The Nation Newspaper

Tag: LEAH

  • Of Leah, Soyinka, and Boko Haram

    Title: A Humanist Ode for Chibok, Leah
    Author: Wole Soyinka
    Year of Publication: 2019
    Reviewer: Olatunbosun Taofeek

    IT was 23rd March, 2019 at Providus Bank, Lagos, when the logos of grieve hatchet our souls for Leah Sharibu at the reading of Wole Soyinka’s A Humanist Ode for Chibok, Leah. Soyinka stopped amidst his reading. A shock, a revulsive and then an abrupt silence. We were scared, of what might have happened to Soyinka while reading— an intellectual coma; or the ghost of Leah; or the unforgiven muse of the dead? Reason: Soyinka was embittered, almost weeping. Then Jahman Anikulapo walked up to him before he muttered in sobriety. In his pang of conscience of a country that would and would not be he walked out. Walked in. Finally said, “I lost a goat” sometimes in the past. This is the crux of the poem—Soyinka had lost his daughter, Iyetade; now Leah awaits in that undeserved destination of a cruel forest called Sambisa. The shock Soyinka passed through was when the entire ghosts of the dead in the catacombs of Maiduguri came in to our midst, demanding silence in their drudgeries all the way from Sambisa. They begged Soyinka to stop reading for there is no hopeful chapter in that book called Nigeria.

    In the poem, the clerics are queried on the question of slaughters as compared to the Byzantines of historic gory and macabre. He accuses the clerics of their roles and neglects to the ingenious trade of Boko Haram. Although dying is now a common article, but we should remember that “The child in us dies in the child that died”. So, we all are not free from the ghost of the neighbour who died yesterday.

    In the second part, “Revisionist, Censors, Terminal Censors”, lots of allusions were made to characters such as Salman Rushdie of Satanic Verses, Plato of The Republic, Jihad John, Krishna, Buddha, Prophet Mohammed, Jesus and the host of others, whose idealistic philosophies have squared and crooked our society— our country and the world we are. Unfortunately, all these were personas imported into Nigeria at the expense of our local deities/personas created/followed by our ancestors. This portrays how foreign “gods” are incorporated, and now they put our entire nation in the cockpit of a crashing plane. So, when the terrorist chants Allah Akbar wearing judgment robes to kill, you wonder from what world or kindred they are from.

    The illustrations by Soyinka demonstrate the failure of governance and the emergence of ravenous politicians in the space of Borno, Benue, Kaduna, Timbuktu, Mogadishu, Tripoli, Lampedusa, slave market in Mauritanian and Nairobi  where Kofi Awoonor was murdered. All these places are unhealed dirges that might one day become our sepulcher.

    Again, are the weapon of scriptures use for subjugation and brutality. Their users defend themselves with the complexity of scriptures, exonerating their inhuman felicities and orchestrated dystopia because they lack the universe of thought. The way out is for them to be an apostate for a better universal apostolate. In this, we shall have no Chibok or Dapchi wherein to cry and sorry again.

    The last part of the poem “STOP PRESS: One Said “No!” brings back the voice of Leah, a school girl in the captivity of a onerous society in a panegyric polity, where cattle are heroes and heroines of our time. Lastly, Soyinka laments: “Leah, this trial of your youth is cruel, unjust.” And hence “Humanity remains and unfinished business, Leah”.

    To Soyinka, the solution to this unflinching menace is for us to take three Nigerian Presidents (perhaps, Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari); give them to Boko Haram in exchange for Leah and other girls. Then we might have relative peace.

     

  • Cleric to FG, Nigerians: Leah must not die in captivity

    Leah Sharibu, the Dapchi Christian girl in Boko Haram captivity since February must be freed at all costs, a staff of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students(IFES), Rev Gideon Para-Mallam, has appealed.

    He told the Federal Government and well-meaning Nigerians to stop at nothing to secure the release of the 15-year-old girl and others in terrorists’ camp.

    Para-Mallam admitted the Federal Government has been doing so much behind the scene but urged that such efforts be intensified for Leah’s release as soon as possible.

    The Jos-based preacher told our correspondent however said the government should much more for the release of all abductees.

    “Such negotiations are difficult, confusing, convoluted and complicated. It happened during President Jonathan’s time and we just have to pray and trust God for the best outcomes, as it clearly shows that the government does not seem to be getting things on the right track at the moment.

    “No one will believe that the government is doing enough if there are no concrete results in securing Leah’s and others release from captivity.”

    Expressing pains over the execution of the 24-year-old aid worker Hauwa last week by terrorists, Para-Mallam said government should ensure that was the last of such incident.

    He said Leah and other abductees must not be allowed to go through similar treatment.

