On April 15, 2014, the world woke up to the gory news that 276 female students have been kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Bornu State, Nigeria. Initial information had it that a group of militants attacked the school located right in Chibok, while the students were sleeping.
“They broke into the school, pretending to be guards, telling the girls to get out and come with them. A large number of students were taken away in trucks heading towards the Konduga area of the Sambisa forest where outlawed Islamic militants were known to have fortified camps. It was also gathered that the school had been closed weeks before the attack due to the deteriorating security situation, but students from multiple schools had been called in to take final exams in physics.[
While Nigerians were still shell shocked, responsibility for the kidnappings was promptly claimed by Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist and terrorist organization based in northeastern part of the country. By weekend, a number of the students escaped from the kidnappers in two groups.[18] And by the time the police got its act together, it said approximately 276 children were taken in the attack, of whom 53 had escaped as of 2 May, 2014. This was just as the Chibok community insisted 329 girls were kidnapped, 53 had escaped and 276 were still missing.
As we speak today, nearly two years following there abduction, there is a hash-tag associated with their disappearance that has been tweeted nearly 18 million times. There are several petitions from across the world calling on the Nigerian government and all enabled international parties to rescue them, and more than 250million people of diverse races and colours have signed it. There are tumblr blogs, Facebook pages, and global mainstream media coverage. Yet, the girls are yet to return home.
Among other advocacy efforts, the abduction of the girls led to the emergence of a group named “Bring Back Our Girls Campaign Group”. The group, which has Nigeria’s former minister of education and former vice president (Africa region) of the World Bank, Obiageli Ezekwesili, as one of its leaders, has been meeting at the unity fountain in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital since its formation in April 2014.
Although the number of group members has now significantly reduced since it began, perhaps owing to the unexpected long wait for the girls to be brought back home, and or the seeming waning interest in the cause of seeing the Chibok girls return, some of the members have stayed through virtually all the group’s sessions in solidarity with the missing girls.
The group has not relented in its call for the government to expedite action on to bring back the girls, as it’s daily meetings are always wound up with a reminder for the government to do everything humanly possible to ensure the girls’ return home safely. Unfortunately, media coverage of the group’s meetings has also waned considerably. Just like most Nigerians, it appears the media too have moved on.
Girls on their mind
President Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday reinvigorated efforts towards rescuing the missing girls when he approved the setting up of a committee to investigate the abduction of the 219 girls from Government Secondary, Chibok, Borno State. A statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the panel would be named by the National Security Adviser, NSA, General Babagana Munguno soon. Shehu said in the statement that President Buhari also assured parents of the Chibok girls that he had been doing his best and would continue to do everything possible to rescue the girls and re-unite them with their families.
According to his spokesperson, the President, who spoke at a closed-door meeting with some parents of the abducted girls, representatives of the Chibok community and members of the Bring Back Our Girls movement at the Conference Hall of the State House, emphasised that he remained fully committed to his pledge to do all within his powers to save the girls.
“I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind. “The unfortunate incident happened before this government came into being. What have we done since we assumed office? We re-organized the military, removed all the service chiefs and ordered the succeeding service chiefs to deal decisively with the Boko Haram insurgency.
In spite of the terrible economic condition we found ourselves in, we tried to get some resources to give to the military to reorganize and equip, retrain, deploy more troops and move more forcefully against Boko Haram. And you all know the progress we have made. When we came in Boko Haram was in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. Boko Haram has now been reduced to areas around Lake Chad,” the President reportedly said.
Earlier, parents of the abducted Chibok girls had marched to the Presidential Villa in Abuja to protest the whereabouts of the missing school girls. The protest was to commemorate the 640th day of the abduction of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls from the apparent safety of their dormitory in Chibok, Borno state of Nigeria by Boko Haram terrorists.
The group were met by a government team comprising the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Al-Hassan, as well as the Minister of Defense, Monsur Dan-Ali, the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Monguno, and the Chief of Defense Staff, Abayomi Olonishakin.
