Tag: Chibok

Another chibok schoolgirl has been rescued, the army announced last night.

Army spokesman Col. Usman Sani Kukasheka broke the news. He said her name is Sarah Luka, who is believed to be the daughter of Pastor Luka, one of the parents of the missing girls.

Col. Kukasheka said last night that the girl is number 157 on the list of the 219 Chibok girls in captivity.

She was a Junior Secondary School 1 pupil  at the time of her abduction.

A statement signed by  Col. Kukasheka said: “At about 11.00am yesterday, Thursday, 19th May 2016, troops of 231 Battalion, 331 Artillery Regiment (AR), Detachment of Armed Forces Special Forces (AFSF) 2, Explosive Ordinance (EOD) Team and Civilian Vigilante group of Buratai, conducted clearance operations at Shettima Aboh, Hong and Biladdili general area in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

“During the operations, the troops killed 35 Boko Haram terrorists and recovered several arms and ammunitions and other items. In addition, they rescued 97 women and children held captives by the Boko Haram terrorists.

“We are glad to state that among those rescued is a girl believed to be one of the    Chibok Government Secondary School girls that were abducted on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists.

“Her name is  Miss  Serah Luka, who is number 157 on the list of the abducted school girls. She is believed to be the daughter of Pastor Luka.

“During debriefing the girl revealed that she was a JSS1 student of the school  at the time they were abducted.

“She further added that she hails from Madagali, Adamawa State. She averred that she reported at the school barely two months and one week before her unfortunate abduction along with other girls over two years ago.

“She added that there other three girls who fled from Shettima Aboh when the troops invaded the area earlier today which led  to their rescue.

“She is presently receiving medical attention at the medical facility of Abogo Largema Cantonment, Biu, Borno State.”

The rescue of another of the 219 girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14, 2014 in Chibok, Borno State came amid the excitement of the return of Amina Ali, who yesterday visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa in Abuja.

There are now 217 girls in Boko Haram’s captivity.

President Buhari promised that everything will be done to ensure that Amina goes back to school.

Besides, his administration will ensure that she gets the best medical, emotional and other care towards her full recovery and re-integration into the society.

The President spoke at the Presidential Villa when he received Amina in his office.

Amina, her baby, her mother and her brother, were led to the Villa by Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima at about 2.46 p.m..

The governor, the girl and  her baby were taken to the President’s office by Chief of Staff Abba Kyari.

Amina and her baby were dressed in hijab and were shielded from reporters by security officials.

The Army on Wednesday confirmed Amina’s rescue. She is the first of the 219 schoolgirls to reunite with her family.

She was with the man who put her in the family way, Hayatu Mohammaed, a Boko Haram chieftain.

They were rescued by troops and Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) members at Baale community near Damboa in Borno State. Amina was identified as one of the missing schoolgirls by a vigilante.

After being medically examined at the military’s medical facility in Damboa, Amina and her baby were flown in an Air Force helicopter to the Borno Governor’s Lodge in Maiduguri on Wednesday.

Yesterday’s occasion was also an opportunity for Defence Minister Mansur Dan Ali to review the military’s performance so far in the campaign against Boko Haram. He said 69 soldiers had been killed in action.

Buhari said: “Like others all over the world, I’m delighted that Amina Ali, one of the missing Chibok girls, has regained her freedom. But my feelings are tinged with deep sadness on the horrors the girl has had to go through at such an early stage in her life.

“Although we cannot do anything to reverse the horrors of her past, the Federal Government can and will do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course.

“Amina will get the best care that the Nigerian government can afford. We will ensure that she gets the best medical, emotional and whatever care that she requires to get full recovery and be integrated into the society.

“Yesterday, medical personnel from government and NGOs examined her for about five hours. Trauma experts from UNICEF also met her. The Federal Government will assist the Murtala Mohammed Foundation, which has already been providing support for the families of the missing Chibok girls and which runs a truama and counselling facility in Kano. It will also be involved in the ongoing work with Amina in monitoring her progress and any additional support she requires.

