by Simon Ateba

The abandonment, by the Nigerian government, of 219 school girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamist sect on 14 April is a global tragedy and a clear confirmation that Nigerians who dump Nigeria everyday ‎for foreign lands have no choice but to flee from a failed state that had long abandoned them.

The girls were snatched at gunpoint from their school dormitories more than four months ago in Chibok, a rural area, 130 kilometres away from Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Borno.

The Presidency at first tried to dismiss their ‎abduction by branding it as hoax and by blaming those who allegedly wanted the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to crumble. But after a ruthless campaign on social media went viral with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, the Presidency backed down and began some face saving propaganda.

President Jonathan set up a committee and told the world that his main focus would be to bring the innocent girls back to their impoverished families and dilapidated schools. But that has not happened.

Abubakar Shekau, the deranged leader of Boko Haram, released a video in May showing some of the girls and threatening to sell them into slavery or marry them off unless the government agreed to swap them for his detained militants.

But the government rejected the offer and claimed that like America, that it does not negotiate with faceless terrorists. Since then, the girls have been left to their fate and only God knows how many of them are alive or well.

Recently, some female bombers began attacking Nigerian cities. While there is no concrete evidence linking them to the Chibok girls, there are fears that they may be the same girls brainwashed by the deadly sect whose ideology is just to massacre innocent people.

The American policy about not negotiating with terrorists showed its limitations recently with the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist kidnapped by Middle East terrorists. Besides, even President Obama exchanged just one American prisoner for five Taliban fighters some months ago. There is no rule without exception.

The Nigerian government, after a sea of lies has clearly shown that it lacks the capacity to bring back the Chibok girls.
President Goodluck Jonathan should admit his failure, swallow his pride and negotiate the release of not just one girl, but 219 innocent girls who will soon clock five months in the bush and in the hands of people who take pride in inflicting more harm to show how serious and deadly they are.

The failure to bring back our girls is not just a Nigerian tragedy but a global failure of all Nigerian leaders, including northern leaders who know some of the Boko Haram henchmen, as well as all world leaders who continue to allow the supply of weapons to a deadly sect that has killed this year alone more people than the Ebola pandemic ravaging some African countries at the moment.