    “That Leah and Alice were left alive is something to thank God for. It also means in some way that Boko Haram is listening and this is where the appeals and advocacy at the local and global levels must continue to the Nigerian Government, the AU, EU and UN to do all they can to secure the release of Leah and other captives.

    “Other international bodies need to also support the efforts of the Nigerian government.

    “Such negotiations are always done in utmost secrecy or confidentiality, my hope and prayer is that the Government is engaging with the authentic negotiators from the Boko Haram’s side.

    “I believe the government needs to do more now, than ever before to secure Leah’s release.”

    On the declaration by Boko Haram terrorists that Leah and Alice have been converted to their slaves for life, Para-Mallam urged well-meaning Nigerians to collaborate government’s efforts to secure their release.

    “I wish to appeal to well-meaning Nigerians who are open to helping in contributing towards raising funds for the freedom of Leah to take decisive and concrete steps from now.

    “I will always like to maintain in prayer and hope that – may Leah’s release lead to the release of other captives: Christians and Muslims alike.

    “We must not make the mistake of leaving everything to the government. Governments are human although they like to portray themselves as super humans and almost invincible.

    “Governments make mistakes, they engage in missteps and therefore limited in more ways that they care to admit.

    “Bravado talks in complex situations such this yields nothing but empty talk which diminishes the credibility of government.”

    He asked Nigerians not to stop praying for Leah and Alice’s release, stating “Christians and Muslims, at home and in the diaspora should jointly pray for the freedom of Leah, Alice and others currently in captivity.

    “Pointing fingers alone at the government is not enough. Let’s work together. There will always be profiteers in such situations but they can be defeated so that men and women of integrity and work in partnership to see Leah and other captives safely home.”

     

  • Still on Leah

    •She spends birthday in captivity while the government has been silent

    If only one could read the minds of Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Sharibu, the parents of Leah Sharibu, the last of the 110 girls kidnapped from Government Girls Technical Science College, Dapchi, Yobe State, by Boko Haram, that has not been released, two questions will surely be agitating their minds. The first is what could be happening to their daughter in captivity? And the second, when will their lovely daughter return home?  Life has quite naturally not been the same with the distraught parents since the girls were abducted on February 19. And understandably so.

    Poor Leah, who was only about 11 weeks away from her 15th birthday when she was kidnapped, clocked 15 on Monday, May 14. Even if her parents were as poor as the proverbial church rats, she would have opted to at least mark, if not celebrate the day in the comfort of her parents’ home. That is if she had the option of choosing between her present place in captivity and home. We can only imagine what could have been going on in her mind too if she had the presence of mind to remember her birthday on Monday.

    Leah is her parents’ first child and only daughter. So, we should empathise with them with such a priced jewel away from them in the last three months. Their despair was exhibited when the other girls were released in March and Leah was nowhere to be found. Rebecca, the mother fainted when she discovered her daughter was not among those released. With tears in her eyes, she lamented: “…My heart was broken… when I searched through the released girls and could not set my eyes on my dear daughter, Leah”.

    We commend all those who brought her matter to the front-burner of national discourse again, on the occasion of her 15th birthday. They should not relent until Leah and indeed, the remaining Chibok girls are reunited with their parents. In our kind of country where news break by the minute and attention span is short, we need reminders to spur those in authority to action in a matter as serious as this.

    In fairness to the Buhari administration, it has done a lot to bring closure to the Dapchi incident by ensuring the safe release of 104 of the girls. It is just that it cannot be over until it is over. It is sad that five of the abducted girls died in the hands of their captors; if Leah has survived this far, her death in captivity now will be one too many.

    That is why we urge the Federal Government and the military to act fast to ensure the release of this girl who has demonstrated such an uncommon faith, even in the valley of the shadow of death. The only reason she was not released alongside her colleagues was her refusal to renounce Christianity and embrace Islam. For a girl her age, this is ennobling, especially in a country that is suffering from a dearth of principled men and women.

    President Buhari should honour the pledge he made about two months ago that he would “do all he can” to ensure the Sharibus also have cause to rejoice soon. While we understand that due to security implications, the government may not be able to give progress reports on the issue regularly, it should at least keep the parents abreast of some of the steps it is taking to reassure them that government was still doing something to rescue their daughter. The family should not be in the dark like the rest of the world. We should all realise that time is of the essence; the longer the girl stays in captivity, the more vulnerable she is.

    We cannot draw the curtains on the matter until Leah returns home.

