There is this bundle of untold joy and hope that the Creator
wraps up in every little child. He seems to be saying every time
He lets us have a child; take, raise, love and support, protect and
defend and do right by her or him. Every time a child comes
beaming that ignorant smile or wailing that doubting tear, they
seem to ask: will you do right by me?
This question has lingered for a period of eon in my mind, the
question: Have we done right to the Chibok girls? Have we loved,
supported, protected and defended them? Each one of them is
like my sister’s little spring of hope to their parents- full of life,
brand new prospects and amazing promises. Yet, I can’t help
but conclude that as long as we have moved on, not only have
we failed these beautiful daughters of Chibok, we have also
violated the sacred memories of their mothers; their rights to
treasure and nurture all the hopes and promises that come with
motherhood. That is exactly what we do each time our leaders
parade their odious abandon towards the plight of these
promising children.
I watched the United Nations address of President Goodluck
Jonathan. He said, among other things, that the girls had been
gone for “over three months”. It took the unwashed memory of
Hala Gorani, a CNN correspondent, to remind the world,
Nigerians and especially our President that our Chibok sisters
have actually been gone for over five months.
It is so easy to forget, it is so easy to raise our heads and
embrace each new day with renewed vitality, forgetting the
anguish of those who will never return, forgetting the terrible
pain of mothers who will never hold their kids again, of fathers
who are lost in the doubt of the miserable gloom hanging over
their daughters.
But is it really easy to forget? Can we easily forget these victims
of our collective omission and dereliction of duty as a nation?
Does your heart tick every time you wake in the ambient cool of
your room to remember that these girls perhaps didn’t get a
quarter of the sleep you just had? Does your soul nudge when
you want to lay your head to remember that these girls
wouldn’t remember the friendly comfort of a blanket? Or, is
your conscience simply numbed?
Have we earned the right to forget? There is a reason victims of
man-made tragedies seek closure. The assurance that comes
with knowing that those who armed you or inflicted your pain
have been dealt a mortal blow and that the state has exerted the
same measure of pain upon them in the belief that others like
them will be dissuaded from joining the fray. This is what
lawyers call deterrence. Yet, the families of these girls can
neither have solace nor closure- their daughters have neither
been found nor their violators punished. So long as Boko Haram
boys still loom large, striking at will, invisibly-invincible, like
turtle ninjas, we cannot arrogate to ourselves the right to forget.
As long as our military keeps ‘killing’ Abubakar Shekau everyday,
while we all keep counting and hoping that they kill him at least
the ninth time, like the proverbial cat with nine lives, we cannot
forget or abandon this terror dance orchestrated by the endless
Boko Haram tune. And it stills beats me that our
consciencelessness has even dipped to a “lower low”. How can
anyone attempt to sell us the dummy that “Shekau” has been
killed? Please, and please! When Osama bin-Laden died, the US
government didn’t have to release photos or go to the extent of
cooking stories to sell the point. Americans simply felt it. When
Shekau is truly dead, the Nigerian Army will no longer need the
services of a “photo-shopper”, we will simply feel it. Somehow
we will know that he’s has been killed.
So a few days ago, when October 1 came upon us- our usual
time to roll out drums and songs and fly our colours- I just
simply didn’t feel any conviction that this year’s was worth
celebrating. This is my opinion and I am unapologetic about it. I
am not a pessimist and I know there are a few areas where we
have excelled, like the curtailing and containment of Ebola.
However I believe that deeply ingrained in the meaning of
‘independence’ are synonyms like ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’. It is
therefore a sad irony that we had the shameful audacity to even
think of marking this year’s independence when our “girls” still
wallow in the forest of God-knows-where. Can we truly
celebrate independence when these compatriots are still at the
mercy of these brutally- carnivorous Boko boys. Can we
celebrate independence when over two hundred girls have been
held captive for about six months-denied freedom and liberty?
Our true mark of independence should not just be in ‘green-
white-green’ or in a National Anthem or a lofty Pledge. When
your head aches, your legs don’t just stand up to go to the
village square. When your head aches, your body aches. That is
the grain of our “Ubuntu” philosophy: “I am because we are”. It
is what makes us Africans, the culture buried deep within us
that “we will never leave anyone behind”. It is bad enough that
we failed them in the first place, it is even worse that we are
struggling so hard to numb ourselves to a perennial ‘hang-over’
regarding the whereabouts of these Chibok queens. So, the least
we can do, the very least we can do is to keep their memories
alive, to stay true to the ageless African creed that whoever you
are, so long as you are our kin, we will be your keeper, we will
not abandon you. This is not asking for too much!
Again you leave me no choice President Jonathan, because
indeed after all is said and done, the buck stops on your table. It
is commendable that you are rumoured to have declared that
you will put national interests and unity first before personal
ambition. I believe one very good way of showing this is by
declaring that you will not declare your second term bid until
the Chibok girls are found, brought home and reunited with
their families. You will be surprised at how ingenious your aides
can get when it comes to finding these girls. Their ideas will
literally astound you. The bitter truth is that these girls
“vanished” under your watch and so the responsibility of
ensuring their safe return rests squarely on your shoulders. This
is the solemn responsibility that comes with your office. It
makes you owe the world, Nigerians and very strongly, the
mothers and families of the Chibok girls their safe return.
These children like my niece, came wrapped in a bundle of hope
and love. They looked at their parents at birth and beamed the
“asking smile”: Will Nigeria do right by us? Mr. President, I
believe it is not too late to answer, and our answer can only be
‘yes’ the day we start placing a non-negotiable premium on life,
and it has to be any life for that matter; your child’s, my niece’s
or the Chibok girls’! We must never forget them. No we must not oooooo-