“The continuation of Amina’s education so abruptly disrupted will definitely be a propriety of the Federal Government. Amina must be able to go back to school. Nobody in Nigeria should be put through the brutality of forced marriage. Every girl has a right to education and their choice of life,” he added.

He promised that his administration will continue to do whatever it can to rescue the Chibok girls who are still in Boko Haram’s captivity.

“Amina’s rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity to vital information,” he said.

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima noted that Buhari’s patience, persistence, perseverance and doggedness for the restoration of peace in the northeast had started to yield dividends.

He said: “We have to put things in proper perspective;  one year ago, nobody could venture out of Maiduguri beyond 15 kilometers. Maiduguri was on the verge of falling into the hands of demented monsters called Boko Haram. We were under seige, until God in His infinite mercies intervened with your emergence as president.

The abduction of the Chibok girls was the point the world woke up from her slumber, when the conscience of the world got pricked.

“We have to thank you for your efforts in the Northeast.

“With mixed feelings, with happiness mixed with sadness because 218 girls are not accounted for, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, the recovery of Amina Ali, is a sign of greater things to come as our gallant troops engage in the counter insurgency operations, especially in the Sambisa and the shores of the Lake Chad,” he said.

“Also the Defence Minister, Mansur Dan Ali, noted that what is being celebrated with the rescue of Amina is Buhari’s political commitment and support, which gave a major boost to the success of the fight against terrorism.”

He said that the change of military leadership at the inception of Buhari’s administration injected new ideas and vigour into the military operation.

He added: “Consequently sir, the Armed Forces of Nigeria achieved tremendous success by ensuring the safety of lives and properties and protection of territorial integrity of our country.

“This Operation Crackdown is an offensive operation within Operation Lafia Dole, which started on the 28th of April. It was aimed at clearing Sambisa forest, the haven of Boko Haram terrorists. In that operation, we have been able to clear a lot of villages; 20 villages have been cleared in the last 22 days of this operation.

“We have also rescued over 150 in this operation since it started, among which we separated our Chibok girl, Amina Ali. The officers and men of the Armed Forces have actually been involved in this operation.

“In these 22 days, we have lost about seven soldiers, three due to enemy action and IEDs, one accidental during clearing of IEDs, and three as a result of road traffic accidents.

“We have also had some troops injured and they are responding to treatment. We have counted close to about 69 killed in action and we have also captured equipment and also bombed some of their own platform,” he stated.

Amina’s mother said the rescued girl and her brother were the only surviving children out of 14 that she had.

One of the 219 girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from the Chibok Secondary School hostel on April 14 2014 has been found.

Amina Ali was among the group of women rescued on Tuesday by a local vigilante on the fringe of the Sambisa forest.

The girl was found following a military onslaught on Baale village near Damboa in Borno State after which many women and children were rescued.

By a stroke of coincidence, a local hunter (vigilante) saw Amina in company of other women and identified her as one of the abducted Chibok girls.

According to the vigilante, who identified himself as Apaagu, he recognised Amina from among the women because he is also from Chibok community and knows the girls’ parents.

Apaagu told reporters in Maiduguri on telephone from Damboa that he picked out Amina and told the military that she is one of the Chibok girls.

“When I saw her, I recognised her because I know her. I told the military that she is one of the Chibok girls that were missing. We picked her out from among other women,” Apaagu said.

He said Amina was taken to her family house in Chibok where she met her mother in an emotional reunion before she was taken away by the military in Damboa.

“We went with her to her family house in Chibok and met her mother who embraced her warmly, Both of them were in tears,” Apaagu said.

The vigilante said Amina was with her four-month old baby – fathered by one of her abductors.

Amina was yesterday taken to Maiduguri, where she was received by Governor Kashim Shettima.

President Muhammadu Buhari may meet with the rescued girl before being allowed to unite with her parents, a presidential spokesman said yesterday.

The Abuja Chibok community Chairman under the umbrella of the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), Mr. Hosea Tsambido, said Amina told the vigilantes who rescued her that the Chibok girls were hidden away in a place that the military might never find them.