  • Gospel according to Leah

    What image does Leah Sharibu conjure in your mind? A young girl in the grips of the fanatic?  A girl innocent, virginal in faith and mind? Or a naïve soul bewitched by her Christ? Or shall we compare her with the suicide bombers her age, except that she does not holla in the name of Allah, or carry her belief without the weaponry of a bomb. She wears no hijab, has no wardrobe to screen her apocalyptic toy and does not need to walk through a market to finish off her infidels.

    So, everyone has their Leah. To some, she is the untutored zealot. To others, she is the fool in wolf’s clothing. For me, Leah Sharibu is the rebirth of the apostolic era. She manifests the purity of faith. She also telegraphs a message to our politics, especially in the age of Oyegun, where we twist betrayal as nuance and celebrate harlotry.

    Her parents may have mused over the fate of the first Leah, the wife of Jacob. Just as the Boko Haram goons hate her, Leah was not the preferred wife but Rachel. But she it was who eventually earned favour. She birthed the line of priests through her son Levi. And later, he gave us Judah, who we trace to David, and Jesus. She bore the seed which was prophesied to Abraham: “By thy seed all the families of the earth will be blessed.” She, who was not comely, suffered but she eventually sired the seed of salvation.

    That was the power of Leah. Maybe the parents thought this. Maybe not. But it is potent that, at age 12, she invokes Jesus at about that age, who rebuked his mother when he was jousting the scholars of his day. Quipped the Lord: “Shall I not go about my father’s business?”

    She is more apostolic than most of the pastors of today. How many of the showy clerics will risk their lives of luxury today under gun-handed duress and insist on Christ? Will they not remember their soaring ecstasies in private jets, the dreamy languor of their palaces, the doting worshippers, their wives’ and children’s wardrobe obsessions in the tony districts of Manhattan, London and Paris? They could easily abandon the austere examples of Paul, Peter, Matthew, et al, and embrace Peter the betrayer rather than Peter the Rock.  The apostles died either by beheading or hanging, a brutal ending. Such apostolic faith highlighted Robert Bolt’s play titled: A Man For All Seasons and celebrated the piety of Thomas More.

    It was an epoch when More stuck to principle when Henry V111 chose romance over God to cut off England from the Church of Rome.

    But our pastors would seek forgiveness later on when they are strapped on their cosy seat in a bombardier headed to an evangelical mission in a Los Angeles suburb. In a bombardier financed by tithes and offerings and maintained at a cost that can pay off the school fees of a thousand poor students stranded at home.

    Leah is the true believer. She may not hold that sort of belief when she is 30, or even 70, but she has given this country an example in principle. A principle executed in innocence. She decided to deny herself, take her cross and follow her conviction. She is not the sort of suicide bombers hoodwinked into suicidal bloodbath. She did not ask for the temptation. She did not ask to be kidnapped. She was an unknown little girl masking her convictions in her anonymous life, when she walked to school, listened to teachers, obeyed her parents, visited the market, worshipped in church, played with friends.

    As The Nation columnist Gabriel Amalu noted in his commentary recently, she disavows the easy morality of her generation who crave the quick fix. She is of the type who would work and earn it. She does not fall into the corrupt class of the ‘yahoo yahoo’ wastrels, who would earn nothing but own everything.

    Today the elders should look at the young girl. A man like John Odigie-Oyegun, Muiz Banire and Governor Akeredolu and other enablers of the perfect stooge, should learn about principle from them. Jesus saw little children like Leah when he exhorted: “Suffer (allow) little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

    When the law says one thing and a selfish interest the other, it is only the spirit of Leah that can prompt a person to stick to what is right. It is the spirit of truth, of inflexible devotion to what is proper and decent, and put at bay the breast of greed and the impulse of tyranny. The APC is in the entrails of its battle for moral identity, and those whom I described last week as the scavengers of power who want to turn law into an excuse for personal elevation are being disgraced in public. The worst of it is that they are showing no shame, an increasing slur of our society. As an African proverb says, “where there is no shame, there is no honour.”

    Governor Akeredolu is now pleading nuance. He forswears ever calling for tenure elongation, only effluxion. That’s a gyration that will make only fools feel giddy. It’s like saying you want it half full but not half empty. If Oyegun and his men remain, is that not elongation by other means? That is not the spirit of Leah, who said it in unambiguous terms. Mr. Governor, we are not deaf. We heard you all along.

    We are still waiting for leah. Those who brokered the freedom of the other Dapchi girls and left out the narrative of Leah Sharibu should know that we want her back in one piece. She is the story of her generation. We want her alive, not a martyr. We want her back, in the embrace of her family, who gave her a great name and she has lived up to its billing. Leah of the Bible was not beautiful but her soul was. That is what we seek when she comes back, we want her to live like the Nobel Prize winner Malala who survived the furnace of her captors.

