Article written by
former Femi Fani-
Kayode
In the early hours of
the morning of April
14th 2014 276 girls
were abducted from
their school as they
slept. They all came
from a predominantly
Christian town in
northern Nigeria called
Chibok.
They were all between
the ages of 15 and 18.
They were eager to get
a good education and to
make something of
their lives. 90 per cent
of them were
Christians who believed
passionately that their
God would always
protect them and make
a way for them in the
predominantly Muslim
Borno state where they
resided in north-eastern
Nigeria.
They left home on the
morning of April 13th
confidently, eagerly and
happily and went to
school to do an exam.
The Federal
Government of Nigeria,
headed by a Christian
President by the name
of Mr. Goodluck
Jonathan, had earlier
reminded the local
authorities that the
school had been closed
for a considerable period
of time for security
reasons and warned
that it should not be re-
opened for the exams
to take place at Chibok
because of the
activities of the deadly
islamist terrorist sect
known as Boko Haram
in that area. However
the Muslim Governor of
Borno state, Mr. Kashim
Shettima, ignored these
warnings and assured
the Federal Government
that he would provide
the necessary security.
He also assured the
parents of the safety
of the young girls.
He said that he would
open the school
specifically for the
purpose of the exams
and he encouraged the
girls to not only come
and do those exams
but also to spend one
night at the school
after finishing them.
Convinced by his
assurances and moved
by his conviction and
confidence, the parents
of the girls allowed their
wards to proceed to
the school for the exam
and they encouraged
them to spend the
night there. The curious
twist to the tale is the
fact that a few of the
girls that went to take
that exam were the
children of those that
taught at the school
yet after the exams
were concluded not one
of them stayed in the
school or opted to
spend the night.
It was almost as if
they had a premonition
of what was going to
happen or, perhaps,
someone on the inside
had warned them about
the horrors that lay
ahead. The Governor of
the state did not honor
his word to provide
security at the school.
As a matter of fact as
the girls prepared to
sleep that night not one
adult was in the school
premises to watch over
them apart from an old
man who was the
school gatekeeper and
who slept at the gate.
No teacher, supervisor
or school official stayed
with them that night
and neither did the
school matron,
headmaster or principal.
Not one person in
authority was with
them let alone an
armed man or woman
to protect them from
the obvious dangers.
They were on their
own. Worse still there
was no electricity that
night and no lights were
on because there was
no power flowing from
the national grid and
neither was the school
generator working. The
girls were not only on
their own but they
were also in total and
complete darkness.
They said their prayers,
sang a few hymns,
asked for God's
protection and went to
bed. Then, at
approximately 3.00 a.m.
in the morning, Boko
Haram stormed the
premises. The girls
were subjected to the
most unspeakable
forms of abuse: they
were raped, brutalised,
traumatised and finally
they were abducted.
The terrorists not only
took the girls but they
also ransacked the
school, stole all the food
in the premises, burnt a
number of school
buildings and made
away with whatever
they could lay their
hands on. They bundled
the 276 young girls into
their lorries and sped in
the dead of the night
into the deadly clutches
and dark groves of their
hideout- the notorious
Sambisa Forest. A few
days later the leader of
Boko Haram, Mr. Ibrahim
Shekau, released a
video of himself telling
the world about his
intention to convert the
girls to Islam, sell them
into slavery ''in
markets'' and marry
them off in foreign
lands.
He said that Islam
permitted him to do so.
He also said that he
would never release
them. He claimed that
they had become slaves
of Boko Haram and that
they would remain
slaves forever. Two
weeks later a video
was released of some
girls covered in Muslim
shawls and garb reciting
the Koran. It was clear
that Mr. Shekau had
kept his word. These
girls had been forcefully
converted to Islam and
they were now slaves.
Thankfully 55 of them
managed to escape
whilst they were being
abducted from the
school on their way to
Sambisa forest. They
did so by jumping off
the moving lorries that
their captors had
herded them into. Two
more escaped a few
days after arriving in
Sambisa forest. They
have since recounted
some of the horrors
that they were
subjected to and that
they faced whilst in
captivity.
This includes multiple
rapes on a daily basis
from several men,
group sex, beatings,
killings, torture,
enslavement, maimings
and forced
renunciations of their
christian faith and
conversion to Islam.
Clearly the 219 girls that
are still in captivity are
literally in hell. Stories
are told of how some
of them have been sold
off ''in marriage'' to
wealthy Arabs in north
Africa and the Middle
East and how others
have become sex
slaves in bordering
African nations like
Chad, the Sudan and
Niger Republic. Up till
today the Nigerian
Federal Government has
no idea where they
actually are and have
not been able to rescue
any of them.
A world-wide ''Bring
Back Our Girls'' campaign
has been launched and
this has created more
awareness about their
horrendous plight and
kept hope alive for their
safe return. However
when a former
President of Nigeria, Mr.
Olusegun Obasanjo, said
that the world would
soon have to come to
terms with the fact
that ''we may never
see those girls again''
and that ''by now some
of them will be dead
whilst others will be
pregnant'' it did not give
much cause for hope or
cheer. Perhaps the utter
despair that Mr.
Obasanjo's words
reflected added to the
anxiety, trauma and
heartache that resulted
in the sudden deaths of
no less than 7 of the
parents of the
abducted girls.
The truth is that the
girls are not just the
victims of the most
vicious Islamist
terrorist organisation on
the African continent
today, an organisation
whose sheer cruelty
and barbarity is at par
with that of ISIL, but
they are also the
victims of an uncaring
and insensitive ruling
political elite in Nigeria
who would prefer that
the whole matter is
just swept under the
carpet and forgotten
simply because they do
not have the capability,
the guts or the political
will to take on Boko
Haram in any
meaningful way and
rescue the girls.
The reality, as
unpleasant as it may
sound, is as follows.
When the question is
asked ''where are our
girls?'', the answer is
that they are
somewhere in hell,
hoping and praying that
the Nigerian authorities
and the international
community never
forgets them and
manages to muster the
resolve, know-how and
courage to rescue them.
We owe them that
much: after all they are
our children.
Yet all hope is not lost.
On 25th September
2014 one of the girls
was released by Boko
Haram. Sadly she was
not only pregnant but
she had also lost her
mind as a consequence
of the trauma that she
had suffered from her
ordeal. The good news
is that she is at least
alive and safely back
home with her family
where she belongs. This
gives us hope for the
others. May God bring
home our girls and may
we never forget them.