by Awosusi Ayotunde

These abductions are most likely the proverbial last straw, going by the fire in the eyes of Nigerians, Anger which can only be quelled by the return and rehabilitation of those poor girls.

It has been three weeks since over 200 young girls have been abducted by members of the Boko Haram sect and their whereabouts remain yet unknown. 200 young girls whom hitherto the day, didn’t only walk free but were surrounded by love. Their only offence was sharing a collective dream of a better future. Marched out of their dorm rooms in the dead of the night their dreams quickly turned to a living nightmare.

They have been failed by the constituted body that every single one of us looked up to, to protect us, our interests, our loved ones. They have experienced what men ten times their age, size, bravery dreads; they are prisoners of war, a war they no little or nothing about. The reality of their ordeal is unimaginable to anybody with a heart and has quickly courted the attention of the world. The outrage their present reality sparks is as evident as the anguish we have been made to sleep with. Everybody, is and will remain there family because in the real state of things we are all victims.
Boko haram in itself have, time over time tendered there letter of intent and have, at no point been reluctant to point out their objectives. What they have not failed to do as well, is to guard from the global watch (like any criminal would do) there inner workings, churning tactics and tasteless choices of targets and of course they won’t Man up, and show their face. It isn’t that I, personally, find it surprising, but what is surprising is the fact that the leadership of a sovereign nation with enormous resources and access to the worlds most established security giant, whose own is also been plundered day-in, day-out also appears clueless. Intelligence is obviously scarce and should there have been any calculated efforts towards combating the insurgency plaguing the country, it wouldn’t have gathered as much momentum as it has today. Under the watch of the generals of our present democracy, a home grown terrorist group has blossomed to become a worldwide brand in the business. The business of shedding the blood of innocent, poor Nigerians; majority of whom “breath of life” and hope of a better tomorrow is all they have got. The only logical question whose answer is arguably allowed to elude us all is, what the hell, the b*****ds are fighting for?

These abductions are most likely the proverbial last straw, going by the fire in the eyes of Nigerians, Anger which can only be quelled by the return and rehabilitation of those poor girls. I see it as a struggle, which is far from nominal, of the freedom not only of those girls, but of us all and the future of our generations unborn; in that in our time, we saw evil and we stood up to it till it was no more. A fight we fought regardless of who we are, where we are from and a system that was insensitive to the cry of the innocent blood of its own people.

With no iota of doubt in my mind our #ChibokGirls owe to every Nigerian the end of their servitude and the regaining of their freedom, hence, the government lets it slide as usual. Although what Nigerians should also be aware of is the fact that if we are going to have peace ourselves we have to continually ensure that our “ogas-at–the-top” via strategic proactive counter mechanisms foil the acts of evil in our land. What better time for them to start than now? If Nigeria is going to be devoid of the constant spillage of blood, its government have to #BringOurGirlsBack first. The most recent feedback from the guys in charge (Presidential media chat and the infamous First lady’s “teary” expo) offered little or no hope. As much as you can argue (as regarding issues of this sensitive nature) that a leader might not divulge information to the public on his underground workings, the least he as president could do though, was give some sort of resounding assurance. We didn’t get much, (not as if he did, it will hold any water anyways) although we picked up from the GCFR himself that he dreads the sect and won’t be found anywhere near them.

Little wonder, Boko Haram Leader was basking in sky high confidence in his own media chat, with a ridiculous wide grin and an untouchable aura coupled to a Luciferic-themed authority told us his intentions: He will sell our Girls. The world heard it, believed it and has since jumped on that bandwagon. We have taken a terrorists word for it absolutely. “Real Men don’t buy/sell girls” have since then been the maxim. I, like no hearty person around, can fathom the untold hardship that awaits our girls. These girls have seen more than enough and these terrorists still hold the aces, our girls are the pawns in there game. They are tools in their yards, slaves in their huts, wives in their beds and yet they have threatened to have them killed should any rescue attempt be made as if they had better plans for them if there was none. What could be worse is, our girls could quickly become weapons in their arsenals- that is something Shekau wouldn’t want us to expect and Aso Rock can’t afford to be ignorant of.

The negligence of those in power has put us all in a difficult position. Having to choose between a sad option; negotiating for young fragile lives, some of whom by now already wished they were dead or a dangerous one; risking a rescue attempt at the expense of their lives.

But if Boko Haram is selling them, who is buying? Or where is the transaction holding? And how much would one go for? But be ye not deceived, for Shekau and his cohorts, money is probably not the motive. He granted his Terrorist media chat with an Armed Personnel Carrier (Which I would suppose doesn’t come cheap) in the background, His cause is well funded. By who? And how? I, maybe you too, wouldn’t know, but what is obvious is that one girl wouldn’t sell for enough money to sustain one man in his army for weeks. On the contrary though, one girl can be forced to sacrifice her being and well-being to satisfy his pervasive cravings. Should they go low on funds, I would suppose they could find more lucrative sources or targets than the poor girls at Chibok. They have been in the business for years, maybe they can do better than that?
With a teeming army of able bodied men from all over Africa and beyond, what other non-obvious explanation can he give to abducting the girls? It wouldn’t be inexcusable to think that the slavery we are being told the girls are being sold to, is their cause of killing and destruction. The more time it takes to reclaim the girls, the more time they will have to threaten, intimidate, rape, torture, brainwash, maim or “better still” kill our girls. Rather than our dissents being for the redemption of our girls alone, it is likewise for our own redemption from impending danger. Their innocence and frailty is a perfect platform for boko haram to launch even more deadly attacks, hence their abduction is a matter of national, maybe international security, and their retrieval very important to our co-habitation in peace as Nigerians.

The obvious lack of urgency to find our girls, in the higher echelons of power in the country reflects their ignorance and our ill-preparedness for terror as a country. Who would suspect a slightly malnourished, distressed and defenseless looking 13 year old girl on a bus, to be straddled with explosives well concealed under her hijab by her abductors? Or at the departure lounge of a busy airport? should someone even tip the plan off, would we rather have our security operatives faced with a dilemma of taking the life of a young girl, (probably about the same age as his daughters) who has been forcefully strapped with a bomb or have hundreds or thousands people die instead while Shekau is in a forest somewhere setting up cameras preparing for his next YouTube hit video? Of course not, as difficult and impossible as it may seem the best bet for us as a nation is to find and recollect those young minds and compensate them immensely for what we have put them through.

If you are on the street with a placard, be rest assured you are doing it for yourself, your family, your people, your nation and lastly the girls, because should they be brought back, you would have helped avert a national disaster. Otherwise we would be losing the war on terror, whilst the government people sleep and wake up only on their paydays whilst we wake up each day to the realization that the #ChibokGirls was just the beginning.

In this moment, the pressure is mounting and we as a people are very optimistic that our girls would make it out of the lions’ den. Our collective efforts could be a major reason why more souls won’t be lost in the future should our GCFR for once, allow us as a nation to stand up and show strength, to think, to strategize, to harness our resources (Human and Capital) and fight back.

To fight back for the pain they have cost us and for our heartache, help #bringbackourgirls.

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Awosusi Ayotunde is a Doctoral student (Phd) School of Life Sciences.,University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg South Africa and he tweets from @dr_trips

 

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