Unlike in the past, Madam Martha, one of the parents of the abducted
Chibok girls wasn’t in the mood to exchange pleasantries with Sunday Sun
reporter who called her on phone mid week. “Will you people allow me
mourn my tragic fate?” she screamed from the other end before she hung
up the line.
This encounter underscores the angst of many of the
parents of the Chibok schoolgirls especially as this weekend marks
exactly 1000 days after Boko Haram abducted their daughters.
Chibok, a
lively community in the southern part of Borno was relatively unknown
until April 14, 2014, when Boko Haram struck at the Girls Secondary
School, a boarding school in the community in the night and kidnapped
about 270 girls from their dormitory. About 56 of the girls were able to
escape from the abductors days after the incident occurred, but others
were whisked away through the thick vegetation of southern Borno to the
insurgents’ camp in the dreaded Sambisa forest. The abduction attracted
international outrage, leading to the formation of #BringBackOurGirls
campaign to press on the federal government to intensify efforts at
rescuing the girls.
Since then, Chibok and its people have been in mourning and anxiety while few of the parents died in the process.
Midday joy
The
rescue of Amina Nkeki, one of the abductees by the military in
collaboration with Civilian JTF on May 20, 2016 and release of 21 others
in October, 2016, rekindled hope that many of the girls may still
return home someday, especially with revelations from those recently
freed that many of the girls were in the vast Sambisa bush, Boko Haram’s
major operational base before it fell recently. “It was like a mid day
joy,” Maina Chibok, uncle to one of the kidnapped girls, told Sunday
Sun.
He said many of the parents and relations had hoped the rescue
effort would continue in same manner particularly when they learnt that
the military was conducting a crackdown on the insurgents’ camp mid
December.
But with the military announcement that it had captured
camp zero, the supposed heartland of Boko Haram’s camp in the forest,
without discovering the remaining Chibok girls, many of the parents and
relations are now worried and troubled.
“The revelation that the
military captured Sambisa without our daughters being found only dashed
our hope,” said Lucky Maina, a cousin to one of the abducted girls. “We
go to bed each day in pain,” he added, noting that “each day was a long
lonely day,” for them.
Stick and Carrot approach needed
Some
parents are unsure their daughters are still alive, said Dr Manasseh
Allen, leader of a Chibok youth group that first started campaigns for
the rescue of the girls. “Nobody can feel the pains and anguish of our
family members whose daughters have not been found. It is something that
one can’t imagine,” he said, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to keep
his promise.
“President Buhari promised during his inaugural ceremony
on May 29, 2015, that he would rescue all the abducted Chibok girls. It
is now 1000 days and almost two years in office, the president should
keep his promise,” he stated.
He said the community would not keep
quiet until the girls are rescued alive. “We had always thought and
believed the girls were in Sambisa forest but now that the military said
they couldn’t find the girls there, having captured the place, how then
did the remaining 196 girls escape from Sambisa forest?” he asked
rhetorically.
He also recalled a statement credited to the Minister
of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said last year that the move to
secure the release of another batch of the girls after the first 21
girls, was in process. “The Minister of Information said about 82 or so
of the girls would be released but we haven’t heard anything since
then.”
He urged the government to intensify its carrot and stick
approach to secure the release of the remaining girls and bring succour
to the parents. He accused some political leaders in Chibok of using the
travail of the abducted girls and their parents for political gains.
“It
is sad and regrettable that the same people who are accusing people of
politicizing the Chibok girls issue are themselves guilty of same
accusation,” he said.
Hope not lost
Prof Auwa Biu who heads
the Borno State Outreach of the BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, the
group leading campaigns for rescue of Chibok girls since 2015 said all
hope is not lost.
“We still have confidence that the rest of the
schoolgirls will be found. They must have escaped somewhere, we are
still hoping and we will continue to pray for the remaining ones,” she
said.
She noted that the video shown by the military during the
Operation Lafiya Dole’s recent media briefing indicated that “the troops
were careful in bombing targets at Sambisa, where we had assumed the
girls were kept. So, we believe they are still alive somewhere.