Speaking at the protest, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili stated the need for the government to find quick solution to the missing girls. She said the group had earlier met with the president on July 8, and that they are at the Villa to discuss the promises he made to them. However, in a swift reaction, Garba Shehu, the SSA on media to the president said that the members will see the president to explain their motive adding that all efforts will be made to see the school girls.
Also, the Nigerian Military recently restated its commitment towards the rescue of Chibok girls and other innocent victims being held captives by Boko Haram terrorists.
“The Nigerian military and other security agencies are working round the clock to secure the release of not only the Chibok girls but other innocent citizens who are held hostage by the terrorists. The military, being a component of the society, is equally worried and is doing everything possible to address the current security challenges.
“The search for abducted Chibok school girls and the rescue of other Nigerian in hostage has never relapsed as could be attested to in recent times where hundreds of women and children were rescued by the military through its coordinated operations,” the Military said in a release.
Anxious campaigners, worried parents
Last week, while speaking during a visit to the School in Chibok, Borno State, the co-convener of the group, Aisha Yesufu, said the group was disappointed that President Muhammadu Buhari did not say anything about the missing girls in his New Year message to Nigerians. She urged the Nigerian government to set up a special search and rescue team to find the missing Chibok schoolgirls.
Condemning what it described as the continued and seemingly neglect of the issues of the Chibok girls both in the country and across the world, the #BringBackOurGirls group has called on the federal government to act fast in order to rescue these girls. According to the group, while lamenting the level of negligence of the issues of the Chibok girls, noted that Nigerians and all the countries of the world that once stood for the Chibok girls have forgotten about them and moved on as if noting happened.
Ezekwesili recently called for public participation in keeping the memory of the kidnapped school girls from Chibok, Borno State alive. She lamented that despite expressions of commitment to secure their freedom by government and the military, the whereabouts of the girls have remained largely unknown. In a message on her twitter page, the woman known as ‘madam due process’ while she was in government said it is a daily renewal of concern.
“If anyone of you truly CARES to STAND for the cause of OUR 219 #ChibokGirls, join us @BBOG_Nigeria DAILY @ the Unity Fountain. JOIN US TODAY. How persistent in wickedness can those who continue to FORGET the HUMAN BEINGS in the tragedy of 219 Girls be? OUR GIRLS ARE STILL MISSING!”
Another leader of the group, Arinsola Fisayo stated that it was saddening and depressing that the Chibok girls have stayed for long in the hands of their abductors and called on President Muhammed Buhari to remember the promise he made on the issue of the girls and bring them back to their fanilies who is anxiously waiting for the girls.
Fisayo who called on Nigerians and the world to never forget the abducted girls, also urged Nigerian to continue to pray for the safe return of the girls adding that where human being fails, God will not fail.
“When the president stated that there is no clue to where the girls are, it was saddening. People have moved on and have forgotten the girls. We must never forget, the world should never forget the girls. It is saddened and depressing. But we should not lose hope for the moment we lose hope, we are dead. We must always remember the girls in prayers. If the government fails, the army might fail but God never fails,” she said.
The chairman, Chibok Abducted Girls Movement, Mr. Yakubu Nkeki, recently lamented that despite promises, the people had suffered untold hardships without help from governments. He therefore emphasized the need for the federal government and the rest of the world to be better about the plights of Chibok parents and the community in the aftermath of the girls’ abduction.
While insisting that the girls were abducted in the custody of government – in their school, Nkeki said government should come clear about the fate of the girls rather than keep them in perpetual silence. “We have been suffering. Our children were taken away and we don’t have any reliable information about their fate. The concern is that the military has been rescuing some other abducted persons and we are yet to see even one of the Chibok girls rescued.