BANGERLEE1:
There is this bundle of untold joy and hope that the Creator
wraps up in every little child. He seems to be saying every time
He lets us have a child; take, raise, love and support, protect and
defend and do right by her or him. Every time a child comes
beaming that ignorant smile or wailing that doubting tear, they
seem to ask: will you do right by me?
This question has lingered for a period of eon in my mind, the
question: Have we done right to the Chibok girls? Have we loved,
supported, protected and defended them? Each one of them is
like my sister’s little spring of hope to their parents- full of life,
brand new prospects and amazing promises. Yet, I can’t help
but conclude that as long as we have moved on, not only have
we failed these beautiful daughters of Chibok, we have also
violated the sacred memories of their mothers; their rights to
treasure and nurture all the hopes and promises that come with
motherhood. That is exactly what we do each time our leaders
parade their odious abandon towards the plight of these
promising children.
I watched the United Nations address of President Goodluck
Jonathan. He said, among other things, that the girls had been
gone for “over three months”. It took the unwashed memory of
Hala Gorani, a CNN correspondent, to remind the world,
Nigerians and especially our President that our Chibok sisters
have actually been gone for over five months.
It is so easy to forget, it is so easy to raise our heads and
embrace each new day with renewed vitality, forgetting the
anguish of those who will never return, forgetting the terrible
pain of mothers who will never hold their kids again, of fathers
who are lost in the doubt of the miserable gloom hanging over
their daughters.
But is it really easy to forget? Can we easily forget these victims
of our collective omission and dereliction of duty as a nation?
Does your heart tick every time you wake in the ambient cool of
your room to remember that these girls perhaps didn’t get a
quarter of the sleep you just had? Does your soul nudge when
you want to lay your head to remember that these girls
wouldn’t remember the friendly comfort of a blanket? Or, is
your conscience simply numbed?
Have we earned the right to forget? There is a reason victims of
man-made tragedies seek closure. The assurance that comes
with knowing that those who armed you or inflicted your pain
have been dealt a mortal blow and that the state has exerted the
same measure of pain upon them in the belief that others like
them will be dissuaded from joining the fray. This is what
lawyers call deterrence. Yet, the families of these girls can
neither have solace nor closure- their daughters have neither
been found nor their violators punished. So long as Boko Haram
boys still loom large, striking at will, invisibly-invincible, like
turtle ninjas, we cannot arrogate to ourselves the right to forget.
As long as our military keeps ‘killing’ Abubakar Shekau everyday,
while we all keep counting and hoping that they kill him at least
the ninth time, like the proverbial cat with nine lives, we cannot
forget or abandon this terror dance orchestrated by the endless
Boko Haram tune. And it stills beats me that our
consciencelessness has even dipped to a “lower low”. How can
anyone attempt to sell us the dummy that “Shekau” has been
killed? Please, and please! When Osama bin-Laden died, the US
government didn’t have to release photos or go to the extent of
cooking stories to sell the point. Americans simply felt it. When
Shekau is truly dead, the Nigerian Army will no longer need the
services of a “photo-shopper”, we will simply feel it. Somehow
we will know that he’s has been killed.
So a few days ago, when October 1 came upon us- our usual
time to roll out drums and songs and fly our colours- I just
simply didn’t feel any conviction that this year’s was worth
celebrating. This is my opinion and I am unapologetic about it. I
am not a pessimist and I know there are a few areas where we
have excelled, like the curtailing and containment of Ebola.
However I believe that deeply ingrained in the meaning of
‘independence’ are synonyms like ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’. It is
therefore a sad irony that we had the shameful audacity to even
think of marking this year’s independence when our “girls” still
wallow in the forest of God-knows-where. Can we truly
celebrate independence when these compatriots are still at the
mercy of these brutally- carnivorous Boko boys. Can we
celebrate independence when over two hundred girls have been
held captive for about six months-denied freedom and liberty?
Our true mark of independence should not just be in ‘green-
white-green’ or in a National Anthem or a lofty Pledge. When
your head aches, your legs don’t just stand up to go to the
village square. When your head aches, your body aches. That is
the grain of our “Ubuntu” philosophy: “I am because we are”. It
is what makes us Africans, the culture buried deep within us
that “we will never leave anyone behind”. It is bad enough that
we failed them in the first place, it is even worse that we are
struggling so hard to numb ourselves to a perennial ‘hang-over’
regarding the whereabouts of these Chibok queens. So, the least
we can do, the very least we can do is to keep their memories
alive, to stay true to the ageless African creed that whoever you
are, so long as you are our kin, we will be your keeper, we will
not abandon you. This is not asking for too much!
Again you leave me no choice President Jonathan, because
indeed after all is said and done, the buck stops on your table. It
is commendable that you are rumoured to have declared that
you will put national interests and unity first before personal
ambition. I believe one very good way of showing this is by
declaring that you will not declare your second term bid until
the Chibok girls are found, brought home and reunited with
their families. You will be surprised at how ingenious your aides
can get when it comes to finding these girls. Their ideas will
literally astound you. The bitter truth is that these girls
“vanished” under your watch and so the responsibility of
ensuring their safe return rests squarely on your shoulders. This
is the solemn responsibility that comes with your office. It
makes you owe the world, Nigerians and very strongly, the
mothers and families of the Chibok girls their safe return.
These children like my niece, came wrapped in a bundle of hope
and love. They looked at their parents at birth and beamed the
“asking smile”: Will Nigeria do right by us? Mr. President, I
believe it is not too late to answer, and our answer can only be
‘yes’ the day we start placing a non-negotiable premium on life,
and it has to be any life for that matter; your child’s, my niece’s
or the Chibok girls’! We must never forget them. No we must not oooooo-

Copy and paste nonsense

Fùcking silly môrons like you always think they have
ideas.
Spit on thread.