Monday, November 11, 2019

President Buhari, Bring Leah Sharibu Home!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
As President Muhammadu Buhari, the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, spends his two weeks “private visit” in the United Kingdom surrounded by all the luxury, comfort and care our oil money can afford, with his own family members safe and well-provided for anywhere they chose to be in the world despite the unspeakable hardship tormenting the Nigerian masses at home due to his failed leadership, a 16-year old, tender, innocent girl called Leah Sharibu is at the moment a hapless, pathetic and traumatised captive of Boko Haram terrorists, obviously, under the most dehumanising conditions.
*Leah Sharibu 
Given what has, reportedly, been the horrible experiences of young, beautiful girls like Leah who have been very unfortunate to be captured by these terrorists, one is really scared to imagine what she might have been subjected to for over a year now. Most painful is that she hardly gets mentioned again these days by those whose job it is to rescue and bring her home!

Has Nigeria forgotten her then? Has President Buhari who may have Leah’s age mates as grandchildren forgotten her? Has he given up hope of ever bringing her home again to her heartbroken parents? What happened to Buhari’s very loud promises to rescue her quickly? Or even his firm pledge during the campaigns for his first term that he would end the Boko Haram menace in six months and ensure the freedom of all their captives? What did he have in mind to do when he was throwing those tantalising promises at Nigerians? What was his action plan? Has he executed them? What was the result? Or was he just playing the typical politician, merely dropping those promises (which he probably no longer remembers, let alone making any attempts to fulfill) just to win the election?

Leah was among the 110 students of the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, abducted by Boko Haram terrorists on February 19, 2018. She was only 14 then. When in March news broke that the terrorists had brought back the girls with the same fanfare they took them away like kids going on an excursion, Leah’s parents rejoiced like the other parents, and rushed down to embrace their beloved child and take her home. But on discovering that her child was not released with her classmates, Leah’s mother, Rebecca Sharibu, fainted. The shock was too much for her.

Speaking of her experience later, she said, weeping profusely: “My heart was broken when I searched through the released girls and could not set my eyes on my dear daughter, Leah”.

Leah’s equally traumatized father, Nathaniel Sharibu, could only sorrowfully plead that serious effort be deployed to bring his daughter back: “Nigeria must do all within its powers to bring back my daughter the same way they did to others.”
*President Buhari 
 After nearly two years now and no heartwarming news had come in about his beloved daughter, the only girl in the family, Leah’s father’s conclusion would probably be that he merely sang ballads to the deaf!

The terrorists had refused to release Leah because she is a Christian and had refused to renounce her faith and convert to Islam as demanded by the terrorists. That was her offence which she has paid dearly for. Her heart must have bled as she watched the other girls go home, but she remained firm in her resolve not to trade her faith with her freedom. If she is still alive (and we believe she is), there is no doubt that she is still firm and unbending about her faith. And God is proud of her!   

How does Leah see Nigeria and her leaders today? How does she view President Buhari whose firm promises of bringing her home have remained unfulfilled, if not forgotten? Is it because she is a Sharibu and not a Buhari?  

An American boy would look you straight in the face and declare that he is ready to die for America any day, anywhere, and he means every word he uttered. Same goes for youths from several other countries. Why? They know very well that should any of them be in trouble any day or anywhere, their country would spare no resources and efforts to rescue them. They also trust in the ability of their country to get them out of harm’s way any day. Their leaders are patriotic and humane and sincerely love and care for the people they are governing. They are not the callous and selfish type who only remember the likes of Leah when they want to use their predicament to score cheap political points.

On Saturday, June 23, 2018, a young football team in Thailand, made up of 12 boys between the ages of 11 and 16, went missing with their coach in a Northern Thailand cave. The world stood in awe as their country went all out to trace and bring them home. Nobody bothered to ask why they had embarked on such an adventure. That was no longer necessary. The most important thing was their safety. The whole country and their leaders united in their resolve to rescue the boys and gave themselves no rest until they were found and brought back to safety. The dedication and concern of the Thai leaders aroused the sympathy of the world which moved in to help.    

In saner countries, the worsening insecurity in the land which has seen many of our citizens either killed, maimed, in captivity or brutally displaced and the badly rundown economy which has led to the collapse of vital institutions that provide basic amenities to the citizenry and unleashed unspeakable hardship were enough reasons for Gen Buhari to excuse himself from the second term contest since there was ample that he was bereft of any fresh ideas for the reclamation of the country.

But in these parts, people seek power not to serve the citizenry, but largely to gratify some self-serving interests – like enjoying limitless luxuries, expensive vacations and medical treatments at public expense! So, even if they run the country completely aground as is the case in Nigeria now, they would still seek another term in order to return, even if it means to merely play the undertaker.  The verdict of history holds no attraction for them.

So, as Buhari enjoys his expensive vacation in the UK, Leah’s hot tears continue to flow. Each day, she looks out for the rescue team that is yet to even take off, or probably not even making any plans to do so. Sense of loneliness and abandonment are her daily sources of torments.  May be, our leaders are wishing that we should forget about Leah and move on – like they seem to have done to the Chibok girls. After deftly deploying the horrible plight of the Chibok girls to great effect to win the election in 2015, they are yet demonstrate that they possess the capacity to bring them home as they promised.

As Boko Haram continues to wreak havoc in several communities, all we hear are white lies about how they have been “technically defeated” and “degraded”. This empty propaganda is more important to them, not necessarily the liberation of the people in the captivity of Boko Haram.

In some of the places in Nigeria today, notably, the North East, aid agencies are, reportedly, no longer able to access the people trapped here and there with food and medical supplies. Poorly motivated and ill-equipped soldiers are being killed with chilling frequency by better armed terrorists. The country under a retired general seems to have relinquished the monopoly it ought to exercise over the instruments of violence and coercion. Nigerians have, therefore, become lame ducks before bandits and terrorists who brazenly abduct, kill and render them homeless daily with utmost impunity – as if government is on recess. It is that bad. 

*Culled from my Friday column in Daily Independent newspaper 
( www.independent.ng)  

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