“We have been largely abandoned by government; both the state and federal government. We have buried more than 14 of the Chibok parents. Even if you see some of us today, you will not be able to go near them because some are very sick and they are depreciating; their conditions are pathetic. Some of them still live in IDP camps while many have fled to neighbouring states.
“Today in Chibok sustenance is difficult. We are predominantly farmers but not many can farm nowadays because of fear of Boko Haram attack. We usually pride ourselves with western education for our children but now there is no school in Chibok. In fact, our younger children are not ready to go to school any more for fear that the fate that befell their sisters awaits them if they go to school.”
Where are the girls?
Raising fresh concern over the possibility of the students returning home, President Muhammadu Buhari recently said that government does not have enough intelligence on the whereabouts or safety of over 200 Chibok girls. Buhari disclosed this during the maiden presidential media chat at the State House, Abuja.
He said that government was making effort to rescue the Chibok girls but wants to make sure they are negotiating with credible leaders of Boko Haram. He said the government is keeping the options open with Boko Haram on the Chibok girls on the condition that they can guarantee that the girls are safe and alive. The President the military has combed the Sambisa Forest without any hint about the girls, which he suspected might have been dispersed to various locations.
He said: “I think this about the high time I am going to talk about the Chibok girls. There was a time the leadership of Boko Haram made contact with us but we insisted that we want to ensure we are speaking with credible leaders of the group. Number two is that we want to make sure that the Chibok girls, I think about 219 of them are safe, secure and alive.
“We are still keeping options open with Boko Haram on the condition that they have credible leadership and have the Chibok girls. We have combed the Sambisa Forest but there were no Chibok girls there. I said we are looking for credible Boko Haram leadership that the girls are safe and alive.
“The honest truth is that I don’t know the actual place and state of the girls. The more reason we are trying to be very careful before we negotiate with any group. Before we negotiate with any group, we must make sure they show us the actual location of the girls. We must make sure they are complete.
“At the moment, we don’t really know if the girls are alive or not but from intelligence report, the insurgents have divided them into groups so we could not easily locate them.”
Similarly, Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, revealed recently, that the military does not have any report on the abducted Chibok girls. The Chibok secondary school girls have been in captivity since the Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped them in April 2014.
In spite of unabated agitation locally and internationally for them to be rescued from Boko Haram’s captivity, the Army says little headway has been made on their rescue. General Olonisakin disclosed a few details of the efforts to rescue the Chibok girls, to journalists after addressing officers of the Nigerian Navy at a one-day seminar in Abuja.
He said that interrogation of females rescued has not yielded the desired result, thus far. “So far, we don’t have any report concerning them (Chibok girls), but of course, we have some Boko Haram terrorists, who have surrendered. Among them are women and children.
“We have collection point for their wives and children and we are moving them to areas where we can profile and identify them and ensure that they are not really involved in Boko Haram activities.”
Before leaving office last May, former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, under whose leadership the girls were abducted, had consistently said his government didn’t know the location of the school girls.
Specifically, when Jonathan was asked whether the Federal Government knows where the kidnap victims are, the then country leader responded:
“All the information that have been volunteered to us (about their location, we’ve used) and we have searched the places. We are using aircraft – helicopters and planes – that have the ability to scan and see what is on the surface. And we have scanned, but we have nothing.”
Still in Shekau’s captivity?
Amidst grave concern for the whereabout and state of the girls, some months ago, Boko Haram released a new video allegedly showing the abducted Chibok girls held in captivity by terrorists.
According to reports monitored online, in the new video the group leader Abubakar Shekau speaking in Hausa also claimed responsibility for some attacks which killed took hundreds of lives: “We are the ones that carried out the Bama attack… We have abducted more women and children in response to the arrest of our members’ wives and children.”
Although Shekau in the video didn’t mention the names of relatives seized by military, the insurgents have repeatedly accused Nigerian security of arresting their wives and children. In a previously released video, Shekau claimed responsibility for the abduction and showed the girls, saying they had been converted to Islam.
