Chibok Village is located about 60 kilometers
from Boko Haram enclave, Sambisa Forest is the
headquarters of Chibok Local Government Area in
Borno State.

It is amongst the most deprived Local
Government Areas in Borno State. The best roads
in Chibok LGA are glorified footpaths and those
that lead to Chibok Village are forested on both
sides thereby providing covers for Boko Haram
Islamic Jihadists to spring ambushes on
motorists.

Though Christians constitute over 80% of the
population, only Muslims are appointed
‘Mai’ (Village/District Head) and ‘Maina’ (Prince)
by the Shehu of Borno. Salaries of civil servants
in Chibok LGA and other LGAs in Christian-
dominated Southern Borno State are less than
those of civil servants in Northern Borno State
dominated by Muslims.

Four abducted students were reunited with their
families in Chibok, Nigeria, last month. (Photo
Credit: Credit Haruna Umar/Associated Pres)
Government Girls Secondary School
In mid 1970s, a Women Teachers College was
established in Chibok Village but later converted
to Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) in
1988. The GGSS was upgraded to a mixed school
in 2011 and it is the only secondary school in
Chibok LGA.

Out of 530 students who allegedly registered for Senior
Secondary School Examination [SSSE] in the school, 129
were from Chibok Village while the rest were from Warabe, Izge, Warabe, Lassa and Ashigshiya communities. Due to deteriorating security situation, the school was closed for four weeks before it was hurriedly reopened for the 2014 SSCE.

TRANSFORMATION OF BOKO HARAM

In the heat of bloody campaigns by deadly
Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram to make
Nigeria ungovernable as promised by Hausa-
Fulani politicians, a bizarre drama was staged at
Chibok Village. In October 2010, Alhaji Lawal
Kaita said, “We will make Nigeria ungovernable
for Jonathan. Anything short of a Northern
president is tantamount to stealing our
presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go.
Even if he uses the incumbency powers to get his
nomination on the platform of the PDP, he will be
frustrated out of office”.

In furtherance of the Kaitas’ resolve to frustrate
President Jonathan out of office, Boko Haram
was transformed from a horde of misguided
‘bornthroways’ to a well-funded, bloodthirsty gang
of murderers. The alleged abduction and failure
of Jonathan’s administration to rescue the girls
has become a sore thumb in our national life,
hence, the need to revisit it with a view to asking
some pertinent questions.

CONFLICTING FIGURES

On 17 April 2014, the Principal of the school,
Hajiya Asabe Kwambura told Associated Press
(AP) in an interview that 115 girls were abducted
by Boko Haram out of 129 who slept in the
school that night.
Then on 27 April 2014, the same Principal told
Punch Newspaper in an interview that over 200
girls were abducted by Boko Haram from the
school that night while only 43 escaped.

Following Governor Shettima’s pledge to pay
compensations to parents and guardians of the
girls, the villagers presented a list of 234 girls
whom they claimed were abducted by Boko
Haram to the governor when he visited Chibok
Village in April 2014. They added that only 39
girls had so far escaped from Boko
Haram captivity.

In Maiduguri in May 2014, Borno State
Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Inuwa Kubo
informed the Presidential Facts Finding
Committee on Chibok Abduction that 276 girls
were abducted and that 57 of them later escaped,
thereby leaving 219 still missing.

In May 2014 Northern States Christians and
Elders Forum released names and photographs of
178 girls whom it claimed were abducted from
the school that night by Boko Haram.
According to Mr. Charles Eguridu, WAEC Head of
National Office, 395 girls registered for the SSSE
in the school. He added that after the alleged
abduction, 189 out of the 395 girls were moved to
Uba Examination Center to complete the SSSE. In
view of the above given conflicting figures, how
many girls were actually abducted from the girl’s
secondary school in Chibok village?

COMPLICITY OF THE SCHOOL AUTHORITIES

Some days to the alleged abduction, the principal
and vice principal who were Christians were
replaced with Muslims, Hajiya Asabe Kwambura
and Mallam Yerima Banjiri respectively by Borno
State Ministry of Education.

