It is already two years since 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram jihadists at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, as they prepared to sit the West African School Certificate Examinations. Initially, the brutal expedition was greeted with official scorn until 57 of the captives managed to escape when one of the trucks taking them away broke down. But instead of moving into action immediately, the Goodluck Jonathan administration was negligent. It was a mortal error of judgment, which gave the Islamists a head-start.
But, it is agonising that the girls are still in the grips of Boko Haram. Their families are the worst affected. Some have died, broken and grief-stricken, while others cannot function properly again. President Muhammadu Buhari raised their hope on assumption of office by relocating the Command Centre of the Armed Forces to Maiduguri, and promising to rescue the girls. Though the military have made progress against the terrorists, the trail of the girls is, sadly, still cold.
The April 14, 2014 escapade is more disheartening, given the fact that the three North-East states where activities of Boko Haram were fiercest – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – were under a Federal Government-imposed state of emergency at that period. So, in effect, the girls were taken away right under the noses of the military. All those who bungled the early rescue plan, including Jonathan and the top security commanders, should be held responsible. The hopes of the families were dashed again when some of the girls reportedly used their cell phones to call their parents in January. But security agents have not been able to track the source of the calls. This is surely a sign that the girls are still alive.
Indeed, the uncoordinated post-abduction response by the government was a treacherous failure of leadership. On the day of the incident, Boko Haram suicide bombers had earlier detonated bombs at the Nyanya Motor Park in Abuja that sent 74 people to their early graves. Jonathan’s indiscretion was obvious when he took to the stage in Kano State the following day to dance at a political party circus.
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State provided strong proof of Jonathan’s glaring incompetence in office. He said the former President did not call him on the abduction until after 19 days. Recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo also blamed Jonathan for ignoring the distress calls made to him for a rescue mission shortly after the girls were kidnapped. That government’s negligence is staggering and beyond comprehension.
Most distressingly, Andrew Pocock, a former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, offered more compelling evidence that the government of the day failed the girls and their families. Pocock stated last month that when British and American surveillance located some of the girls, nothing was done by the Nigerian government. “A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American ‘Eye In The Sky’ spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa Forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with the evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment,” Pocock said. It is incredible that a sitting President would mishandle such a highly sensitive security issue. All the other offers by Western governments to help Nigeria defeat Boko Haram, a salafist group waging a crusade to enthrone an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, went begging under Jonathan.
As expected, the abduction sparked efforts by local and international groups, who campaigned for the rescue of the girls. On the national front, a former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, lawyer-activist, Mariam Uwais, and a host of other activists, formed the #BringBackOurGirls group. The group has been the rallying point for the grieving parents of the Chibok schoolgirls. On the international front, global figures like Michelle Obama, the wife of the United States president; a former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, joined the crusade by endorsing the BBOG campaign on social media.
A lot has happened in two years. Abubakar Shekau released a horrible video online, in which he boasted that he had converted the girls to Islam, and sold some of them into sexual slavery. The Jonathan government buoyed and dashed the hope of Nigerians several times over the rescue of the girls. In October 2014, Alex Badeh, then Chief of Defence Staff, said that the government had reached an agreement with Boko Haram for the release of the girls. Before then, he had said that the military knew where the girls were encamped. Both claims turned out to be false.
The question on every lip today will be: where are the Chibok girls? Obviously, there are no answers just yet. The reinvigorated military have weakened Boko Haram, limiting the extremists to occasional attacks on soft targets. This is better, but is clearly not enough. The current administration has to do more. It needs to connect more with the agony of the girls’ families.
Apart from the Chibok girls, international organisations estimate that 2,000 other girls and women have been abducted by Boko Haram, using them as sex slaves and indoctrinating them to become suicide bombers. Since 2009, Boko Haram’s odious campaign has also claimed an estimated 20,000 lives and spawned over two million Internally Displaced Persons, according to the Presidency. Several villages, towns and farmlands have been destroyed by the sadistic Islamist insurgents. Therefore, the current offensive by the military against the insurgents must be total. The government should solicit the help of the US, Britain and other Western governments, especially in the area of intelligence gathering and surveillance, to locate the girls, rescue them and finish off the rump of the Islamists. The Nigerian government ought to have a task force of intelligence and military operatives dedicated solely to locating and rescuing the girls.
Although Boko Haram is a vicious group, other countries confront such terror groups head-on. In June 2012, for example, four female British aid workers were abducted by insurgents and kept in a cave in the thick Koh-e-haram Forest. The insurgents demanded a ransom of £6 million, but the British SAS elite commandos, in conjunction with US Navy SEALS, used the Predator drone to locate and then rescue them. The SAS also rescued Bob Sempele, a British oil worker, who had spent 18 months in the captivity of al-Qaeda militants in Yemen in 2015. If other countries are doing it, Nigeria has no excuse not to bring back the Chibok girls.
The whole world is waiting for the return of the girls. And, two years is a long time for a parent to be shedding tears over a lost child in the captivity of deranged terrorists. The mental torture and disruptions to family life are too great to bear. Buhari should fulfil the promise he made on becoming President that he would do his best to rescue the girls. As a retired general, he should roll up his sleeves and get the job done.
