Hotweb.waphall.com By Denrele Animasaun
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
Three weeks and counting and we are no closer to securing the missing girls’ safe return. Instead, there have been more hand wringing, posturing, mumblings and dribbling from the government and one unelected individual.
In the meantime, the families of the missing are undergoing a prolonged untold agony and with yet daily insults are piled to their agony and pain by some uncouth, despotic , deranged and disturbed unofficial and official people.
#BringBankourgirls campaign, has drawn and captured the worlds imagination and the compassionate Nigerians home and abroad are matching up and down in unison .The world has taken notice of the extent in the breakdown of law and order in Nigeria.
I watched CNN, with Wole Soyinka who, speak so passionately and eloquently about the present tragedy in Nigeria and the prolonged menace of BH. He is right. Something should have been done so long ago instead; this government has kowtowed, pleaded and bargained with this mad and murderous group for far too long. During that time thousands of lives have been destroyed with sections of the country living in perpetual fear and dread.
The leader of the mad and dammed, Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau has gone on record for all to see, ranting vile tirades that he did abduct the girls and now threatened to “sell” the abducted school girls. The Boko Haram leader said of the Chibok kidnapping. “I abducted your girls,” he taunted with a chilling smile. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell.”
The ease with which this monster makes his audacious pronouncements is horrific and alarming that such rag tag army have held the people of Nigeria for so long to ransom. The Chairman of the forum and Governor of Niger, Dr Babangida Aliyu, spoke to the U.S. officials that the April 14 abduction happened in a part of the country “where up till today we still beg parents to bring their children to school”.
One of the mothers of the missing Chibok school girls wipes her tears as she cries during a rally by civil society groups pressing for the release of the girls in Abuja on May 6, 2014 . AFP
He made a valid point that ‘`for the abduction to happen in a school environment means that if we do not do anything, we will be taken fifty years back, because many parents would be discouraged to send their children to school. This is the sad fact.
Instead, education has always been the key to riding society of intolerance and ignorance and this government has failed on many levels. They have diced with peoples’ lives and have played Russian roulette with the lives of our people. They have done so for so long and they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. But, they have no conscience and know no shame.
Where are our armed forces? And where is the chief of armed forces? Where are the task forces and advance planning? Juno went on air to say that his government is working hard to release the girls and that he was happy and Nigerians were happy that there was no report that the girl were harmed! Can someone tell Juno that these girls were forcefully, and aggressively abducted by murdering maunders, these girls did not go willingly. I cannot begin to fathom the rationale of this man and motley crew. This is case of the blind leading the blind. His other half fared no better. She had accused everyone including the parent of the missing girls, of trying to destroy her husband’s rule. Can someone tell this woman to put a cork in it and that she has no mandate to rule and beside ,an elected official can be unelected and removed with due process. They have shown that they cannot and do not know what to do and all they are concerned about is saving their own skin.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron told the British Parliament that the kidnapping was “an act of pure evil”. He pointed out that people in Nigeria are angry at the government’s response. “There are extreme Islamists around our world who are against education, against progress, against equality and we must fight them and take them on wherever they are. They say that those the gods wish to destroy they, first make mad. We are watching the unraveling of this in real time.
We are watching a runaway train and we cannot remain silent, not while these young girls are missing. Nigeria is not working and we know it and the world now knows it.
Enough said. We would like the safe return of the girls. The world has cotton on that; we as Nigerians must garner this support and pressure this government to do something and something quickly. If anything, the