by Kingsley Ahanonu

Mr. President, no doubt, needs our prayers and support; and yes, we’ve being praying. He shouldn’t make the supplications of millions of Nigerians appear inefficient; he should manifestly work out their results. 

It is more than two weeks now and our girls are still missing. The abduction of the girls at a Chibok high school, on the 14th of April, has become the swirling issue of the moment. Since the news of its occurrence, many have commented on the issue; tempers have been raised and emotions yet to stay.

One would think that with all the vituperation and furore combined together, the effect would have done more to necessitate the release of the girls; to nudge the government and its security outfits into moving swiftly to secure the freedom of these girls now turned slave—slaves presumably for sex. But it has continued to baffle the mind that far from the expectations, nothing albeit tangible has been effused than the continuous raking of emotions and more emotions—for their safe return.

I have read and watched discourses that have continued to ensue in reaction to this act of brigandage and I cannot help but follow each course with re-infused emotion. These feelings, more aptly are quickened by my imaginative voyages. I brood on the present condition of these young girls, I picture the indignity they must have become subjected to by their captors, I visualize their helplessness and their inability to assert denial in the face of the indiscriminate brandishing of lordship by their captives; I imagine and cannot help but continue imagine the fates of these children.

My imaginative mind is not left alone in this grope; it is indeed identified by the responsive affective. Even as my mind makes its concerted poignant journey, the rhythms of concern and fear is re-echoed and given expressive amplification by the vulnerable sensitivities—I betray strength in shaking sobs whenever my awareness navigates this heart-rending course. I’m not supposed to evince emotional weakness; no, not as a full-blooded young man.

But each time I reflect on this scare, I found the reason that calls me to composure heavily subdued by the possible realities my mind feeds me with. The realities of the present status of our young pupils as handy [sex] slaves, the thrall that has now cowered them to zombies and ready tools of their masters’ bidding; and of course, the seeming failure of our security apparatus to reverse the status quo.

Some say over 200 while others posit that 234 girls are still missing; though the figures look confusing just as was with the number of escapees. Howbeit, with all the galloping figure-presentation, we could still rely heavily that over a hundred of our girls are out there; in a completely unknown terrain, surrounded by fear and defeat —out of the care of their parents. Even if it’s one, does it not matter?

It is even more agonizing to realise that these girls were not out there in the streets, loitering aimlessly and doing some nasty stuffs in defiance to social sanctum—so as to assume that they fell into the wrong hands while in unholy moves; these girls were snatched away from their abode within the walls of enlightenment, where they had sought for refuge from the clutch and demeaning haze of ignorance and illiteracy.

They were whisked away apparently for defying the philistinic order of these impish and uncouth daredevils to stay out from the cover of the school. What an affront to the power of the books; an effrontery to defile the academic sanctity and a slight to the very essence of government—of civilization. These unsanctified desecrators now have on a string these young girls, who are being shaped and groomed to assume the status of guide and light to a many. What a pity!

It is a pity indeed that the hand that rev the security forces and the voice whose command they obey is yet to understand the enormity of this impudence, which has—in act—been diminished into a ‘mere abduction of ordinary school girls’. But, it goes beyond that. Even the systemic manner by which the girls were confiscated out of their serene abode depicts clearly the underlain pertness that gave zest to this insult. It is basically a challenge to the common value that we all share: the power of education to suggest the light that guides us to the fulfilment of our essence of being human, men and women.

When the Nyanya bomb blast which decapitated and left not a few infamously mutilated, I had wept with much concern; an empathy drawn from the fact that it could’ve been me, in that bus station readily seated on waiting for a turn in one of the many possible trips, who would could’ve been subjected to such ignominy. But I considered and had to regain composure, believing that I had to be strong to really fight on for the deceased and injured.

Unfortunately, much nonsense was made of my earlier distress; as I was forced back into a relapse of more anxiety by the action of my president—the very person, who should be more worried. He was engaged in a disco-dance at a rally just about 24 hours after the gory incident that literally enervated me; skipping and sniggering while the fiery pain burns. What a paradoxical world, I cried out—of those weeping and of those rejoicing.

And when the news of the ferry mishap began to filter, the hyped concern over it and the subsequent relayed responses of the South Korean prime minister got me thinking deeply. I was forced to compare the Nigerian tragedy and the Korean mishap vis-a-vis the reactions of both sides. The South Korean ferry sinking was an unfortunate incident albeit not planned nor envisaged; even as the crew members could be held culpable, they could still be considered on the reason that it was not a deliberate error of man.

Even as such, the response of the South Korean nation, headed by prime minister, Chung Hung-won, was unprecedented. I heard the man, who has recognisably assumed responsibility in the storm has resigned.

Then, I came to the Nigerian case; the Nyanya carnage of 14th April and the following Chibok assault are both heinous acts of terrorism that blatantly challenged the security intelligence of this nation; and even in the inefficiency of the security, nothing has considerably been done to leverage on the evinced incapacitation and irresponsibility. Instead of the little show of remorse for failure, the head of the Nigerian nation was seen frolicking and celebrating in an ordinary political shindig.

Was it was so easy to put behind the victims of this indignity to pursue a political future in the hypocritical mollification of ‘let’s
face the future, what has happened has happened’? But is that easy and is it reasonable—of Mr. President?

A South Korean leader took responsibility of the travails of his youngcitizens upon himself and resigned for what he presumed was his failure—and of which I considered was no fault of his. What does that suggest of our own president in responsibility and responsiveness? How do we correlate both situations? Definitely, it’s one of a lagoon-deep dissimilarity.

By this very act, which has appeared unchallenged, these elements, who parade themselves as antagonists of what education carries as values and mission, have in no small way made visible their threats. This action would permeate deep into the fabric of the girl child and the parents to impinge a disdain for the call to be educated. The evidence that propels this fright still stands strong in their faces: the dehumanization of their inane fellows who heeded to the call. The government expended no small strength in bringing the northern girl-child to school; it must never allow this committed effort to be dismissed with just a stroke by some dissidents.

It is true that the president is short of the magic wand to bring back those cruelly sent to the beyond or to effuse the miraculous rescue of the girls. No one is thinking such—he is merely human—but all we are saying is for him to muster the will conferred on him and put these recurring stunts to outright halt.

Mr. President, no doubt, needs our prayers and support; and yes, we’ve being praying. He shouldn’t make the supplications of millions of Nigerians appear inefficient; he should manifestly work out their results. Nigerians—I am particularly—tired of the inebriated laxity. No time should be wasted in bringing back our bruised morale. And in so doing, let’s start by first of all, bringing these little girls back to school and safely.

The government nay the society, who had convinced the girl child into responding to the transformational and the restructuring power of the books, must do well to assure these victimized children and the others around that they were not deceived to do so; but that the intentions remain genuine. We must bring them back to school and let them realise that the words of conviction still remain viable and achievable. In the school lies this hope, in the school they must be returned.

#BringBackOurGirls.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.