At a point in the struggle to have the girls returned home, he allegedly suggested to swap some of the girls for the sect prisoners. While the government’s first reaction was said to be rejection, it was further reported that the negotiations later commenced. However, later it was learnt that the government had cancelled the “swap” deal shortly before it was to take place.
Few weeks later, a disturbing video which allegedly shows one of the abducted Chibok girls being executed appeared on various blogs and sites around the web. In the video, vicious looking sect members forced there victim, a girl to climb into a hole in the ground in a rustic village after tying her legs with a rope and covering her head with a piece of black clothing.
The insurgents filled the hole, with the girl inside, up with sand, leaving only her head above the ground. The men spoke briefly in Hausa language while the girl was whimpering and begging for her life to be spared. They proclaimed her an infidel about to be punished for her sins. All along, the girl begged to be spared. But, the terrorists began to throw huge stones at her head until she dead.
The country, especially the Chibok community and Bring Back Our Girls groups, were thrown into mourning for days. Not even the news that some efforts to verify the gory video had shown it is not recent and the incident did not take place in Nigeria, could douse the fresh agitation instigated by the video. Also, it strengthened beliefs that the girls are still in the sect’s captivity.
Ahmed Salkida, a journalist and self acclaimed contact of the leadership of Boko Haram, on the first day of this year, announced that the abducted Chibok girls are still alive with some of them refusing to convert to Islam. An online publication, The Cable, quoted Salkida as asking Buhari to use state machinery to open up access to the militants.
‘Most of the Chibok girls, whether they are split into groups or not, are alive, multiple credible sources have told me. And if a deal to release them will weaken national security and endanger the entire country, then the federal government shouldn’t make a deal,’ Salkida said.
He added:’I am confident that Chibok girls and other captives can return to their families if the government is half as strong-willed as some of the girls in captivity that have refused to be married out or give up their faith.
‘The girls would have never backed out of any process, no matter how irritating it is. They would stay on and negotiate hard until they get a deal that will earn them their freedom and stop such abductions so that no one else can ever witness their woeful plight.’
Will the girls ever return?
On the first day of this new year, Buhari has stated that the return of over 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist sect, Boko Haram, 626 days ago is the “most worrying issue to hi government”.
The President who stated this in an audience with Women In Politics Forum (WIPF) said the fight for the return of the Chibok girls is ongoing and “continues to be a most worrying issue” to his government. He, however, emphasised that the administration would do all within its powers in making the best efforts to secure their freedom.
But with the BBOG family, among other determined groups and individuals still very optimistic that the Chibok girls can still be freed from wherever they are currently being held following government’s new position that it is willing to negotiate their release with the sect, provided those to be negotiated with are found to be the genuine leadership of the insurgents, Sakilda recently dashed any hope of an easy way out.
The journalist debunked optimism that negotiations between the FG and terror sect, Boko Haram, will lead to freedom for the abducted girls. In a troubling revelation he maid recently via his twitter handle, he revealed that contrary to general expectations, Boko Haram will not carry out any negotiations without the consent of international terrorist group, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
ISIS is a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows an Islamic fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Salkida said he knows the negotiation is not real because he is one of the many Nigerians with privileged information. Following his revelation, concern has been mounting again as relatives and other concerned person ruminate over the plight of the girls.
A former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in an interview on the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, once said some of the girls are pregnant while others may never return again. He said, “I have ways of reaching them, (Boko Haram) but I have not been given the go ahead.
“I believe that some of them will never return. We will still be hearing about them many years from now, some will give birth to children of the Boko Haram members, but if they cannot take care of them in the forest, they may release them”.
He also stated that the girls might have been separated and kept in different locations.
It would recalled that Obasanjo had previously tried to negotiate with the insurgents, especially in September 2011 after members of the sect bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
He flew to Maiduguri, Borno State where he met with relatives of the Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, who the police had illegally killed in their custody in 2009.