On 17 April 2015, Hajiya Kwambura told the AP
that she was present when Boko Haram came to
evacuate the girls and that she even encouraged
the girls to board the trucks because she thought
Boko Haram were Nigerian soldiers. She claimed
that it was when Boko Haram started looting and
destroying things in the school that she knew
they were Boko Haram. She added that one
soldier and a policeman who were deployed at
the school were killed by the Boko Haram and
that her granddaughter was also abducted.
Reverend Mark and his other children (Photo Credit:
BBC)

But on 27 April 2014, she told the PN that she
was in Maiduguri for medical checkup when the
abduction took place and that no security
personnel was deployed in the school. She added
that her daughter was not abducted.
Which of the two versions given by Hajiya
Kwambura is the truth? Why did Borno State
Ministry of Education replace a Christian principal
and vice principal with Muslims few days to the
alleged abduction, considering the fact that over
80% of the students were Christians?

The Muslim vice principal, Mallam Yerima Banjiri
threatened to expel any student who did not
sleep in the school throughout the examination
period.
However, after the alleged abduction, Mallam
Banjiri has not been seen or heard of. None of
the daughters or wives of the teachers and
management staff was abducted by Boko Haram.
Why did the Muslim vice principal insist that the
girls must sleep in the school throughout the
period of the examination? Why is it that the
Muslim vice principal had not been seen since the
alleged abduction? Why is it that none of the
daughters or wives of teachers and management
staff of the school was abducted by Boko
Haram that night?

Borno Governor Kashim Shettima

Mr. Charles Eguridu, WAEC Head of National
Office said that WAEC prevailed on Dr. Nyesom
Wike, then Minister for Education, to write a letter
to Governor Shettima, requesting him to move all
students to Maiduguri, where adequate security
could be provided for them during SSSE. He
added that Shettima refused to relocate students
of Government Girl’s Secondary School, Chibok to
Maiduguri as suggested; rather, he replied in
writing that his government would provide
adequate security in the school throughout the
period of the examination.

But when the alleged abduction took place, there
was no security personnel deployed anywhere in
the school as the Borno Governor promised.
Shettima has two daughters. Would he have
refused to either relocate the students to
Maiduguri or provide adequate security in the
school as he promised if his daughters were
amongst the girls?

Governor Shettima said that the military failed to
protect the girls in spite of the fact that he gave
them more than four hours of advance warning
about the attack. He added that prominent
indigenes of Chibok LGA prevailed on him to
allow the students to take the SSSE in Chibok
girls’ school.

But Mr. Hosea Tsambido, Chairman of Kibaku
Area Development Union, an umbrella union for
Chibok people said that Shettima was economical
with the truth because no indigene of Chibok
prevailed on him to allow the SSSE to be
conducted in Government Girls’ Secondary
School, Chibok.
If the military refused to confront Boko Haram as
inferred by Shettima, what instruction did
Governor Shettima give to the security forces he
promised to deploy in the school? What
instruction did he give to the school authority
that night in order to save the girls?

The mastermind of the bomb blast at a Church in
Suleja that killed many Christians, Mr. Kabiru
Sokoto was apprehended in Governor Shettima’s
Lodge in Abuja. This was after his escape from
police custody, where he was detained in
connection with the bloody Christmas Day bomb
blast at Suleja.
Why did Mr Kabiru Sokoto, an indigene of Sokoto
State, declared wanted by the Police find it
convenient to take refuge in Governor Shettima’s
Lodge in Abuja?

The alleged abduction took place a few hours
before the bloody bomb blast in a bus park in
Nyanya, Abuja on April 14 2014. While, Boko
Haram claimed responsibility for the bomb blast
at Nyanya, it took the terrorists over two weeks to
claim responsibility for the alleged abduction. If
the alleged abduction was carried out by BHIJ,
why did it take them over two weeks to claim
responsibility for it?

In May 2014, Shettima told the BBC that he knew
a lot about the alleged abduction and that he was
under pressure not to say all he knew about it
because many heads would roll if he did. He
added that the prevailing wanton destruction of
lives and properties in North East by Boko
Haram were the handiwork of some powerful
Nigerians who were bent on making life miserable
for him at all cost.
Who are the ‘powerful Nigerians’ Governor
Shettima is prepared to sacrifice as many lives as
possible in order to protect ‘their heads’? In spite
of this open confession by Governor Shettima,
why is it that no person or institution has made
any effort to cause Shettima to speak the truth
about the alleged abduction?

