Tomorrow will make it two years since the Chibok girls were taken away from their dormitories. Hope for recovery of the teenage girls is fasting fading, writes Jide Babalola.
Two years after, the burnt out, neglected and ghost-like Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram stands as a forlorn relic of man’s inhumanity to man.
On the night of April 14, 2014, members of the Boko Haram group abducted some 219 girls – a globally unprecedented number for any form of kidnapping. While the world was alarmed, the then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan did not deem it fit to call Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima to discuss the grave matter until nineteen days after. By then, the girls were far gone.
Till date, no intelligence report has confirmed their whereabouts, thereby leading many to unpalatable conjectures given the threat of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, to sell them off into slave marriages.
Early in May, 2014, a video recording surfaced, showing Abubakar Shekau , the leader of Jamaa’atu Alhlissunat li-ddaawat wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, claiming responsibility for the abduction of over 200 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.
In a video lasting about an hour, he threatened to give the abducted students out in marriage
“I am going to marry out any woman who is 12 years old and if she is younger I will marry her out at the age of nine just like how my mother, Aisha, the daughter of Abubakar, was married out to Prophet Mohammad at the age of nine.
“I am the one who captured all those girls and will sell all of them. I have a market where I sell human beings because it is God that says I should sell human beings. Yes I will sell women, because I sell women.”
There is no evidence about how far he has gone with his threat but it remains evident that anxiety persists in the mind of many who continue to shudder at the fate the Chibok girls may have suffered under the hands of their captors.
Reality of pain
While others may afford to argue over the unfortunate incident, members of the affected families will rather mind their grave, troubling pains for which no answers seem to be in the horizon.
According to Mr. Hosea Tsambido, who is the Chairman of Chibok Community in Abuja, words cannot suffice in explaining the pains gnawing through the hearts of parents of the abducted Chibok girls.
“I can confirm to you that at least eighteen parents of these girls have died because of the stress and anxiety caused by the abduction,” Tsambido told The Nation, last Friday. He spoke shortly after members of the BringBackOurGirls Group concluded the first part of weeklong memorial events at the Unity Fountain in Abuja.
Hope-less sighting?
Between the time of abduction and now, numerous reports had been written about one woman, a girl or some other inadequately identified persons speaking of seeing or hearing about the Chibok girls.
They mostly appear speculative but perhaps, the most interesting one was that of Andrew Pocock, former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, who told UK-circulated Sunday Times that surveillance teams of the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (UK) spotted 80 of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in Sambisa forest shortly after they were kidnapped in April 2014.
According to Pocock, the information was passed to the authorities but no request was made for help. He said while a rescue operation could have resulted into the deaths of several of the girls, a few of them would have regained freedom.
“A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment.
“A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed.
“An air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.
“You might have rescued a few but many would have been killed. My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” Pocock was quoted as saying.
Mindless rape, severe beatings and the use of captives as sex slaves by their captors were among the reported experiences of several abducted young women.
Stephen Davis, a former Canon at Coventry Cathedral, who said he spent several months in Nigeria trying to negotiate the girls’ freedom, described the failure to mount a rescue as “unconscionable and disgusting”.
According to Davis, the locations of the Boko Haram camps were well-known and other than the Chibok girls, South African mercenaries working with the military had released about 1,000 others.
The military
Daily, newspaper reports are replete with news of the military clearing more terrorist camps, defusing improvised explosive devices, setting free more people and demolishing terrorist camps but even, after so much of that, seeing or hearing about Chibok girls has remained more of a mirage.
Altogether, the military says it has freed thousands of Boko Haram hostages, as evidenced by one of the press statements recently issued by the Army.
“In continuation of the clearance and mopping up operations of the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists in various parts of the Northeast geo-political region, troops have rescued no fewer than 11,595 persons held hostage by the terrorists within the last one month,” the army said in a statement signed by the Acting a Director of Army Public Relations, Sani Usman.