Sen. Shehu Sani (APC-Kaduna Central), believes the girls can still be found. he however explained that negotiation was needed mainly to free the Chibok girls and other persons kidnapped by the insurgents and also achieve a cease fire to give room for further dialogue. Sani, however, said that both sides must come to the table with an open mind and be ready to make concession.
“Negotiations require the government to be ready to make concessions by releasing some of the insurgents in return for the Chibok girls and other persons kept in captivity.” According to him, efforts at negotiation in the past failed because the previous administration was not ready to make concessions.
“The last administration was not ready to release some of the insurgents in its custody in exchange for the Chibok girls. We even reached a point of exchange when at the last point the government changed its mind based on security report received from security agencies. What I am saying is, you cannot achieve anything when negotiating if you are not ready to make concession. We should work on that to at least get the Chibok girls out of harm’s way and out of danger,” he advised.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, recently rekindled the hope of Nigerians on the rescue of the Chibok school girls when he said the safe return of the girls remained a priority of the military in the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the North-East. He said there were strong indications that the girls were still being held by the insurgents.
The COAS explained that though the exact location of the girls was yet to be ascertained, the military was mindful of their safety in the bid to secure their release. He said: “the issue of the Chibok girls is very crucial, we are making all efforts to clear the terrorists and after clearing them we rescue the Chibok girls in one piece.
“But we are not yet sure exactly where they are. “As soon as this is confirmed, we will attempt to see what we can do to bring them back in one piece, it is very crucial because their safety is very important. “They could be somewhere else, so we are taking this issue in piecemeal so that we are sure of where we are and how we are going about it and we believe that we can find a solution to it very soon.
“It (rescue) is not issue of the Army alone, it is a collective issue, the Air Force is there, also working very hard; the Department of State Service is also working very hard on this issue; our main concern is to provide the ground support to ensure that we do it very well. “By and large there is progress.”
Mixed reactions
But the Bring back our girls advocacy group has said that it was “extremely disappointed in the comment made by the President during his maiden presidential media chat that there was no credible intelligence on the whereabout of the abducted Chibok school girls. The BBOG is not alone in its dissatisfaction with Buhari. A number of prominent Nigerians and organizations, including the Federation of Christian Women in Nigeria (FCWIN), have expressed anger over the issue.
Also, the Chairman, Chibok Community in Abuja, Tsambido Abana, also expressed shock over the President’s comment, stating that the government had been telling lies about rescuing the abducted girls.He stated that he slumped on hearing that the security forces had no information on the girls’ location.
“When I heard the President’s comment on Chibok girls, I was shocked and I slumped on my chair; I was confused. My thinking is that it means what they have been telling us is all lies, if they are saying they don’t have any clue on the whereabouts of the Chibok girls,” he stated
In a statement released on Thursday, BBOG said the comment falls in the face of promises made by the Buhari government that it would do everything in its power to rescue the 219 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014. The statement signed by Aisha Yesufu, Hadiza Bala Usman and Oby Ezekwesili, its coordinators, also rebuked the government for announcing that Boko Haram had been technically defeated without rescuing the Chibok schoolgirls.
The group, therefore, said it will march to the Presidential Villa soon to seek an explanation from the government.
“It was utterly shocking when the president declared in a BBC interview on 24 December that the terrorists had been ‘technically defeated’ without referencing the rescue of our Chibok girls whom he had set as the benchmark for measuring such success,” it said.
“We are extremely disappointed that seven months after his strong promise at inauguration and six months after his pledge to the parents, Chibok community and our movement that he would rescue the 219 daughters of Nigeria, his statement was lacking in urgency and assurance of strategy for result.
“Further, that the president gave the impression of a reactive approach of ‘waiting for credible Boko Haram leadership’ to tell us whether our girls are alive or not, falls disappointingly short of the proactive feedback we expected. Our movement therefore refuses to accept that lack of ‘credible intelligence on our girls’ whereabouts” as a tenable reason for the evident lack of progress in rescuing our ChibokGirls.”
