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.
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| *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.”
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| *President Buhari |
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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