Today marks the 345th day after over two hundred girls were kidnapped by the violent religious sect based in Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram.
The girls were kidnapped from a boarding school-Government College- Chibok, on 14th April, 2013. Chibok is a town located south of Borno state in North-eastern Nigeria.
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| Government Secondary school, Chibok |
This means that twenty days from today, the girls would have spent a year away from home, from their loved ones, from their friends and from their school.
After the girls were kidnapped, all around the world people kept on calling for their release. Campaigns and rallies were held almost everyday as more and more persons joined in the calls. Even in the US, rallies were held on daily basis by groups of ladies...(see video)
click here to watch video of a group holding rally at a Los Angeles school
A hashtag #bringbackourgirls was even invented on twitter to aid this cause. Within days it went viral and the campaign for the return of the girls became a global phenomenon and kind of united the whole world as even the wife of the US president, Michelle Obama joined in the campaign describing it as an "unconscionable act committed by a terrorist group". (see pix 1)
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| Michelle Obama holding up a card in support of the call for the release of the girls. |
The whole world turned their focus to Nigeria, though momentarily, because after various nations offered their assistance, nothing came out of it. They seemed to have made the promises as part of the diplomatic responsibilities of cooperation with NIgeria. Their promises of military aid and finance were never sighted near the borders of Chibok. This has raised a lot of dusts as many thought it useless for them to have even made such promises. One of such are the parents of the girls who have continued to lament their lots.
"As far as our girls are concerned, they have been abandoned," said Mkeki Mutah, an uncle of two of the missing - 17-year-old Saratu and 18-year-old Elizabeth.
"There is a saying: 'Actions speak louder than words.' Leaders from around the world came out and said they would assist to bring the girls back, but now we hear nothing. The question I wish to raise is: why?" Mutah told Al Jazeera.
"If they knew they would not do anything, they wouldn't have even made that promise at all. By just coming out to tell the world, I see that as a political game, which it shouldn't be so far as the girls are concerned."
345 days, and no one seems to be talking about the Chibok girls, raising a lot of questions as to whether the girls are alive or dead. If they are alive, where on earth are they?
If they are dead, where were their bodies buried?? how were they killed???
The Nigerian government on its part, is she helping matters, what is she doing in the search for the missing girls. Sometime in June, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan was quoted in a Washington Post as saying that his " government and our security and intelligence services have spared no resources, have not stopped and will not stop until the girls are returned home," This came after he was accused of keeping silent on the mass abduction and failing to bring the girls home.
Today, 345 days, what actually has the government done???
Have the girls returned???
345 days after the abduction and barely three days to the day Nigeria decides on who will be their next president.
Will this be a decider of how the votes will go as is obtainable in other democratic countries??? I doubt so... because, whether there were actually Chibok girls, Nigerians seem to have forgotten as they have long forgotten about the event of April 14th 2014.
But, should we give up hope???? No, our girls must be brought back
#bringbackourgirls
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| they are our wives, sisters and friends |
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