Today marks a year since Boko Haram insurgents stormed the premises of Government College, Chibok, Borno State, and abducted close to 300 schoolgirls taking their final year examinations.
A year after the girls’ disappearance into the cold embrace of the insurgents, the abduction has gone down in history as one of the most heinous terrorist attacks in modern times. The abduction also brought Boko Haram to the attention of the world as one of the most dangerous terrorist organisations since Al Qaeda began its terror war at the turn of the millennium. A lot has happened since the abduction that cut short the dreams of the girls who had hoped to use education as a springboard for a bright future.
The tragic story of the teenage girls whose dreams disappeared like a candle in the wind should haunt our country and our collective memory for a long time to come. What happened on April 14 was a failure of leadership at all levels. The Nigerian government both at the federal and state levels in the entire North-East failed in their primary duty to secure the lives of Nigerian citizens living in that part of the country. It is even worse that the government failed the young girls who had hopes for their future. Their abduction and failure to secure their release from Boko Haram should prick the conscience of our leaders. It is sadder to know that the country has moved on without a thought for the plight of the girls.
The question we should ask ourselves as a people is how we found the conscience to forget so soon. What if the girls were our relatives? What if they were our daughters and nieces? What is even more appalling is how we as a people have failed to take our government to task in the last one year. But for the activism of the Oby Ezekwesili-led #BringBackOurGirls campaign group that has consistently put pressure on the government to live up to its duties, the issue would have been swept under the carpet as we have done with many of the ills afflicting our nation. But I am glad that Nigerians delivered a no-confidence verdict on President Jonathan’s incompetence on insecurity by voting out the administration in the last elections. Never again should we tolerate any government that takes our security for granted.
Since the global campaign to bring back the girls, the world seems to have moved on. But Nigerians must not forget that we owe it a responsibility to the girls. A lot has happened since that fateful night of April 14, 2014. In the one year since the abduction, I have had cause to doubt if the girls would ever be found. Indeed, shortly after the kidnap took place, I had written in this column that the girls might never be found. Many Nigerians were understandably angry at my pessimism. But it was a painful reality given what we know of our government’s inability to protect us. It was a bitter truth that must be told. This is one year after and we are still wondering where the girls are. How sad! The abduction will remain a dark chapter in our nation’s history.
The Chibok girls’ saga is also a blot on the legacy of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan administration. History will record the failure a President who allowed the abduction to happen and played politics with the terror war. Perhaps, it is fitting that President Jonathan lost his bid for a second term because of his inability to protect the lives of Nigerians. Under his watch, the insecurity situation worsened. The abduction of the girls and many others took place under the administration’s nose. Nigerians must never forget that in 2014 alone, over 500 people were abducted in the North-East while more than 15,000 Nigerians have died since Boko Haram began its terror campaign. And it is on for this reason that we must hold the incoming government accountable right from the start on the issue of insecurity. No government worth its salt must take the issue of insecurity for granted.
I hope the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration knows very well that Nigerians expect the government to protect our lives and keep Nigerians safe in every part of the country. The incoming administration must strengthen the collaboration with the multinational forces to protect the North-East borders and rout out the Boko Haram insurgents.
A year after, I still have serious doubts that the girls will ever be found. It is a sad reality that we will have to live with as a people. In my response after the abduction, I had alluded to some reasons why the girls might never be found. The leader of Boko Haram insurgents, Abubakar Shekau, had at the time announced in a chilling video recording that he had sold off the girls. There had also been intelligence reports that the girls might have been separated in groups and taken across borders where they would have been sold to warlords. If those reports were true at the time, did they not explain the reason why the girls have not been located? So, rescuing the girls as a group would almost have been impossible if they had been scattered across the border. Recent reports that they were spotted in the Sambissa Forest have been speculative.
Conflicting reports coming from the government and its military have not given any hope of rescue. At a time, the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Bardeh, told Nigerians the military knew where the girls were located. At another time, they denied knowing the girls’ whereabouts, a claim the President confirmed in a media chat in 2014. The question many Nigerians had asked at the time was: If the government did not know the location of the girls either through intelligence report from its international partners and its own military, how then did it hope to conduct any rescue operation? I had also questioned the military’s lip service to finding the girls in one of the many articles on the matter in this column when it appeared that the only thing they were good at doing was the empty rhetoric of re-assuring Nigerians rather than a concrete action plan.
As the country marks the first anniversary of the abduction, the military must look back and assess where it has failed. The government must also reassess its security strategy and reorganise its intelligence and military institutions to respond to the ever growing security threat in country.
As I write this piece, I hate to think that the girls may not be found. But my prayer and hope are that they are found for their sake and that of their parents and families who have had to live through the trauma. Let us remember them in our prayers. Nigerians must also commend the Oby Ezekwesil-led campaigners who have consistently put the issue on the front burner. The resilience of the #BringBackOurGirls activists who in the last one year have put pressure on the government to live up to its responsibility is a reminder to all Nigerians that an injustice done to citizen(s) in one part of the country is an injustice to all Nigerians.
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