    We want to see her grow, show examples for her generation, show her human flaws and strength and become a living evolution of moral growth in a flawed society. Martyrs enrich societies but save us the true nature of their humanity. Mandela grew up to an old age, a symbol of strength, principle, and self-control. So was Mother Theresa, whose serenity of vision and activities etched in us the possibility of human tenderness. That is why we want her here, to breathe on us the spirit in her soul.

  • Leah’s absence a blow to our church, says Pastor

    WILD jubilation seized Dapchi on March 21 as Boko Haram insurgents returned 105 of the 110 secondary school girls abducted from the town. The parents of the abducted schoolgirls trooped to the scene in bated anxiety to retrieve their children. Some of them, however, returned home disappointed because their children were not among those returned by the insurgents. Five of them were said to have died in the stampede that attended their abduction, leaving their parents in deep sorrow.

    The scene was also an anti-climax for the parents of one of the schoolgirls named Leah Sharibu, who was said to have been held back by the insurgents because she refused to denounce her Christian faith and profess Islam. Like other parents, Leah’s mother had rushed to the scene to welcome her, only to be told by one of the returnees that the hapless girl was still in the custody of the insurgents.

    But Leah’s absence is not only felt by her parents. Her pastor says she has been sorely missed in her ECWA Church where she had been a very active member, particularly in the choir. Pastor Daniel Auta, who said that hope of Leah’s release was hinged on prayers by the good people in the town, added that the church, made up of about 65 worshippers, was missing Leah’s commitment to the choir, bible studies and youth programmes.

    Auta said: “Leah was an active member of the choir in the church and an active member of all youth programmes in the church. She is very committed to her faith and church activities. She does not joke with her midweek prayers and bible studies.

    “She is a great source of encouragement and inspiration to the choir and the youth in the church. Her absence has even weakened the entire choir as well as affected the morale of the church in Dapchi. But we remain strong, praying for her safe return from the hands of the insurgents.

    “We have been fasting and praying since the day she was abducted, and we will not stop until she returns. As the scriptures say, He that is in Leah is greater than he that is in the world.”

    Auta appealed to the insurgents to embrace the teachings of God and set Leah free, saying that there is no compulsion in religion and no one should be forced to renounce his or her religion in favour of another. “If it is for this reason that the insurgents are holding her, they should release her unconditionally without further delay,” he said.

    Leah’s mother
    Leah’s mother

    Auta expressed disappointment at the pace government is pursuing Leah’s release, saying: “I am personally not satisfied with the efforts so far put in place for the release of our daughter the same way the other girls were released to their parents.

    “They should hasten up. The delay is becoming too long. Something needs to be done fast to secure this girl’s freedom and bring her life back to normal.”

    Leah’s mother, Mrs Rabecca Sharibu, who looked visibly distraught, said: “Leah is everything to me. I am so proud the way I raised her. She is committed to whatever she wants to do.

    “She told me she wanted to go to school and become a nurse in order to save lives. I am calling on the Federal Government and Boko Haram not to allow the dream of my daughter to be cut short. I appeal to those responsible to work out her freedom and bring her back to me.”

    Reliving amid tears how she has been coping with her daughter’s absence since her schoolmates were released, Mrs Sharibu said: “The release of the schoolgirls without my daughter is more painful to me than the first abduction. I thank God for the lives of her friends that have been released. But we cannot stop grieving until our daughter returns, because if we do, we have given up on her.

    “I miss Leah so much. Like I told you before, she is everything to me. Whenever this girl is on vacation, I am also on holiday, because she takes over the house and does everything. The only thing I do when Leah is around is to eat and bathe myself. But every other thing, she takes control.”

    Mrs. Sharibu also informed that Leah’s only brother has been removed from his boarding school in Nguru for fear of losing another child to Boko Haram. Speaking amid sobs, she said: “Right now, I have decided to withdraw her brother from a boarding school in Nguru to avoid a similar experience, because I no longer have confidence in the security of this country.”

    Recalling their last moments together, which coincided with the school’s visiting day the day before Leah was abducted, Mrs Sharibu said: “I took to her some food and chin-chin (snacks). She fetched a little and asked me to keep the rest at home until the next visiting day. That was the last time we met.”

    One other moment that has also struck Mrs Sharibu hard was the last rumour that Boko Haram was bringing Leah back to Dapchi. According to her, she hasn’t found sleep since that news turned out to be false.

    “They forced people to go into their homes because they were bringing Leah back. We were so happy and very expectant, awaiting the return of Leah. I was prepared to receive her, but it turned out to be lies. I became so unhappy, and since then I cannot sleep,” she lamented.

    Father’s Leah, Mr Sharibu Nathaniel, said the good spirit of Leah will prevail, just as he remains optimistic that his daughter will be released.

