whatever it is doing is not for public consumption. The problem is that for it to say that, it must be seen to be doing something. In this case, the public is not convinced that the government is acting to return these girls to their homes and that is why the people have been talking.

In some cases, the government is being abused. We do not have to blame those doing that. They are expressing their feelings in equal measure as their anger over the abduction. And who else to vent their anger on than the government. The government’s actions shortly after the incident also portrayed it in bad light. There is a time for everything, the Bible tells us. A time to laugh and a time to cry. A time to make merry and a time not to make merry. Unfortunately, the government did not take this admonition into account in he wake of the girls’ kidnap.

We are all hitting the government today for its seeming insensibility to what befell the nation on April 14 when it went on a campaign rally while some families were weeping over the kidnap of their children. Let those in government put themselves in those families’ shoes; would they have gone on such a junket if their children were the ones kidnapped. Let us be sensitive to others feelings. Being in government should not make us lose our sense of decency and humaneness.

I do not want to belabour the point here. Mistakes have been made, no doubt. It is left for the government to correct itself by stepping up the efforts to rescue the girls without bringing harm to any of them. If the government does not bring back the girls to their parents, it would have failed in its primary responsibility of being the custodian of law and order. The parents have taken the first step, out of love for the children, by going into the bush to look for them. It is left for the government to complete the process by taking it up from where they stopped.

In this matter, President Goodluck Jonathan has a crucial role to play. Posterity will judge him the way he handles these girls’ matter. If he returns them home safely to their parents, history will be fair to him, but if he fails to secure their release, history will be harsh on him. He should hearken to the words of Soyinka at the Port Harcourt book festival where the Nobel laureate said :

”Not all national leaders can be Fujimori of Peru, who personally directed his security forces during a crisis of hostage taking – no one demands bravura acts of presidents. However, any aspiring leader cannot be anything less than a rallying point for public morale in times of crisis and example for extraordinary exertion. Speaking personally, now my mind goes to the lead role played by President Jonathan in this nation in the erstwhile campaign to BRING BACK THE BOOK, an event at which we both read to hundreds of children. So, where are the successors to those children?

”The reality stares us in the face: Among the walking wounded. Among the walking dead. In crude holdings of fear and terror. Today, we shall not even be demanding as to resurrect the slogan: BRING BACK THE BOOK – leave that to us. It will be quiet sufficient to see a demonstrable dedication that answers the agonising cry of BRING BACK THE PUPILS!”

I only pray it is not true that some of the girls have been taken to Cameroun, Chad and Niger by their captors as reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa Service on Tuesday.

May 1, 2014