It is three years today since over 200 schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok, Borno State. The parents plea remains: bring back our children, reports Grace Obike, Abuja
Bualagyang and Njoma are two communities in Chibok town, which in the last three years has been awaiting the return of its children kidnapped in their dormitory by Boko Haram insurgents. October last year saw the release of 21 of the girls. Two of the girls kidnapped bear Rebecca Ibrahim. One is from Bualagyang; the other is from Njoma. Government officials who were to bring parents of the freed girls to Abuja ended up inviting the mothers of the two girls with similar name. It was a sad ending for the mother from Njoma because the freed Rebecca was not hers. Till today, she is still waiting for the release of her daughter.
Of course, she is not the only one waiting. The parents of the others ye to be released, the government, the international community and the BringBackOurGirls group are also waiting. Many are losing their cool and feeling the government is nonchalant. Amnesty International yesterday expressed sadness that the girls were still in captivity.
The parents
Esther Yakubu , one of the mothers of the girls, who sounded really emotional during a telephone conversation with The Nation, said the government has been unjust to them.
Her words: “The Nigerian government is being unjust to us parents of the girls, they don’t care about our pains and what we are going through. If our children were the children of the rich, they would have been listened to and rescued but they have been abandoned because we are poor. All I want is for the government to return my daughter to me, that is all I want.”
Another mother, Galang Pogu, said the President promised them another batch of girls, six months ago but they were yet to hear anything concerning the fulfilment of the promise.
“What else can we possibly want other than the return of our children? The President made us a promise over six months ago, he said that he will ensure that our children were returned to us before long but till date, we are yet to hear anything else from his government. Tell me? What is the essence of ones survival without his children?”
The father of two of the girls, Rev. Enoch Mark, said his girls were obedient and hardworking.
His words: “it is difficult to describe how I feel after three years of two of my daughters abduction, no matter how bad a child is, a parent will always feel the child’s absence, not to talk more of my daughters who were very good girls, always helping out at home and taking care of their younger sisters anytime they returned home from school. Their continuous absence is so heavy on our hearts as their parents.
“I believe that the government is playing politics with the lives of our daughters. The twenty one girls that were released last year were through negotiations with foreign government. The other three girls that came out were on their own. Our people are afraid of saying anything that will make the government forget the girls.
“As for me, I suspect the governor and government; they know the whereabouts of our daughters. I suspect that our daughters are in their custody, we continue to pray for our enemies, we keep praying for the return of our daughters.
“The painful thing is that unless we cry out in the media, the government never thinks it wise to talk to us; we appreciate the #BBOG for being the only ones to fight for us and keep our stories fresh in the media. They have really cheated us honestly and we pray that God fights back for us.”
The leader of the Chibok girls’ mothers, Yana Galang, said she was more disturbed than she ever was.
“I am more disturbed right now than before, because they told us that the next batch will be returned to us soon after the release of the twenty one but it has been months and we have heard nothing from them concerning our daughters and now it is three years since they were taken. We are so worried about them. I always pray for my daughter, I pray to God that she is still alive and he should bring her back with the next batch of girls,” she said.
Another parent, Lawan Zannah, said: “We know that the government has tried, especially with the return of the twenty four, which is really nice but many of us are yet to see our daughters and we are worried and still in doubt. They promised that they will release the second batch of girls but we have still not heard anything from them. We are now praying to God and appealing to the government to please help us, get them back so we have our daughters back.”
The community
The Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA) shares the parents’ sentiments. Chairman KADA, Abuja branch, Hosea Tsambido, said the release of the 21 girls renewed the hope of the family and community.
He said: “We are hopeful now than before; two years before now, our expectation was almost dashed not knowing what had happened to the girls but the release and rescue of twenty four has proven to us that the girls are still alive and okay. The fear that people were making us feel is that if they are released to us, they may not be sane enough to be useful to us, that most of them have died but the arrival of the twenty four has proved them all wrong.
“It has intensified our efforts the more because we have seen from the ones released that the girls are still important and as sane as we know them, which is why we don’t want them to stay any longer because something bad may now happen to them.
“We are intensifying efforts because the government is not doing enough, they are not talking to the parents, Nigerians and we are not seeing any movement, showing there is a search mission.”