The military further explained that the rescue operations were carried out by different military outposts across the beleaguered region and a significant number of them were received from Cameroonian authorities.
“On 1st March 2016, troops of 155 Task Force Battalion received 10,000 refugees from the Republic of Cameroon at Banki and Bama axis.
“Two days later, Army Headquarters Special Forces (AHQ SF) Battalion also rescued 63 persons held captives by terrorists at Maleri. The same unit on 5th March 2016 rescued 779 persons at Fotokol general area, a border town between Nigeria and Cameroon.
“Within the first week of March 2016, the 254 Task Force Battalion also rescued 45 persons at Kuaguru, while 143 Battalion similarly rescued 27 persons at Gadayamo,15 at Galadadani Dam in Madagali and 10 persons from Disa village. On 11th March 2016 troops of 231 Battalion and Armed Forces Strike Force (AFSF) also rescued 7 persons held captives by Boko Haram terrorists at Betso village; 5 of whom were elderly women and 2 young girls.
“Similarly 117 Task Force Battalion on 15th March 2016, received 14 refugees from Sahuda a border town with Cameroon. The Battalion equally rescued 59 at Bitta general area on 19th March 2016.
“In similar vein, troops of 22 Brigade in conjunction with Army Headquarters Strike Group (AHQ SG) rescued 309 hostages from Kala Balge general area on 23rd of March 2016. While on 30th March 2016 troops of 25 Task Force Brigade rescued 45 men, 85 women and 137 children from the Boko Haram terrorists at, Zahdra and Weige villages.
“Thus the total number of persons rescued by the troops during the on-going clearance operations is 11,595 from February 26th, 2016 to date,” the Army spokesman stated.
Yet, there has been no reported sighting of any of the Chibok girls.
Chibok-sceptics
On Wednesday, March 30, 2015, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose declared that no pupil was abducted by Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
According to the governor, reports about the Chibok abduction were merely part of the propaganda aimed at sealing the fate of the Jonathan administration ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“I don’t think any of these girls is missing; it is a political strategy. Who is fooling who? If you wanted to use it to remove some people, you have succeeded already.
“I don’t know if there are missing girls but no indication has shown that. It is a political strategy, because I don’t think any girl is missing. If they are missing, let them find them,” Fayose said while declaring open a two-day workshop on “Political Aspirants’ Capacity Enhancement” organised by Women Arise for Change Initiative for women from Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states.
However, while many received Fayose’s opinion with indifference, the Northeast Youth Peace and Development Empowerment Initiative (NEYPDI) led by Alhaji Kyari Abubakar condemned such sceptical position.
He said: “We are surprised that this statement is coming from someone who regards himself as a democrat; that statement suggest that he has no sympathy for the parents of the abducted girls and the pains they are currently passing through.”
Abubakar, who advised Fayose to stop misleading Nigerians by his unsubstantiated comments, urged him to take a trip to states like Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and see the extent of damages done by Boko Haram insurgency before reeling out information to the public.
He said: “He (Fayose) should not mislead the Nigerian public about the truth. The people of North-East cannot afford to tell lies on the abduction of their daughters, that incident is always fresh in our memory.”
Global and domestic concerns continue
The first many people around the world heard of Boko Haram was when a Twitter-savvy Nigerian in Abuja, came up with the hash tag, #BringBackOurGirls, after the Chibok girls’ abduction.
Hitherto, the abduction of hundreds, if not thousands, had gone almost unreported, as was the massacre at a boys’ boarding school in Buni Yadi less than two months earlier, in which 59 boys were shot dead or had their throats slit. Boys who refused to comply with instant recruitment orders from Boko Haram commanders were said instant victims of gory massacres that took place in various villages across the Boko Haram areas of operation in the Northeast.
Thus far, up to $6 billion (N2 trillion) has gone down the drains, about 20,000 people killed and two million others displaced, Shettima said few days ago.