He said:”The Chibok vigilantes had gone on patrol inside Sambisa forest when they found one of the Chibok girls identified as Amina Ali, collecting firewood.

“She has given birth and is breastfeeding. She told them that her mates are still intact, well taken care of, protected and hidden, that even the Army will not be able to find them.”

Tsambido quoted Amina as saying six of the girls were dead but that others are alive and well.

Chibok Girl’s Parents Association Chairman Mr. Yakubu Nkeki, told our reporter on the telephone: “Yes Amina was found on Tuesday by our community vigilante. They brought her to my house and my wife received her because I was not in the village at the time.

“I called the leader of the vigilante group as soon as my wife told me and he confirmed it. They took her home to meet her mother who was so thankful to God that she is alive and well. Unfortunately, her father is one of the parents that died after they were abducted.”

“She has been taken to the Nigerian Army post in Damboa and has been assisting the troops with their investigation and she will be taken to Maiduguri tomorrow.”

A community leader in Chibok, Ayuba Adamsao, was quoted by the French News Agency, AFP, as saying: “She met her parents, who recognised their daughter before she was taken to the military base in Damboa.”

He added: “Her father’s name is Ali and the girl’s name is Amina. I know the family very well because I have worked with them, being a spokesman for the families of the Chibok girls.”

Yakubu Nkeki, head of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parents’ group, also confirmed her name and said she was 17 when she was abducted.

He added: “She’s the daughter of my neighbour… They brought her to my house.”

Aboku Gaji, leader of the JTF in Chibok, said: “The moment this girl was discovered by our vigilantes, she was brought to my house. I instantly recognised her, and insisted we should take her to her parents.

“When we arrived at the house… I asked the mother to come and identify someone. The moment she saw her, she shouted her name: ‘Amina, Amina!’ She gave her the biggest hug ever, as if they were going to roll on the ground, we had to stabilise them.

“The mother called the attention of other relations to come out and see what is happening. The girl started comforting the mother, saying: ‘Please Mum, take it easy, relax. I never thought I would ever see you again, wipe your tears. God has made it possible for us to see each other again.’

“Afterwards, we had to make them understand that the girl would not be left in their care. She must be handed over to the authority.”

Shettima said yesterday in Maiduguri: “I have got reports that one of the Chibok girls has been found by some vigilante around the Sambisa Forest.

“I don’t want to be misquoted because I have not been officially informed nor has the story been officially confirmed.

“But if this is true, we are happy about the news because for us even if it is one out of the 200, it is still a sign of hope that the girls are alive and from the location she was found, it can give our security a good lead to where the girls are held,” Shettima said.

He spoke while hosting the United Nations (UN) Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Steve O’Brian and the Netherlands Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr. John Groffen, at the Government House in Maiduguri.

The military in a statement by its spokesman Col. Sani Usman, also confirmed that the girl was among the rescued people in Baale village near Damboa.

The statement said: “This is to confirm that one of the abducted Chibok school girls, Falmata Mbalala, was among the rescued persons by our troops at Baale near Damboa.” The military later corrected the name.

A statement by Sesugh Akume, spokesperson of the #BringBcakOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy, identified Amina as one of the missing girls on its list.

The group said her name is listed as number 127 in the list of 219 girls abducted by Boko Haram in Government Secondary School, Chibok.

The group said: “One of our abducted Chibok girls, Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki from Mbalala, has been found in Kulakaisa area at the fringes of Sambisa Forest by vigilantes from Chibok on patrol last night.

“Her name is #127 on our list of 219 missing Chibok girls attached.

“According to the Chairman of the Chibok Girls Parents Association, Mr. Yakubu Nkeki, Amina Ali was found alongside her child of about a year old. She identified the vice principal of her school, GSS Chibok, as well as spoke with her mother.

“She provided useful information that her other classmates are still held under heavy terrorist captivity in the Sambisa forest area.

“She has been handed over by the vigilantes to Nigerian troops at Damboa who helped with facilitating the verification of her identity.

“We await official confirmation from the military and the Nigerian government.”

President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that he gets so worried about the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, making it difficult to continue to meet with their parents.