    He said: “I am sure my daughter will overcome her trials. I believe that God is preparing her for some exploit and she will sure manifest. She is a child of God and the God she serves will never let her down the same way Shedrack, Meshach and Abdenego were saved from fire and Daniel from the lion’s den, so will the story of my daughter be.”

    He, however, called on the Federal Government to play its part in securing the freedom of his daughter from insurgents.

    “Leah is a good child that any parent would be proud of,” he added.

    Mr. Sharibu remained grateful to Dapchi community for standing by him and his family at this trying time. “I am grateful to Dapchi people who have continued to stand with me on this.

    “They have been treating me like their own. I came to this town single and got married here. I appreciate their effort and ask for more support to ensure that my daughter returns to us safely,” he said.

  • Leah’s stand

    Leah Sharibu is only 15 years old. Hers is the age of adolescence, commonly characterized as years of youthful exuberance and experiments with life. While there are differences between cultures, there are some commonalities in adolescent development and it is here that Leah’s stand is remarkable.

    Experts explain some early adolescent behaviors such as an excessive focus on pleasure and reward in terms of the neuro-developmental changes going on in a region of their brains, specifically the limbic system. On the other hand, in later years of adolescence, due to changes in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, adolescents are capable of making autonomous decisions and of controlling their impulsive behaviors. Needless to add, due to individual differences, and socio-cultural influences, some are able to reach these later years early. The stand taken by Leah at 15, when she is still in the middle of adolescence, is an excellent illustration of this observation.

    Leah took a stand for her faith. She stood by the commitment she made to her God. Many adults, in different social, cultural, religious, and political contexts have taken similar stands. From Moses, the Law-giver, in the court of Pharaoh, to Daniel in the lion’s den, to the three Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, and Joan of Arc on the stake, the test of faith has been met with courage. And it is now not a far-fetched tale from mythical lands. With its beheading of pastors and laymen who refused to renounce their faith, Boko Haram has indigenized martyrdom in our corner of the globe.

    While applauding her commitment, we must pray and demand that Leah is not forced to premature martyrdom.

    On Monday, February 19, 2018, satanic criminal agents with nothing but evil intent broke into the world of young school girls at Dapchi, violently abducted 110 and carted them away like chicken in a cage. In the process, five were trampled upon and killed and callously buried by the roadside without prayers. Think about this. The so-called zealots for God did not even consider it necessary to give the innocent human beings that they killed a decent burial as the religion they profess demands.

    The survivors were driven into the bush and imprisoned in a hut for as long as it took the terrorists to negotiate with the government. Three, including Leah, attempted to escape. As they wandered around in the bush after losing their way, they came across some adults from whom they asked for direction to Dapchi, having apprised them of their predicament.

    But, as some of the returnees have now confirmed, instead of giving the lost girls direction to Dapchi, those adults chose to lead the girls back to their abductors. Think about this. These innocent girls have had terrible life-changing experiences with two groups of adults in the course of a month.  At the least, with adults such as these, our cultural bias toward elevating adult reasoning above adolescent judgement, painting all adolescents with one brush of immaturity, is undoubtedly called into question.

    Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, so the apostle Paul teaches us. But how is it possible for a young 15-year-old girl from rural Dapchi to choose faith and commitment over pleasure and comfort? As far as we know, if she denied her God she would now be with her parents, siblings, and friends. What motivates her?  For this we must look beyond religion and spirituality. We must identify the foundation of Leah’s faith and commitment in her ability to choose right over wrong and stick to it.

    It is the ability to choose right over wrong that dictates for Leah the commitment to the faith in the Christian God whom she had confessed and believed prior to her abduction. It is that ability that rejects inconsistency and flip flopping even in the face of persecution. Having accepted Christ as her personal savior, Leah had closed her eyes to all manners of pleasure and comfort that might come with the denial and betrayal of her savior. Sticking to that position is a moral commitment. It comes with moral maturity, a rarity for girls or boys her age.

    It is also true, unfortunately, that living by a moral code from which one does not digress is an achievement that eludes many adults from peasants to oligarchs, from subjects to monarchs, and from citizens to presidents.

    It the first place, many adults are not able to reach the stage of choosing their own moral code because while they are biological adults, they are psychological adolescents, still locating themselves in the matrix of social life. These are individuals who experience an extended period of adolescence. You see them in the corridors of power. They adorn themselves with the most expensive outfits. But they carry around empty brains and they have little or no shame. They get themselves elected to offices through all manner of tricks including the most immoral. But they have nothing to contribute to the good of the nation. That we have a system that fails its citizens is not a surprise.

