By Okey Ndibe
A peculiarly
Nigerian type of frenzy happened last week. The event was triggered by a report
that a young woman named Amina Ali Nkeki, one of the more than 200 Chibok
schoolgirls abducted in the night of April 14, 2014, had been rescued. The
initial reports disclosed that a vigilante group rescued Amina last Tuesday, as
she wandered along the edges of Sambisa Forest in the company of a man, who
claimed to be her husband, but was suspected to be a Boko Haram insurgent, and
a four-month baby in her arms.
*Amina Ali Nkeki, rescued Chibok girl meets President Buhari |
From there,
it was brouhaha all the way. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State
feted the 19-year-old mother. Then, a day later, President Muhammadu Buhari
welcomed Amina and her baby to Aso Rock, his official residence. The
misfortunate woman was cast in a dizzying drama that featured photo-ops,
speeches and global media coverage. The president cradled Amina’s baby in his
arms, as he and others beamed for the cameras. Speaking on behalf of the
Nigerian state, the president promised that Amina would receive the best
physical, psychological and emotional healthcare Nigeria can provide.
You’d
think, watching all the excitement, that all 219 schoolgirls, not just one, had
been spirited from their abductors. But that was the one narrative, thumbed
with the imprimatur of the Nigerian state. There was an album of
counter-narratives, running the gamut from those who insisted that the whole
thing was an abject hoax, a stage-managed political theatre, to those who
believe that the abduction saga never happened in the first place.
Last
Thursday, two days after Amina’s rescue, the Nigerian military announced a
second rescue, of a youngster named Serah Luka. It was as if a slow momentum
was building up, Nigeria
on the cusp of finding and liberating the 200 odd victims, who are not
accounted for.
But the
second success story turned out a dud. Chibok parents as well as activists, who
pressed former President Goodluck Jonathan – and are pressing Mr. Buhari – to
bring back the schoolgirls questioned the military’s claim that Serah was one
of the schoolgirls. Neither her name nor image was on the roster of the missing
schoolgirls.
Whether
it was an honest mistake or a calculated fib, the misidentification of Serah,
as one of the Chibok schoolgirls further fueled conspiracy theories. The first
and second rescues were seen as politically orchestrated maneuvers, a plot by
the Buhari administration and its champions to deflect attention from biting
economic crises and deepening social misery.
Some
doubters wondered why Amina, who was supposed to be sitting certificate exams
at the time of her abduction, was incapable of expressing herself in English.
Her apparent incapacity fed speculations that she was chosen and cast in a
contrived melodrama.