The 216 schoolgirls from Chibok secondary schools were kidnapped from their hostelmore than two years ago.

In an interview with CNN’s Christine Amanpour in London, the president said he had met twice with the families of the missing schoolgirls but said he tries to limit his meetings with them for his own “emotional balance.”

“I try to imagine my 14-year-old daughter missing for one to two years… a lot of parents would rather see them in their graves than the condition they are in now.”

“It’s tragic,” he added.

 Asked about a video — exclusively obtained by CNN last month — that showed some of the missing schoolgirls alive, President Buhari said he had not seen the clip and insisted that he would not have shown it to the families even if he had seen it.

“How can we show it to them when we don’t know where they are?” he asked. “If we know where they are then we can organize to secure them. If they are divided into 5, 10 groups all over the region, there’s no way we can spontaneously and simultaneously attack all those locations. The important thing is to get them alive,” he said.

CNN reported last month that Boko Haram had made ransom demands for their release.

However, the president said that his administration is still trying to establish bonafide Boko Haram leadership before entering into talks with them.

“When we identify it, we are prepared to talk to them. We can’t just talk to whoever gets a video clip,” he said.

THE United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power has said the rescue of the Chibok girls remains a priority.

   She spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Ms Power said the U.S. in recent months have been able to give additional information sharing platforms and additional surveillance to aid the fight against Boko Haram.

She said: “The issue of the Chibok girls and other adaptations is of huge priority to the U.S. And it was the issue I discussed at length with President Buhari today .

“We had moved to provide the information and intelligence needed to the Nigerian authorities. We have in recent months been able to allocate additional information sharing platforms and additional surveillance to aid the fight against Boko Haram .

“We will not rest.  We will continue to deepen our partnership and be more effective with out partners on the ground. We are determined to support Nigeria and other neighbouring countries to secure more rescues of adopted people and releases in the days and weeks ahead .

On recent video released by the insurgents, she said: “What we talked about was the importance of pursuing every need related to the Chibok girls and making sure we have mechanism whereby parents and family, who have been adopted by Boko Haram can be given information whereby videos can be examined and relations offer feedbacks on their impression on the videos to have a process by which family of those who are missing work more constructively with the government and indeed with those involved in the operations in trying to rescue the girls.

“So, that was the nature of our discussion with the President. The recent video was one part of our discussion and the larger puzzle that will need to be assembled.”

Power led a 42-member high-power delegation from President Barack Obama to Nigeria in support of the three priority areas of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

She said the three areas; security, economy and governance remain the focus of the delegation’s visit to Nigeria.

The head of the delegation at a joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said Nigeria was a strategic partner to the U.S. not only in Africa but globally.

“As you (Onyeama) indicated, Obama has sent me and members of his cabinet to lead an inter-agency delegation to Nigeria,” she said.

Power said the delegation would reflect on the three pillars of the administration; security, economy and governance.

She explained that the partnership would bear fruits to include other aspects of our partnership.

“It will include dealing with Boko Haram, trade, economic development, strengthening institutions and the fight against corruption.

“These are intrinsically central for the people of Nigeria, who want to live in a secured environment and dignity and have maximum opportunity”.

According to her, the other aspects the visit covers include focus on critical areas for dealing with the emergency situation, caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.

She also said the Nigeria-U.S. Bi-National Commission meeting in Washington in March, had started yielding results.

“It’s been a fruitful dialogue and I think there is a lot of homework that has come out of it.

“And there are a number of issues which I look forward to discussing with you; that’s how we move forward in stronger ways,” she said.

Power hailed Nigeria’s contributions to regional and global peace, especially in its effort at the UN Security Council.

”I’ve had the privilege of serving in 2014-2014 with Nigeria on the UN Security Council when you held one of the non-permanent seats.

“I can tell you how important our relationship was on the Security Council, how much constructive work we did. You had a tremendous team in New York and I continue to work with them everyday.

”When U.S. and Nigeria stand together, whether it’s here or in an organisation, such as the UN, as I said earlier, the sky is the limit,” she said.

