On 13th June, the Abuja Family of the #BringBackOurGirls movement reflected upon 60 days of the Chibok Girls in bondage and 45 days of its own continuous sittings and marches by the movement. The day had started with an agent provocateur announcing on Channels TV that the leader of the Movement, Oby Ezekwesili has received a bribe to provide leadership for the patriotic demands by the movement that Government should rescue the girls. Indeed over the past six weeks, Oby has been inundated by attacks, insults and lies all aimed to tarnish her image and reputation. Apparently, an army of character assassinators has been recruited and deployed in the mass media and social media with the specific assignment to impugn the character of Oby Ezekwesili. It is a sad commentary on the nation that people who are looting the treasury are rewarded with chieftaincy titles and national honours while those working hard to promote transparency and accountability are maligned and blackmailed. My only happiness is that Oby has remained steadfast and focused on the campaign and resisted with success the attempts to derail the great work she is doing.
Dr. Salma Kolo, Borno State Commissioner for Health briefed the rally on what the State Government had been doing. A Technical working Group had been established to provide psychosocial support for the girls who escaped from bondage and their families. The work is being done in close collaboration with the Chibok community and the United Nations Population Fund she explained. The whole community is traumatised and so far seven parents of the abducted girls have died of stress related to the trauma they suffered. The State Government and stakeholders are mapping all families involved not only in Chibok’s 11 wards but also in other Local Government Areas such as Gwoza and Dambua. So far, 40 of the escapee girls have been reached and are undergoing counselling. Many commentators were unhappy that 60 days after, not all the girls had been reached and called on the Borno State Government to do more and treat the matter with the urgency it deserved. In her response, she accepted the necessity to do more and act with greater speed but she lamented the fact that the problem is vast. She pointed out that on a daily basis, girls are still being abducted from Fulani and Shuwa pastoralist’s families deep in the rural hinterland.
The Chibok Local Government Chairman, Bana Lawan, also addressed the rally. He argued that Nigeria is underestimating the scale of the problem. He explained that in about five local governments in their zone, people can no longer sleep in their houses due to fear of raids. At the same time, they are afraid to go to their farms due to the same fear. This is the second rainy season in which people have been unable to farm. Their communities are headed for famine he explained and that over the next few months, his prognosis is that massive migration will lead to a complete depopulation of the area. The survival of so many communities is at stake and it is imperative that the Nigerian State does all that is necessary to ensure that a future exists for these communities. He complained bitterly that when the First Lady called him, he tried to explain this predicament to her but all he got in response were insults for simply explaining that their daughters had indeed been abducted.
Day 60 witnessed a very emotional rally and the Borno State Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Bulama expressed his gratitude to the #BringBackOurGirls Movement which has given hope to his people that there are still so many Nigerians committed to a peaceful and prosperous future for the country. He called on the Federal Government should recognise this fact and seek to do more to solve the crisis. Another incident on Day 60 after the abduction was that the man wept. The former Chairman of Chibok Local Government was addressing the rally when he recalled that one of the biggest shocks in life is that some people still do not believe that the girls have been abducted; that we are engaged in a charade. At this point in the narrative, he broke down and started weeping uncontrollably.
The conclusion of the day’s proceeding was that 60 days in bondage for the Chibok girls is an extremely long time and all that is humanely possible to rescue them should be done immediately. Unfortunately however, the reality on the ground is that the insurgency seems to be growing stronger and more devastating in its actions of massacre and abduction within the communities in the affected zone. If a serious effort to counter them is not taken, what will be at stake is the future existence of Nigeria, an outcome no sane Nigerian would like to see. For a future for our country, all stakeholders must eschew bitterness and work together for a return of peace and security in our motherland.