Another representative of the Chibok community, Dr Manasseh Allen, said it was disheartening that the girls were not back home.
His words: “I have associated with the people that said these girls will be brought back, especially those that have volunteered to stand between Nigeria and the insurgents and rescue the girls. They have given us their word that if the Federal Government will at least open up and make everything transparent enough with them, they can get the girls back.
“The most disturbing aspect of this for me is that each time I go to Chibok, the parent,s especially those that are my family members or those aware that I am part of the movement, will come and ask me, what about the girls, what do you know about it as if I am in the position to get the girls back or as if, I am in the position to make the government speak to them and if I ask, when last did the government talk to you, they will say the government did not talk to them.
“There are some that since the abduction till this very moment, they were never spoken to by any government official. They were never invited to any meeting; they were never part of those that have ever been to Abuja because we never had the entire parents of the Chibok girls in one group at the same time being spoken to or addressed or being given psychosocial support.
“When you try to get information, you don’t vet any, for the past few weeks, I have been sending messages to the Ministry of Women Affairs asking of how the other 24 girls that were released and rescued are faring but I don’t get any, so that when the information is coming from family like us, people will know the girls are being taken care of. Each time you ask questions, people just treat it with absolute scorn as if it is not important.
“At least by now, people that waited for these girls are supposed to be hearing their stories. The media is supposed to have interacted in one way or the other with the girls in order to get their stories out. I disagree with someone coming to tell us that why they do not allow the girls to talk is because it will jeopardise the rescue of the others, how? With all that has been said, did it jeopardise the release of the 21? And what are the kinds of information that they are going to release to likely jeopardise the mission?”
Three years after
To mark the third anniversary of the Chibok girls abduction, members of the #BringBackOurGirls embarked on a 7-day Global Week of Action.
The global week started with an Asr (Islamic) prayers and media brief on friday 7th April, followed by tree planting and red ribbons tying exercise with the Chibok girls ambassadors on the 8th, a special sunday service at the fountain on Sunday the 9th b pastor Chinedu Ezekwesili, followed by a lone march to the Villa gate, by two Chibok commumity leaders, on Monday the 10th, a workshop on Missing Persons by the Ambassador of the Argentine Republic in Nigeria, Honourable Gustavo Dzugala and a lone march to the Villa gate by Charly Boy who warned the government that it is sitting on a keg of gun powder by not making citizens feel safe.
BBOG leader Mrs Oby Ezekwesili said that the group would continue to protest, no matter the emotional blackmail.
She said: ” This is the most historically, unpalatable treatment of our citizens since the Nigerian civil war and many other tragedies we have seen in the nationhood of this country. There is nowhere in the world that this number of children has ever been taken from their classroom and the country simply carried on, without bringing a closure to it. We have gone through all phases of emotion on this matter, now what we feel is that the government of today, would like to see us throw up our hands in resignation but we want to tell them that we won’t.
“This government made all kinds of promises concerning the rescue of our Chibok girls. They are on record; we did a mapping of all of the times that the actors in this government mentioned Chibok girls both before they got into government and after and we hold a particular statement that will forever hunt this government. The government through the President said, ‘we will not consider ourselves to have defeated Boko Haram, without the rescue of our Chibok girls’. What happened to that declaration?
“Let there be no form of emotional blackmail on the fact that we continue to demand for our Chibok girls; it is because under the social contract of citizens and their government, this government like the former government has the responsibility to rescue our Chibok girls. Now we are absolutely insensed that the government is treating the matter of the Chibok girls like it wants it to just go away, so that they can carry on with other matters but no, Chibok girls are important part of the matter and until it is brought to a closure, we are not stopping.”
Leader BBOG strategic team Aisha Yesufu said: ” It is unbelievable that we are counting three years after; it is something that one cannot understand that Nigeria allowed its daughter that were taken away from school by Boko Haram to get to three years in captivity. This simply says to us that our lives don’t matter, that if anything ever happens to us, there is no Nigeria as a state, we don’t have a government that will come out and defend us.”
Another member of the group, Maureen Kabrik, said: “I never thought that we will still be here three years after; it is sad and unfortunate that the government has not been able to deploy resources in the rescue of the girls.”