Among the 42-member delegation include Obama’s principal deputy assistant secretary for African Affairs and the Deputy Commander of the U.S. African Command (AFRICOM).

A senator and former government negotiator with Boko Haram, Shehu Sani, yesterday said the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State two years ago by insurgents are alive. He said the recent video of the girls released by a Boko Haram source showed the veracity of their parents’ claims.

Sani, who spoke on CNN, said negotiations with Boko Haram for the release of the girls remained frozen, given the military campaign against the insurgents. He cautioned the government on the terms of the negotiation to avoid the pitfalls which prevented the previous administration to secure the release of the girls.

The negotiation, the human rights activist said:  “Negotiation at this stage has been frozen, because of the military campaign emphasised by the government. And I believe there is a need to explore the option of negotiation to ensure that the girls are brought back home alive.”

“In the last three to four credible negotiations with the group (Boko Haram) on the issue of the girls, they were emphasising on the need to release their members that have been in detention for years. The issue of ransom came very late. What is important is to get these girls out.

“There are three ways to which we can get them out. One is to negotiate. And secondly is to use force, but the use of force comes with implication and consequences. Thirdly, it is to use force and continue to open the door of negotiation. I believe the third option is very much needed. We need to continue to use force to show it clearly to the insurgents that they can’t win militarily and also to open the door for negotiation, which will make it possible for the girls to be brought back home alive.”

On how the government can recognise the credibility of Boko Haram negotiators, Sani said: “We should be very careful at this time. But, the fact that we can get such a very credible video from some sources; it shows that those sources are elements that need to be used to achieve the goal of getting these girls out…

“I believe Nigeria should take this opportunity. The last government fell into the hands of many scammers, but I believe with such a very credible video, there is hope that these girls are alive. And the sources that provided the video should be used to get the girls out.”

Sani said President Muhammadu Buhari has confronted insurgency with a decisive action, noting that the present administration had made significant progress in ending the problem. He said there was more to do in routing the insurgents, but said the government should not abandon negotiation.

Sani hailed the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners for keeping the abduction on the front burner.

A non-governmental organisation, ActionAid yesterday urged President Muhamamdu Buhari to keep  his promise on Chibok schoolgirls.

The group’s statement reads: “ Thursday, 14th April, 2016 marks two years since 276 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents while writing an exam in Chibok, a community in northern Nigeria. Although 59 girls managed to escape, two years later 214 girls are still in captivity.

“During the inaugural speech of President Muhammadu Buhari on 29th May, 2015, he said: ‘We can not claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents. This government will do all it can to rescue them alive.’  It is now more than ten months since President Buhari made this pronouncement but the Chibok girls are still missing.

“New Government or not, Government continues to exist and through changes in administrations, retains the same Constitutional responsibility to guarantee the safety of all citizens at all times, including vulnerable citizens such as adolescent girls. ActionAid therefore calls on the President Buhari-led Federal Government to fulfil its statutory responsibility by rescuing the abducted Chibok school girls, and other persons held in captivity.

“ActionAid also wishes to point out that the failure to rescue the Chibok girls has not only traumatised the Chibok community, but has far-reaching implications for achieving the sustainable development goals 4 and 5 which are about ensuring quality education and gender equality. Unsafe cities and schools continue to erode the gains in education for girls and in gender equality and women’s empowerment in Nigeria.

“ActionAid further calls on the federal and state governments to put in place security mechanisms in all schools across the country, whether they are private or government-owned, to forestall the likelihood of another Chibok-style abduction ever happening in the country. Government should also enhance the rapid response capacity of security agencies in order to tackle emerging security situations without delay.”

April 14, 2014:

The Government Girls Secondary School in the village of Chibok reopened for exams.  Armed men in Nigerian military uniform stormed into the school at night, telling the girls they would take them to safety.  The students soon realized the men were not real soldiers; they were actually from Boko Haram, a terrorist group based in northeastern of Nigeria whose name figuratively means “Western education is a sin”.