    Secondly, many adults who are capable of choosing and living by a moral code end up being tossed up and down, back and forth in the voyage of life, because they are not fully anchored to the port of morality. Like the proverbial seeds that fell among the thorns, which sprung up and choked them, it takes only a little effort on the part of the tempter and deceiver to entice them with allure of wealth and fame. Intellectually endowed but morally bankrupt, these human characters are the most dangerous because they use their brains for the perpetuation of evil.

    From pastors who exploit their congregation economically and sexually assault their members, to politicians who corruptly enrich themselves at the nation’s expense, we have examples of morally immature adolescents in the dusk of life. Leah’s stand puts them to shame. If they enjoy the munificence available to them and they still cannot cage their greed they are morally inferior to Leah who despite imminent danger to her life sticks to her moral gut.

    To Leah, therefore, we owe an obligation of gratitude for teaching us adults what it means to be human, which is to take a stand even in the face of unthinkable danger, to be known and recognized for act of commitment to a good cause, and to defend our humanity against the threat of beasts in human clothing. And for this obligation of gratitude to be fully discharged, we owe her a second obligation.

    Leah did not choose to be abducted. She did not have a suicidal motivation. She wanted to live and learn and grow to respectable adulthood. She and her schoolmates were dutifully discharging the duty of childhood that adults imposed on them–to get education and become useful members of society. She is not into cults. She is not into drugs. She is just a boarding school student struggling to succeed.

    As her fellow-citizens, it is our obligation to pray for her return and to collectively resolve to defeat the criminal elements that abducted and keeps her against her will and interest. No matter what our religion or political persuasion, we are human beings and fellow citizens. We must collectively raise our voices and commit to the fight against terrorism until it is completely defeated.

    On their part, our governments at state and federal level have the responsibility of securing citizens and preventing the recurrence of this kind of unfortunate incident, which only weakens the confidence of citizens in the ability of their government to secure them. Our children are naturally on the edge in their schools wondering if it is going to be their turn. We are wasting away a whole generation of citizens. Therefore, government must do its utmost part for the release of Leah and reassure her peers.

    Finally, it seems clear that the abductors are pushing for a religious war. Criminally keeping Leah because she refuses to convert to Islam is a serious provocation. They must be denied their wish.

     

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  • Bring back Leah

    She should not be left to suffer because of her faith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • How abducted Dapchi girl, Leah, failed in escape bid

    •Sends present to mom

    LEAH Sharibu, the only Dapchi schoolgirl left in Boko Haram captivity, is said to have made an attempt to escape from the camp of her captors.

    The bid however failed and was returned to the terrorists three days after by those who found her in the bush, according to The Guardian of London quoting her fellow captives.

    Leah, the only Christian among the 110 abductees, remains in captivity because she refused to renounce her Christian faith.

    Her mates also said she was emotionally strong enough to send her mother a present as a remembrance.

    The present is the jerry can she and her friends were given milk in by the man who thwarted their escape.

    The girls have not had time to give it to her mother yet, the Guardian reported.

    The Dapchi girls speaking in their first face-to-face interview since they were returned to their families related what they went through in captivity.

    Aisha Ibiwa said Leah and two others were involved in the escape bid.

    She said: “She didn’t tell us she was leaving. We thought she was just going round the corner, but she sneaked out along with Maryam and Amira [two classmates].”

    After wandering about for three days in the bush, the three hungry and exhausted girls met a nomadic Fulani family from whom they sought help on how to return to Dapchi.

    It turned out to be a big mistake on their part for the Fulani, rather than assisting them took them straight back to their kidnappers.

    “The Fulani man said to them: ‘So you are the missing girls that we’ve heard about on the radio,’” Hajara Adamu said.

    He gave them a jerry can filled with cow’s milk and returned them to the terrorists.

    “Leah and her group weren’t flogged. They [Boko Haram] said it was because they had suffered a lot while trying to escape.”

    Hajara herself also attempted to escape.

    When she was found, the terrorists were furious and whipped and frogmarched her back to the camp with a gun at her back.

    She was given out by some local women she had asked for directions.

    Hajara said they were insulted and told “we wanted to go back to the land of unbelievers.”

    Painting a graphic picture of their journey into the den of the terrorists which claimed the lives of five of them, Fatima Abdullahi said: “They (the victims) were saying: ‘Pull us up or we’ll die,’ but I couldn’t help them.

    “They just threw us all into the vehicle, that’s why we were piled up like that. I was lucky that someone pulled me up.”

    The girls shouted that some of them were dying, but by the time their kidnappers paid attention, five were dead. They kept driving through the night.

    “In the early morning, they dug a hole and put their bodies in it. They didn’t give them an Islamic burial, and they didn’t pray,” Hajara said.