While he expressed hope for the state’s future, Shettima said the $6 billion financial losses do not include losses incurred by local and international businesses located in the capital city, Maiduguri, noting that a branch of one of the tier one banks in Maiduguri was processing over a billion naira daily, the biggest cash centre in the country.
Noting that his state has the second largest land mass in Nigeria, he said Borno’s huge agricultural potential and prosperous farmers have lapsed into very bad times where former big time farmers have become mere beggars.
He said he had started to redevelop education by motivating pupils through feeding; adding that a school with enrolment of less than 100 pupils ballooned into 700 shortly after the state introduced free feeding there.
Reversing the pestilential imprints of Boko Haram across the entire Northeast of the federation will not be easy.
“Our government has increased funding for education and made it free and compulsory. From practical experience and findings from on-the-spot assessment of our visits to schools, there were large school drop-outs due to poor feeding and paucity of infrastructure especially for the girl-child. We have also introduced a model transportation system that has encouraged more parents to send their children to school as against what we had before,” he added.
Shettima also said his administration is investing in the health care sector to reverse the present situation where millions of dollars are wasted yearly by Nigerians seeking medical attention overseas.
He criticised the rate of corruption in the country and berated Nigerians that stole so much and invested their loot outside the country to develop other nations to the extent of stealing funds meant for the army to fight insurgency. He called it immoral and the height of wickedness against one’s kinsmen and the nation in general.
Untold trillions of Naira have traditionally leaked through Nigeria’s defence and security systems for ages. One of the corruption cases being currently prosecuted in court by an anti-graft agency centers on allegations that while he was Chief of Air Staff, Alexander Badeh was creaming off some N558.2 million from defence votes every passing month. Then, many parents were already mourning the loss of loved ones under the virulent insurgency going on in the Northeast.
Like an oasis in the desert, stubborn hope maintains its currency within the ranks of activists campaigning for the return of Chibok girls.
“On this, we stand; no retreat, no surrender” seems to encapsulate the message from Aisha Yusuf, one of the leaders of BBOG campaign in Nigeria.
“It remains the duty of the Nigerian government to rescue the Chibok girls – all 219 of them and we will not give up on that,” she added.
Last Friday, activists under the auspices of the BBOG campaign began one week of activities aimed at further drawing attention to the Chibok girls who have been missing for about two years now. The ‘Global Week of Action’ started on Friday, April with Islamic prayers and teachings, along with prayers in several mosques in Nigeria and other parts of the world. At Unity Fountain, in the heart of Abuja where the BBOG campaigners have always held their activities, both Sheikh Nura Khalid and Ustaz Abdulfatah Adeyemi were invited to deliver lectures on the topics: “Importance of Girl-Child Education in Islam” and “Islamic Prohibition of Forced Marriages.” Church activities and special Christian worship/prayers took place on Sunday, ahead of other events during the week.
Without an iota of doubt, almost everything imaginable has been done since the bringbackourgirls campaign hit the social media and the consciousness of millions of people across the globe. In Nigeria and abroad, legions of youth have tweeted or written some messages on the issue of the missing Chibok girls. America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama was among mothers in distant climes who stridently re-echoed the BBOG campaign message.
The publicity unleashed by the likes of Mrs Oby Ezekwesili helped mobilise global attention to the plight of the girls, but two years on, the girls are still far away from home.
Sophisticated satellite surveillance, otherwise referred to as “Eyes in the sky” recorded only one possible sighting about two months into the girls’ disappearance. A rescue attempt for the fraction sighted around a ‘tree of life’ in Sambisa forest was deemed unfeasible.
Over time, teams of foreign experts and RAF Sentinel spy planes were quietly scaled down, pulled out, or re-assigned to more pressing theatres of conflict like Syria and Iraq.
Besides, series of attempts to negotiate towards effecting the girls’ release all fell through due to a lack of reliable go-betweens.
So far, the best efforts by the world have remained fruitless. Much has been said and done, yet the question remains: where are the Chibok girls?
