Chibok Girls, symbol of a nation

It is five years and still counting and the Chibok girls have now become a symbol of the nation and its wayward ways. Chibok community is now discussed along ethnic, Faith-based, party-based, politics-laced, hate-colored discourse and symbolises everything that we stand for in many ways.

Chibok has no electricity, no good roads, health is on leave of absence; the only bank for a long time was simply an agency. Chibok had only that secondary school. Chibok is Nigeria, and Nigeria is Chibok.

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While our leaders were in Rwanda, physically present commemorating the genocide in that country; Chibok in our backyard was relegated to a tweet matter.

In five years, I have done a sizable amount of work on not just Boko Haram but also the Chibok girls, killings, abductions and Nigeria’s conflict torn Northwest region. I have visited Chibok four times, I have spoken to a few of the girls that were released, spoken to one that escaped, I have spoken with several of the parents, and those included a few that are now dead.

Before Chibok, Boko Haram had established a tradition of abducting girls and women, for countless reasons. The authorities were quiet, the media reported a few it could, and let me tell us many parents equally kept quiet and took it all in their stride.

Cruel fact is that, several hundreds of girls that are victims of this terrible group have paid the ultimate price, a few have escaped with almost irreparable damage, others have become part of them, and we have not done much.

It is equally a fact that one of the many reasons that Boko Haram may continue for a while is because many still do not know what the group is all about does it have an ideology. What really is it about?

The questions are many, but as we continue to run commentary on the #bringbackourgirls advocacy, reminding us of the Chibok girls, I cannot but feel for the parents. How many are now making money off of them? How a part and not all, of the campaign has become like many a CSO thing–a source of income, with the Nigerian factor at work.

The Chibok parents continue grieving and mourning, but really it is more of bewilderment and pain, as they do not know exactly the situation of their wards. There may never be any closure, and that fact is gruesomely scary.

Five years we have lost men and officers, more villagers have been killed and loads of propaganda, half-truths, misinformation and sheer falsehoods, fight between now opposition PDP and governing APC, even the Airforce has accused the Army of taking their shine. The army has had a mutinous situation, local media vs. foreign media, and Christians/Muslims. But fact is that we do not have the Chibok girls.

And as it is tradition, we again will engage in the blame game, but let us remember that the longer we are on this Chibok saga it reminds of us of who we really are, will we be talking Chibok by December 2019, or will we hear the real story, the true story? Only time will tell.

 

Prince Charles Dickson PhD,

pcdbooks@outlook.com