    When they eventually got to a village – Tumbu Gini  – near the Lake Chad, the girls were left with only two guards watching aircraft circle overhead.

    Every week, a tall, dark-skinned, youngish man with a long beard whom the girls only knew as “the Khalifa” would come around to see them and preach to them.

    The “Khalifa’, reportedly reassured them that they would not stay in captivity for long.

    They quoted him as saying: “We don’t have any issue with you – our issue is with the government.

    “They’ve taken our men. Don’t worry, you’ll all go home soon.”

     

  • Leah as new symbolism

    Imagine lips curled to rail but forced to hail.  To mock but forced to praise. To condemn but forced to commend?

    Then think Leah!  How does that golden name even tumble out of corrupted mouths?

    Leah Sharibu’s heroism is now globally known.  Not perhaps since the world woke up to the bravery of Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who faced the spiteful, murderous and vile bully tactics of the Pakistani Taliban, but triumphed to tell her glorious story, has another global heroine secured her place.

    It’s the 21st century global shame of Islamists giving Islam a bad name, going on a killing and kidnapping binge, to press their fundamentalist lunacy.  But Allah Himself would not be deceived.

    Proof?  Well, Malala survived; and is alive and well, serving as glorious ambassador against murderous fundamentalism, when the evil Taliban thought they had dispersed her to the great beyond.

    And Leah is living too.  The God that prompted her to press her Christian faith, in the face of extreme danger, and the Allah that prevailed on Boko Haram to release her other mates, will yet unite to ensure Leah’s eventual release.

    After all, shorn of partisan Christian or Muslim faiths, isn’t God and Allah the same Supreme Deity of monotheism, that even the Yoruba, in their traditional worship, call Olodumare, the supreme Lord of heaven?  By God, Leah would be fine!

    But what of the Taliban in thought, and Boko Haram in spiteful opinions; fundamentalist cynics, who saw Leah and co, as yet another God-given gravy to belch  and to rail; to strafe and to mock, in a fit  of hypocritical spite?  It’s a classical tweak of perverse bliss as deep sadness!

    Well, that fundamentalist camp isn’t fine at all — and is not likely to, for a long time to come, while fishing for more tragedies to make hay, in their blame game.

    Since the release of the Dapchi girls, you could tell the painful bliss of that camp, now forced to make Leah, the sole Christian girl still in Boko Haram captivity, the new symbol of their happy sadness.

    Many spin her odyssey in baleful Christian-Islamic Armageddon.  They forget these murderous Islamists only slander their faith.

    Others condemn themselves to delayed celebration — or no celebration at all.  But does that change the thrill of the Dapchi parents, in sheer bliss to have their kids back?

    To others, it’s a cynical resort to the Biblical parable of the lost ship.  The returned Dapchi 110 are nothing.  What matters is the non-return of one, and Muhammadu Buhari is to blame!  Haba!

    As God lives, Leah would be fine and reunite with her parents.  But people should cultivate the habit of blaming or praising when due.  Any other alternative is a Taliban or Boko Haram mentality, that scours the horizon for cynical blame, as a junkie craves periodic fixes.

    Besides, a people deserves a responsive government; which just as well thrives with a reasonable people.  That interplay is how good governance rolls.

    Blame, for blame’s sake, Talibanizes the  common psyche.  That is nothing but a triumph of Boko Haram thinking!

     

  • Dapchi: Waiting for Leah

    It was a most practical and certainly welcome act of restitution. Rampaging militants, who had seized some students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, swept back into the town last Wednesday, freeing their hostages following negotiations with the Federal Government.

    The militants, suspected to be from a faction of Boko Haram, returned to Dapchi in the same storm raider fashion they struck in February, trucking their hostages back to freedom. Reports said they came in a convoy of about nine vehicles and dropped the schoolgirls off into the custody of harried parents, having beforehand indicated they would rather not release them to security forces. Of the 110 schoolgirls seized from their hostels 30 days earlier, the militants released 104 captives along with two others said not to be of the GGSTC stock.

    It seems fairly obvious, sadly, that five of the Dapchi schoolgirls will never be returning, having died in an overcrowded truck en route to captivity on the day they were abducted. “Five of us could not make it, as they were confirmed dead on arrival at the hideout due to suffocation in the vehicle that conveyed their batch,” one of the freed schoolgirls was reported telling the press.

    The militants waltzed into Dapchi unchallenged last week because the Muhammadu Buhari administration directed security forces to hold fire as part of the hostage release deal. A security source was reported in the media saying: “Boko Haram militants drove into Dapchi, dropped off the girls in the heart of the town and went back with no shot fired at them. We were asked to leave our camp, which is the route that Boko Haram followed to drop off the girls.”

    Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed confirmed the ceasefire deal, saying the militants let go the schoolgirls with no precondition attached other than that they would deliver the girls directly to Dapchi. Even though many have voiced doubts that the liberty granted the schoolgirls by Boko Haram was for free, the minister insisted no ransom was paid. “The girls were released unconditionally, no money changed hands. They (militants) only gave us one condition: that they will return (the girls) to where they were picked. So in the early hours of (Wednesday), they did return the girls and most of them went to their parents’ homes,” he said.

    And in a subsequent interaction with journalists, the minister told them: “Once violence and confrontation were ruled out and negotiation started, there was a deliberate pause on the part of the military. In other words, it was agreed that there would be no force; there would be no confrontation. That was why it was possible for them to drop the girls. It was part of the agreement that, ‘We will release the girls, there will be no violence nor confrontation.’ And don’t forget that the lives of these children are much more important to us than any cheap victory.”

    I hold that the Buhari administration was in order giving the insurgents right of way to drop off the Dapchi schoolgirls to freedom. For all practical intents, the end should justify the means. We have the Dapchi schoolgirls – well, most of them – back from the Boko Haramists, and that is what matters. The catch, though, is that the claim by principals of this administration that Boko Haram has been defeated and that it only picks on soft targets in its death throes rings too hollow now and should no longer be touted. People who swooped on a town with some security presence and harvested schoolgirls into captivity unchecked, and thereafter appropriated free passage to return with the girls like folk heroes and fade back into the shadows do not look anywhere near being defeated.

    It is nonetheless hugely gratifying that the Dapchi girls are back. The prevailing mood among Nigerians since they were freed has been euphoric; and that is so infectiously so that some parents from Chibok community in Borno State, which yet has more than 100 of its own schoolgirls remaining in Boko Haram captivity since April 2014, stormed Dapchi last week to share in their joy.

    Only that this also happens to be an election year and partisans, predictably so, would spare no quarter wringing political juice out of every pore. And so, whereas the Buhari administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have basked in the achievement of retrieving the Dapchi girls from insurgents’ captivity – never mind that they ought not to have gotten there in the first place, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under whose Goodluck Jonathan administration dawdled over the Chibok debacle has been shrill alleging sheer orchestration of the Dapchi saga for political gain.

    Indications from the militants’ stated motive do not bear out either stance, though. Multiple sources in Dapchi cited the Boko Haramists saying they acted on religious sentiments and free of external influence. One eye witness of the militants’ return to the community last Wednesday was quoted in the media saying: “The insurgents were very friendly as they told residents that they had to return the girls and reunite them with their parents, having realised that 99 percent of them are Muslims and most were fasting on the day of the attack. One of the insurgents said they thought majority of the girls were infidels, hence the attack; but they later regretted their actions, and had no option than return them without collecting a dime from any government.”

    It is arguable still that the Buhari administration takes some credit for the negotiations and enabling environment that brought back the Dapchi schoolgirls. Actually, some officials of government have somewhat advanced the argument. In her exhilaration on the day that the girls were freed, Foreign Affairs Minister of State Khadijat Bukar Abba, who herself hails from Yobe State, told journalists: “I am very excited today…We are very happy we have achieved what we had gone out to achieve, and we thank the Almighty God for His mercies.”

    Also speaking with journalists, Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali, who barely a week earlier predicted imminent release of the Dapchi girls, savoured the fulfillment of his prediction. “I (did say) in two weeks, two months or less, we are going to get the girls released and this has happened…This is as result of the efforts of Mr. President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for the support he has been giving us, and the output is showing now,” he said.

    Since most Nigerians, even those outside of government, are thrilled with the Dapchi girls’ return, no one can in good conscience begrudge the Buhari administration its relish of the incident. But the savor sucks without Leah Sharibu, the only Dapchi girl yet remaining in Boko Haram captivity.

    Leah is the only Christian among the seized Dapchi girls and, at 16 years, she is a heroine of faith, having rebuffed a demand by her captors to convert to Islam before regaining her freedom. Leah’s father, Nata Sharibu, said on radio last week that the insurgents decided not to release his daughter because she refused to convert. “All the others were released, but they would not release her because she is a Christian…I am very sad, but I am jubilating too because my daughter did not denounce Christ,” he explained.

    It was bad enough that Leah was taken into insurgents’ captivity alongside a throng of her schoolmates; it boggles the mind to contemplate how she must be feeling now that she remains alone in captivity. The Dapchi schoolgirls’ release is utterly inconclusive and any celebration premature on the part of government until Leah Sharibu is brought back.

     

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