Some of the girls who allegedly escaped from
Boko Haram captivity were interviewed by Al
Jazeera and CNN correspondents at various times
but none of them could speak in English
language.
One of the girls claimed that Boko Haram used
only 2 trucks to convey them that night.
If these girls were the real students in question,
were they going to write SSSE in Hausa
language? Is it possible to use only two trucks to
successfully transport 234 girls and food stuff to
Sambisa Forest which is about 60 km from
Chibok Village that night?

The Ezekwesilis

On 11 September 2001, the twin towers of the
World Trade Centre, in New York City were
brought down by Islamic Jihadists operating
under the umbrella of Al Qaeda, killing 2,977
people in addition to 19 Islamic Jihadists. On 7
July 2005, Al Qaeda bombed underground trains
and a bus in Central London, killing 56 including
4 Islamic Jihadists.
It took the United States, the most powerful
nation in the world, 11 years to eliminate, Al
Qaeda leader, Osama bin-Laden, the mastermind
of 9/11. During those years, no opposition
political party, social commentator or non-
governmental organisation aligned with the
Islamic Jihadists to malign the US government
and the armed forces.
Does it mean that by rallying round their
governments and the armed forces to confront Al
Qaeda, opposition political parties, social critics and
non-governmental organizations in the UK and USA
are not as patriotic as the Ezekwesilis?

Led by supposedly educated Nigerians such as
Oby Ezekwesili, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG)
embarked on daily condemnation of the
Jonathan’s administration and the Nigerian
military for failing to rescue the girls. As far as
the Ezekwesilis were concerned, Governor
Shettima has no case to answer; hence they
never made any attempt to question the
circumstances surrounding the alleged abduction.
Ezekwesili and her gang of emergency activists
had a primary objective – to use the alleged
abduction to comprehensively denigrate
Jonathan’s administration and promote Buhari’s
candidacy. Like Daniel Kanu and Arthur Nzeribe
who used Youth Earnestly Yearn for Abacha and
Association for a Better Nigeria respectively to
sheepishly campaign for Hausa-Fulani hegemonic
agenda, Oby Ezekwesili followed the inglorious
footsteps of her kinsmen to use BBOG platform to
campaign for the same purpose.

The Ezekwesilis’ campaign of calumny against
President Jonathan was so helpful to the APC
cause that Chief Audu Ogbe publicly
acknowledged BBOG’s contributions at Eagle
Square, Abuja in October 2014 during the Buhari’s
declaration to re-contest for president.
Hadiza Bala Usman, founder of Bring Back Our Girls
Group and now Chief of Staff to Kaduna Governor,
Nasir El Rufai
As expected, Oby Ezekwesili and her cohort have
run out of steam since the swearing in of
Muhammadu Buhari on 29 May 2015.
Today, the BBOG is a shadow of itself, has Buhari
rescued the Chibok girls or was it a Hausa-Fulani
campaign outfit as acknowledged by APC
chieftain, Chief Audu Ogbe?

In appreciation for BBOG’s support, a co-founder
of BBOG, Hadiza Bala-Usman had since been
appointed Chief of Staff and member of Buhari’s
Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee by Mallam El-
Rufai and Buhari respectively.
Though Buhari seems to detest the Igbos with a
passion, it is hoped that Oby Ezekwesili’s loyalty
to Haura-Fulani hegemonic agenda will convince
him to find ‘something’ for her, however, small.

Buhari’s 16 January Bravado

After the APC presidential campaign rally in
Maiduguri on 16 January 2015, Buhari insisted on
visiting Chibok Village. He reluctantly aborted the
journey when he realized that the military was not
prepared to provide security for the visit.
If Buhari’s desire to visit Chibok Village that day
was not a political grandstanding, why has he
not visited Chibok Village or anywhere in North
East in spite of the fact that BHIJ had killed over
1000 people in North East since 29 May 2015?

Why has he not abandoned the comfort of Aso
Rock Villa and relocated to North East to lead the
battle against Boko Haram from the front as he
promised during the campaign?

May God grant us the Grace to see with our eyes
but not with our minds.

Dr. Deborah Nelson writes from Ilorin, Kwara State.
The opinions expressed in this article are sole.

The hot weather is a result of past bad govt. of GEJ.
Can you imagine Saudi Arabia borrowing money ? Gej has finished the world

Have you blamed GEJ today?
Lol, ndi ara