 

April 16, 2014:

The government of Borno State announced a reward of $300,000 for information leading to the rescue of the school girls. Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan calls a National Security Council meeting in Abuja to review security measures to determine the best way forward. The Nigerian military issued a statement that almost all of the girls had been freed. The next day, the military retracted their claim.

 

April 24, 2014:

Parents of the missing girls and other Nigerians take to social media to call the attention of the international community to their plight and to put pressure on the Nigerian government to take action. Ibrahim M. Abdullahi, a lawyer in Abuja, sends the first tweet using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

 

April 30, 2014:

The “Million-Woman March, held in Abuja, gathers about 500 people who were mostly women dressed in red. They marched to the National Assembly and delivered a letter,  complaining that the government was not doing enough to ensure the release of the girls.

 

May 2, 2014:

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan announces a “fact-finding committee” to help in the search of the girls. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Washington “will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice. That is our responsibility and the world’s responsibility.”

 

May 5, 2014:

In a video statement, Boko Haram leader acknowledges that his group was responsible for the kidnapping of the schoolgirls. He declares the students “will remain slaves with us”. The White House confirms that the United States is helping Nigeria in the quest to find and free the abducted schoolgirls.  There is some speculation that the girls may have been moved into nearby countries.

 

May 7, 2014:

Boko Haram attacks the Nigerian village of Gamboru Ngala on the border with Cameroon. Over 300 people are killed in the attack. In Paris, French president François Hollande offers Nigeria a “special team” to look for the girls and Britain says it will send a team of experts to Nigeria to help with the crisis. China’s Premier Li Keqiang, on a visit to Abuja, promises that his country will make any useful information acquired by its satellites and intelligence services available to Nigeria’s security agencies.

 

May 12, 2014:

In a new Boko Haram video, the leader of the group Abubakar Shekau claims to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls. The girls say they have converted to Islam and the terrorist group declares they will release the schoolgirls in exchange for all imprisoned militants.

 

May 17, 2014:

United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, then President Goodluck Jonathan and French President, François Hollande are among attendees of a summit in Paris on the growing threat of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. William Hague offered Nigeria assistance in the form of military advisors, but has insisted that the country must take its security responsibility seriously in the face of ongoing attacks from Boko Haram.

 

May 21, 2014:

Nigeria’s then Ambassador to the U.S., the late Professor Ade Adefuye responded to the remarks made by Senator McCain at a meeting in Washington DC. He said the Nigerian government was doing everything possible to secure the safe release of the Girls and assured that #our girls will be back.

 

May 27, 2014:

The military says it knows where the girls abducted by Boko Haram are, but ruled out using force to rescue them.  Nigeria’s president was sent a new video of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in which they plead with him to spare their lives through a prisoner swap. The Nigerian government has denied that any deal was on the table, and has so far neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the video.

 

July 12, 2014:

Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai visits Abuja and meets, first with five of the girls who escaped (July 13), and then with the President (July 14).

July 15, 2014: Jonathan’s planned meeting fails to hold as the parents reportedly cancel it the very last moment. Goodluck Jonathan blames #BringBackOurGirls campaigners for whisking away the parents who were to visit him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

 

July 16, 2014:

Parents explain that they did not shun the meeting with President intentionally, but were unaware of it saying they received the invitation already on the day of the visit scheduled by Jonathan.

 

July 17, 2014:

Presidency sends another letter to the girls’ parents and the event gets rescheduled to the next week.

 

July 22, 2014:

Jonathan meets with the parents of the Chibok girls at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Nobel Laureate Prof WOLE SOYINKA, in a piece published yesterday by Newsweek, revisits the  Chibok girls abduction, concluding that its perpetrators are yet to understand the enormity of shame that they brought upon Nigerians.

Chibok was inevitable. From the very beginnings of Boko Haram, it was clear that this was a movement which, whatever religious profession it made, was sworn to violence as the basis of human cohabitation and dedicated to the eradication of all known norms of society.

