My head is starting to spin. In 24 hours, girls were kidnapped not kidnapped abducted not abducted missing not missing found not found rescued not rescued. We have even managed to confuse international media. CNN's falcon cannot hear BBC's falconer. Magic realism...— Pius Adesanmi (@pius_adesanmi) February 22, 2018
Pius Adesanmi, a professor at
Carleton University, Canada, could well have been talking about the kidnap of
Chibok schoolgirls in 2014. But, no, he is talking about the kidnap of Dapchi
schoolgirls in 2018.
Karl Marx has said it: history
repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.
But this is looking first like
farce. The tragedy may still be unfolding.
On April 14, 2014, the
little-known town of Chibok located in Borno state was thrust unceremoniously
into the global scene for the wrong reason – 276 female students of Government Secondary
School Chibok were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents and herded off to
captivity.
CONFLICTING SIGNALS
With the nation stunned by the
brazen kidnap of the Chibok school girls, attention shifted to the Nigerian
military for answers.
Unfortunately, a cloud of
confusion ensued with the military twice
giving conflicting information; first that all but eight of the Chibok girls
had been rescued and were re-united with their families. This was later
retracted.
The second statement said some of
the Chibok girls were rescued and were
under protective military custody. It turned out to be untrue.
It was later revealed that some
of the girls escaped from captivity,
some jumping off the moving trucks used by the insurgents as they were
being conveyed to Boko Haram strongholds as hostages. It became clear that
indeed, something had happened in Chibok.
There was no hiding place.
‘WE WERE MISLED’
Alex Badeh, air chief marshall
and chief of defence staff at the time, admitted that the information earlier
relayed was incorrect, but blamed military officers on the ground for
misleading with wrong information.
“If your people are misleading
you, what do you do? There was a report that we have seen some of the girls and
only eight are missing. It was a very senior officer that gave that information
from Chibok area; and I think that is when people started saying watch what
Chris Olukolade (then-military spokesman) is saying, but he was misled by one
of us. There are too many fifth columnists,” he said.
There were also conflicting
reports on the exact number of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, with figures
ranging from 250 to 400.
The administration of
then-President Goodluck Jonathan kept mum on the growing controversy, speaking
only for the first time on May 4, 2014 about efforts to rescue the girls after
criticism mounted.
On May 5, 2014, Boko Haram leader
Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the Chibok girls’ kidnap, vowing to
sell them off to slavery.
At once global condemnation and
anger erupted; the #BringBackOurGirls movement berthed, with the government
heavily criticised for not being proactive and for showing initial doubts about
the whole affair.
PASSING THE BLAME
Despite the public angst about
the seemingly shoddy handling of the Chibok affair, the blame game continued
unabated.
Borno state governor Kashim
Shetimma accused the Jonathan administration of being aloof and unwilling to
negotiate for the release of the detained girls.
“If I have to talk to the devil
to secure the release of the girls, I will do so. President Jonathan did not
act on time and did not talk to me over the kidnappings until 19 days after,”
he said.
But the Borno governor was
equally blamed for refusing to comply with a federal directive not to open the
school for any academic activities because of the deteriorating security
situation.
Former first lady, Patience
Jonathan, also called into question the real intentions of the Borno state
government after calling on Shettima’s wife to chair a stakeholders forum to
address the quagmire without success.
“After the incident, I waited for
her, she did not come. I sent for her, she came. I asked questions, no answer.
I asked her to come with the principal and parents; she did not turn up till
today. To our greatest surprise, she sent a commissioner. The next thing I saw
was women demonstrating. No woman will fold her hands while her house is on
fire,” she said.
This blame game continued right
into the election calendar of 2015.
HISTORY ON AUTOREPEAT?
Without doubt, the conflicting
information from security personnel on ground, the clear lack of trust between
the federal and state governments on the best approach elongated the captivity
of the Chibok Girls in the hands of Boko Haram.
It took over two years and
intensive negotiations to rescue some of the girls. Nigeria has never fully
recovered from the bruising Chibok nightmare.
Now less than four years after,
precisely on Monday February 19, 2018, another abduction of female school girls
occurred in neighbouring Yobe state. This time over 90 female students of
Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, have gone missing.
There is still a lot of back and
forth, it happened it didn’t happen, some have been rescued none has been
rescued.
The state governor Ibrahim Gaidam
confirmed the incident on Wednesday. After initially saying some girls have
been rescued, the state government now blames it on fake news. Sounds familiar.
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