As a parent that could imagine the agony the parents of the over 250 schoolgirls went through after they were taken from their school in 2014, I feel so happy that a large chunk of the girls have been set free by whoever.
As a normal human being, it’s news of joy that they came back and most of all, many of them looking healthy and well cared for. But I have to point out that they did not need such coerced care by anybody outside their parents this long, this agonising.
It is also my fervent wish that I wake up soon to hear that the remaining girls are back to their parents safe and alive.
Then, as a very normal human being, the Chibok girls’ release has started making some dramatic sense regarding the abduction itself. And I can’t help but ask – who actually kidnapped the Chibok schoolgirls? Was it Boko Haram, was it politics of opposition, was it religious bigotry powered by politics. Was it gang-up against President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure he left office as quasi Nigerian to enable President Buhari, a real Nigerian, to take over power? What role did Borno Governor Kashim Shettima play? Why didn’t he find any reason to defend himself when Jonathan government accused him of complicity for ignoring the security alert to him not to allow the school conduct WAEC exams due to the tensed nature of the area? Why? Why? Many whats, many hows, and not a single answer.
When the incident broke, the northern Nigeria Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) issued a statement signed by the secretary and publicity secretary that pointedly accused Shettima and raised some number of issues to make good their argument and some of them were: “After all, they were preparing for exams and may have submitted their photographs. Where were the daughters of the principal, vice-principal and chief security officer when the abduction took place?” CAN asked… CAN also expressed concern over the state government decision to deliberately ignore several warnings by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that Chibok was not secure for the conduct of examinations. Proffering a solution to the current nightmare, CAN said the governor and government of Borno State should and must, as a matter of urgency, stop playing politics with the lives of the children of other people, adding “They should produce those children without delay because they know their whereabouts.”
With the whole rage accusing someone of compromise in the abduction of the citizens he swore on oath to protect, not a word was heard from Shettima, a very ungolden silence. I went the entire length and breadth of the www and could not get a word of defence from him on this grave and grievous allegation.
When an earlier batch of the girls were released, some were taken to the US where they got rehabilitation and scholarships. But one of them made statement that became popular in the world media that after they were taken from their school, they were kept in a home said to belong to a politician in Maiduguri for some months and later taken away to the supposed Sambisa Forest.
While they were there, why was the abducting force so callous to relent in the bid until the intention of winning election is achieved? Why also was Jonathan administration so lax that it would not get a word on the games played with these girls with all the intelligence apparati of the state? Was Jonathan administration unpardonably weak to watch anybody for whatever motive mess it around to the extent they did?
Even now that the girls are released in batches, some of us start to see reason the famous cliché of NA ONLY YOU WAKA COME was very apt as these persons indicted in the abduction deliberately refused to heed the call of then First Lady to explain what they knew.
And with the interest the abduction generated, why is the government of Nigeria in today’s world so jittery and averse to allowing these girls talk to the press after their release? Why? What is it they are afraid the girls might divulge what would unravel the secrets? Why did the release of these 82 happen now after the image and goodwill of the present administration had been thoroughly deflated through the hardship it has unleashed on Nigeria in the past two years? Why did it coincide with the two years anniversary of the administration? What is the politics of this release and do we expect that at the third year of the administration many of the remaining girls would also be released and when the campaign for return to power heats up the rest would be set free?
Now, ask again. We were told that Boko Haram had been terribly and mercilessly depleted, the resources and stronghold cut short, the territories taken and Sambisa Forest captured and overran as many times as you would recall and yet no news of Boko Haram recapture of the forest for once. With this scenario, how did the BH muster such resource to hold in captivity these ladies for three years now and take good care of them that they look so home-made? What exactly happened to the girls and who is that force that picks the bill to take care of them this long?
However, no matter how hard anybody tries to conceal and cover the facts from the public, it would blow open one day and we will know what really happened and why those helpless and hapless Christian girls of Borno were used for this experiment.
With the way these girls were released, that means all of them have been quartered somewhere together for years, and with further politics of whatever shade some day in the future, the doors holding them in would be thrown open for some to be brought out and brandished as trophy of Nigeria’s government.
If tomorrow comes and we have all the girls back, we will be happy because of their lives, but will never forgive the people in the conspiracy of that abduction because it’s beyond the Chibok girls but about all of us the helpless people that find ourselves in this country where they treat us as outcasts and neglects. The fear that is real in my mind is that one day, any of the unwanted races and wrecks would be targeted, herded away for whatever reason and when the intention is achieved, whoever is lucky might return alive. The trauma the victims go through is no business of the abductors.
And that brings the reality closer home that Nigeria operates a mafia system that deploys all manner of antics to get what it wants and sacrifices people for power and interest. As it continues as tradition, none is spared because while the predator preys on his prey, he also makes himself prey of another predator.
Those who sow hate with time get so entrenched in it that they forget how to love and who to hate and at that point the gains of the hate as we experience today becomes what I reason as not like the direction of flow of a river. It is only a river that flows in just one direction, the consequences of evil don’t. They flow in all directions and everybody is ready victim, even our own blood.
Tomorrow, it would be other victims and the victimizer is never exempted.