Nigerians could not so readily have forgotten the Maitatsine movement of the early 1980s, one that surely taught the nation to read any hint of religious purification at its most portentous. The Maitatsine—led by a radical Islamic preacher named Mohammed Marwa, whose Hausa nickname means “the one who damns”—had also declared the reading of books a hell-assured crime in the eyes of Allah. They erupted in the largely Muslim Kano state, and their primary targets were fellow Muslims, even before “infidels.” The Maitatsine waged war on modernism. They waylaid passenger vehicles, railway trains, killed the men—albeit preserving some for manual labour—took the women and children captive, to be used for household chores—including sexual slavery—in their enclave.

That enclave was right in the heart of Kano, not in some remote and inaccessible part of that ancient, largely Muslim city, now Nigeria’s second-biggest metropolis. Their life vocation was cleansing the here and now in readiness for the coming of the last Imam. Their conduct was neo-Luddite, even socialist in pretension—after all, they disapproved of modern luxuries such as radios, watches and motorcars, and so they hacked motorists to death or burnt them in their vehicles. It was all laudable class war, chortled some campus revolutionaries!

The politicians courted them, progressive and reactionary alike. Governors and aspirants called on the Maitatsine’s leader in his increasingly fortified enclave, turned a blind eye to his violent territorial takeover, even made monetary donations. When the Maitatsine made their move, they routed the police and frustrated the military—since they simply threw themselves on the soldiers’ weapons. The leader of the Maitatsine had progressed—he was now trumpeted as the last Imam. On his death, he would shut the gates of paradise behind him, and all who survived him would be left floundering in the Gehenna that was Earth. It took the Nigerian Air Force bombs to rout them from their redoubt. The uncovered camp was gory. Nothing less than a charnel house, with execution pits, filled with the headless remains of victims.

The social theology of Mohammed Yusuf, the late leader of Boko Haram, was only different in detail and origination. He killed, enslaved, thrived on impunity. He was eventually extrajudicially murdered, which led to a lazy revisionism: Boko Haram would not have taken hold of northern Nigeria if its leader had not been killed. A former Head of State even took it upon himself to visit Yusuf’s family and followers, pleading with them to forgive and forget. His peace mission took place on the very day when a national memorial service was being held for United Nations staff who had died in Boko Haram’s demolition of their headquarters in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Media houses, police stations, the motorcade of the Chief of Police, churches, “infidels’”—and increasingly fellow Muslims—had already fallen victim. Most single-mindedly targeted, however, were educational institutions: the teachers slaughtered at will, students—including school pupils—waylaid and beheaded. Parents were killed for sending their children to school.

The cant of rationalisation held sway, conferring immunity, directly or indirectly, through inadequate response, total inaction and governance groveling. Please, tell us what you want, we are ready to listen. Yet Boko Haram was anything but reticent—indeed, it was voluble. Both in word and deed, it was sworn to eliminate all learning except its own perverted reading of the Koran.

Chibok was merely lying in wait. Not only the failure of anticipation, but the avoidance of legitimate response to crimes against humanity indicts any government and covers its people in vicarious shame. It went beyond dilatoriness to qualify as criminal avoidance. The government dismissed the disappearance of nearly 300 vulnerable girls. The crime scene was obligingly simple: one day, there were 279 live bodies, the next, they went missing. So where were they? I publicly asked a question of the president: if your daughter had been declared missing, even under the most improbable circumstances, would you dismiss it as a political game by the opposition? And if indeed it were, would you not launch an instant fact-finding mission? Alas, for more than two weeks, parents and families were rewarded with disdain!

Not quite. The president’s hyperactive wife, who had earlier ordered the arrest of protesters against the kidnappings for embarrassing her husband with false alarms, belatedly found herself compelled to concede an inexplicable vacuum. Her response was to turn a nation’s tragedy into a farce of the most grotesque formulation. She appropriated the seat of government, transformed it into a televised world stage where she “performed” a commission of enquiry worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan, but without rhyme, lyric or empathy.

I do not believe in collective culpability. Yet, even today, two years after the tragedy, on encountering my fellow Africans most especially, I still feel an overwhelming urge to apologise, even without provocation, for a vicarious crime whose real perpetrators have yet to understand the enormity of shame that they brought upon us, as a people.