“The federal government should investigate all statements previously made by state actors and/or high-ranking military officers that ‘we know where the Chibok girls are’, with the view to getting at the bottom of the matter on our girls’ whereabouts. The federal government should immediately set up a search and rescue team to find our Chibok girls.
“KADA (the Chibok community) strongly demands that President Muhammadu Buhari gives the rescue of our abducted Chibok girls the priority attention it deserves, as Boko Haram cannot be said to have been defeated – technically or otherwise – without the safe return of our abducted daughters.?”
Commenting on the matter, National President of FCWIN, Deaconess Adejumoke Baju, said it is unthinkable that the President who few days earlier, promised to do all he can to rescue the girls, now appears weary of the task before him. “Without the Chibok girls back home, Buhari and his party would have achieved nothing.
They are our daughters. They have parents and they have hopes. We must not let them down. I am very sure they look up to us all to get them out of captivity. Mr. President must know the freedom of those girls is not negotiable. They must be rescued. Nigerians must not get weary of asking the government to bring back those girls,” she said.
The wait continues
As uncertainty continue to becloud the exact location of the abducted students, Nigerians are let to continue to agitate for their rescue with hope that they may one day in the not too distant future, return home. Optimistic that their is hope for the girls, Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, urged President Buhari to order security agencies to locate and rescue the Chibok girls at all costs.
Bakare, who had predicted that the girls would return home last year, said it was alright that the President told the nation the truth about not knowing the whereabouts of the girls during his maiden Presidential Media Chat last Wednesday, 29 December, he however, said it was unacceptable to give up on the girls.
He said a special taskforce should be set up specifically to rescue the girls wherever they are and if the heads of intelligence agencies fail to carry out the assignment, they should be sacked. The Cleric, who is Buhari’s friend and running mate in the 2011 Presidential election, said whatever it would take to rescue the girls, the President must ensure it is done.
Hon. Oghene Egoh, member representing Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency at the National Assembly, appealed to the president to ensure that the girls were found and brought back alive. “Nothing much has been done on the Chibok girls. Even those who used to campaign so much about the Chibok girls are not talking about it. I don’t believe that it is impossible for the Army to discover over 200 girls. I want to appeal to the President – this is not a political issue – let him make efforts to find these girls for us so that the pride of Nigeria can be restored to Nigerians,” she said.
For Ezekwesili, the abducted Chibok schoolgirls are still alive and that the international community must do more to help them secure freedom from the clutches of Boko Haram terrorists. The Ex-Minister, one of the leaders of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, said she believed the girls were safe, despite militants’ videos claiming to have converted them to Islam and married them off to their captors.
She said: “I always see hope. Hope is inexhaustible. The day we stop hoping, we all die. But beyond staying hopeful, what needs to happen is that the leaders of the world need to find their strength. I really do not understand how leaders of the world sat around and watched a renegade group become monsters terrorising the world.”
Ezekwesili said she was disappointed with the global response to the kidnapping of the Chibok girls, adding that the recent attacks in Paris showed that terrorism had no borders and demanded every country’s attention.
“Our girls don’t just need my country to act, our girls need the entire world to feel traumatised so that any child anywhere in the world is not put into this kind of danger,” said Ezekwesili.
“These girls were attacked because they wanted education and now are we going to turn our backs on them? We lack the moral credentials to tell any girl child to go to school if we don’t do anything about our Chibok girls.”
Contributing, Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya, the 2015 Presidential Candidate of the KOWA Party, expressed hope that the girls would be found and brought back home to their parents.
“We really recognise that things have changed, there is no doubt about that, there has been a lot of improvement, a lot of advancement and we commend the armed forces. However, we cannot but feel a bit disappointed that finding the Chibok girls and bringing them (back) home is not part of the success that we can talk of against Boko Haram. We just pray and hope that, that part of a success will become a reality very soon,” she said.
