The Girls of Chibok By Aniedobe
Latest blog entries - Eloti tV
The Girls of Chibok By Aniedobe
Within 24 hours after Nyanya Motor Park became a theatre of body parts strewn many feet away from the epicenter of a bomb-loaded bus, Nigeria treated the world to yet another gruesome theatre of violence. This time, on April 15, 2014, over 200 girls were abducted from their all girls’ school in Chibok, Bornu State, and driven by lorry into the jungles of Sambisa forest,presumably by Boko Haram a dreaded terror group, which has declared a war against Western Education, before the eyes of a stupefied world.
This is a story that has to end well that won’t end well and however it ends, will become a symbol for a Nigeria in a post modern age that is stuck in the middle ages. It is a story that captures everything bad about Nigeria and paints a graphic of a helpless Nation, serially served by terror, by a terror group that has abandoned any human conscience until the country became numb to violence. This is Nigeria’s new story, plot’s thickening with mind bending boldness, gripping, bloody, ruthless, and whose end, however it is written, will leave a deeply scarred Nation in its wake.
At Chibok, young girls were first stripped of their humanity, and driven, as Nigeria watched into a forest where every bit of their human dignity will be peeled off until disrobed of everything that makes them human. They will be forced to submit to terrorists as sex bounties or else die not by a well placed bullet designed to produce dignified death, but by submission to the cruel edges of a curved knife originally intended to be used only on cattles and goats.
No doubt, in the forest of Sambisa are heroic girls – girls who have elected death to sexual indignities and have no doubt been beheaded. In there are girls who have submitted and are hoping that their nightmare will end in a successful rescue effort. In there are girls so stricken by terror that they are unwilling to neither die nor live. This is the story that is playing itself out while Nigerians sleep and the rest of the world holds her breath.
If Nigeria were not numb to violence, how does Nigeria; how do our leaders; how does the Inspector General of Police; how do our Journalist; how does the Speaker of the House of Assembly; how does the Senate President; how do the Service Chiefs; how does Governor Shettima; how does any responsible adult in Nigeria go to bed and sleep when the Chibok girls lie awake in terror; many of whom, no matter how this ordeal ends, may never sleep again.
How do our leaders not wake up in the middle of the night, shuddering to think what has become of those girls and whether some have become impregnated by terrorists?
As the world watches, Nigerians go by their daily business. Motor park touts are still making brisk business. Politicians are still collecting from inflated contracts. Prayer contractors are still smiling to the banks with their tithes. Politicians are still hoarding cash ahead of 2015. Oil marketers are still carting away billions of Naira. Directors in the Civil Service are still collecting gratuities to shuffle papers along. The Mosques will be full on Friday and the Churches will over flow with patrons on Sunday. Nigerians will beseech Allah as usual, begging God in the name of Christ or Mohammed to give them electricity, cash in excess of what they need, and make their relatives win political offices so that they too will corral their own entitlement from the national cake.
We are a nation caught between crass violence and crass corruption. In a country that has not abandoned its conscience, Press men and women would go about making uncomfortable people whose comfort are not disturbed by the tradedy of the Chibok girls. “Mr. President, exactly how many girls are in custody?” “Mr. Chief of Army Staff, do you have enough personnel to arrest the situation?” “Mr. Inspector General of Police, have you made any arrests?” “Mr. Inspector General of Police, do you have plans to infiltrate their camp?” “Mr. Governor, can you assure the world that other schools in your State are safe?” “Mr. President, shouldn’t you head to Sambisa to direct the war against the terrorists?” “Mr. Senate President, what has the Senate done to ensure that this type of thing does not happen again?” “Mr. Speaker, is their any reason why the House has not expressed any solidarity with those girls?” “Mr. National Conference Chairman, can Nigeria stay united in the face of terror?”
“Mr. Presidential Candidate, what is this President doing about terror that you will do differently?” “Mr. Parent, congratulations on being lucky to have your child escape, what are your feelings about this matter?” “Mr. Iman, what do you think is happening to the girls right now and do you have a message for the terrorists?” “Mr. Controller General of Immigration, what are you doing to secure our border from foreign grown terrorists?” “Mr. President, how would you feel if those girls were your kids?” “Mr. President, can you assure the world that Nigerians schools are safe?” “Mr. President, do you have any foreign technological assistance, and if not, why not?” “Mr. Army Chief of Staff, are you using dogs, infrared surveillance technology, night vision goggles?” “Mr. Army Chief of Staff, have you narrowed the camp within one square mile, and if not, why not?” “Mr. Director General of SSS, after four years of terror, are you any where close to figuring out who is behind them? If not, why not?”
“Mr. Governor, how long have you known that Sambisa Forest is a terrorist stronghold and what have you done to deny them the use of that forest?”
This is how a Nation with conscience goes about her business. It takes committed citizenry; it takes committed leadership; it takes vision and courage; it takes religious leaders and lay leaders; it takes retired and active Military Officers; it takes every man, woman, and child in Nigeria to send a message to the terrorists that however long it takes, that this is a war whose outcome is certain - that Nigeria has decided to rise from the ashes of her divided past and forge ahead as one country and that after one hundred years, no terror can separate us and no violent politics can kill our will.
That is how you fight and win the war against terrorism. Chibok is not a Northeast affair; it is a Nigerian tragedy that should concern every Nigerian from the creeks of Opobo, to the plantain farms of Shagamu, to the groundnut fields of Sokoto. It is a global tragedy of bare faced terror of the worst kind mixed with child abuse rolled into one by a Nation not afraid to mix politics and violence. It is a story whose end was scripted as the truck sped into the forest – the girls would either live as sex trophies or die if they dared refuse and whose rescue depended more on divine intervention than carefully calculated effort at rescue by politicians unwilling to risk their electoral chances for the unlucky girls of Chibok.
Some are of the view that the only chance to save the girls is to negotiate with the terrorists. Negotiation is a give and take between two reasonable parties. Like their counterparts around the world, these terrorists believe that girls should not go to school and that women should only live to amuse men inclined to as many as seventy two virgins. Is this a negotiation Nigeria wants to make? Some believe that anything to make the terrorists release the Chibok girls should be done, including amnesty from prosecution, a separate Islamic Republic, and shut down of all schools in the North where Western Education is taught. Is this a negotiation Nigeria wants to make?
Nothing should be off the table, including negotiations, if the terrorists are inclined to offer terms that Nigerians can live by. The whole point of this article is that Nigerians and our leadership are not engaged enough in this crisis. We seem to be waiting for yet another chapter in these serial tragedies to overshadow the Chibok story so that the world will shift its focus.
We need Nigerian leadership to spare no resources until we stand down the terrorists in Sambisa. Anything short of that is a further disservice to these young girls who forever will be a symbol of a Nation that failed them and fails many of her citizens who wake up everyday wondering where the next bloody carnage will happen.
Mr. President, the world wants the Chibok girls out; their parents want them; concerned Nigerians are not sleeping until those girls come out; and for those little kids – their sun should not set until they hear signs of a rumble, army air crafts hovering over head, army dogs barking, a shoot out here and there, a panic in the captor’s camp, a knowing wink from an infiltrator, any glimmer of hope that after two weeks can give them assurance that the Nation has not abandoned them.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
Read More
Comments
Post a Comment