Two years ago, the rustic innocence of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State was shattered by rampaging Boko Haram terrorists, who had one deadly mission: to kidnap as many students as possible.
Heavily armed terrorists, riding on motorcycles and trucks, burst into the school in the dead of the night and kidnapped hundreds of students.
The heartless invaders also proceeded to burn down the school before leaving with the children who were roused from sleep. The invaders took advantage of the fact that the pupils were in the middle of West African School Certificate examinations and that the school was filled with pupils.
Curiously, there was no security presence around the school to counter the offensive, resulting in one of Nigeria’s most embarrassing incidents. Though news of the kidnap broke on social media within a few hours, the political and security authorities of the country failed to act decisively.
Despite assurances by the military high command that they were on the trail of the kidnappers and would rescue the girls. high hopes about the rescue began to dim when President Goodluck Jonathan failed to act decisively, despite credible evidence that some of the girls escaped. Eventually, no fewer than 216 girls were identified as having been kidnapped.
The incident sparked off a global campaign championed by world figures such as the United States first lady, Michelle Obama. A hashtag #bringbackourgirls also circulated globally while a movement soon developed around the issue.
That was how the Bring Back Our Girls movement was born. The movement championed by civil rights activist, Hadiza Usman, and former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has since held protest marches and sitouts in Lagos and Abuja to sustain global attention on the issue.
Their attempts to meet with Jonathan were rebuffed by security agents. Though some ministers and senior Jonathan administration officials addressed them during one of the protest marches, it was to the bewilderment of Nigerians that statements from some of them virtually dismissed the incident as non-existent.
The parents of the girls have not been left out of the campaigns for their release, calling out regularly for global attention to the unresolved issue. Boko Haram at different times used the girls as pawns in their pretentious attempts to negotiate their release.
Infact, the former leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, had in a video displayed some of the girls at an undisclosed location and threatened to sell them off. Also, there have been reported attempts by government to negotiate with elements within the group for the girls’ release but these have not yielded fruit.
Given the failure of the Jonathan administration to rescue the girls, it was with high hopes that Nigerians welcomed President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration day to ensure the quick release of the girls.
Though he met with parents of then girls and BBOG, his inability to return the 216 children is a major blot on his administration’s first year record. Recently, a teenage girl captured by Cameroonian forces claimed she was one of the Chibok girls. She was eventually discovered to have been kidnapped from Bama, another town in Borno State.
Since the girls were shown in Shekau’s video, there have been reported sightings of the hostages in different places, including Sambisa forest and Southern Libya. Some media reports have also indicated that the girls have been used as sex slaves or suicide bombers. An international coalition that was raised by the US and Britain reported sighting the girls in 2014 but failed to act because there was no request from Abuja.
There are a number of lessons to learn from the saga. The key one is the poor attitude of Nigerian leaders to the safety and security of citizens. The tokenism with which ex-President Jonathan treated the matter gave his administration out as uncaring and unmoved by the incident. It was made worse by the fact that teenage girls were involved.
Nigeria failed these innocents in their hour of need. Reports suggested that many of the girls would have been rescued if there was a determined pursuit of the terrorists. Second, that ex-President Jonathan chose to fly from Abuja to Kano for a campaign rally hours after the incident demonstrated a gross disdain for citizens of his own country.
Third, the many attempts by Nigerian government officials and political sympathisers to water down the incident apparently emboldened the terrorists to continue to kidnap more people from other communities. It is noteworthy that the issue has not disappeared from global consciousness. The countdown has remained consistent.
It is hoped that someday, the clock will tick to the hour when the Chibok girls finally return to their families and the sad episode is brought to a closure.