The world was scandalised. Global civil society switched itself on as leading personalities such as Michelle Obama, Malala and the popular culture fraternity went to work. There were stories of great powers deploying stealth technology to rescue beloved Chibok girls. At home, the #BringBackOurGirls did a lot to conscientize the populace on the unacceptability of it all. Newspapers kept pace with counting up to the minutes.
Now, it is nine years after the human drama of Chibok girls – something that was out of imagination to the Nigerian psyche some – activists who have followed it most compiled the results of all the efforts. It is the infographic you see as the cover picture of this story.
The text producers provided the following backgrounds as sent to Intervention. They are as follows:
This infographic shows the number of *#ChibokGirls* that have been released, rescued, or returned so far. However, the following details are worth noting:
- There are reports that one “Solomi Titus” is among the girls who escaped before the negotiations, but the same name appears on the Federal Government’s list of the 82 girls released after negotiations.
- One “Kauna Luka” was found on July 26, 2022, and the same name appears on the Federal Government’s list of the 82 girls released after negotiations.
- The name “Mary Dauda” features four times in the lists of both the returned girls and those still in captivity. The name appeared twice on the list of the remaining girls when they were still 112 girls, the name was on the FG list of the 82 released girls, and the same name is that of a Chibok girl found on June 14, 2022.
- We are uncertain if these are the same or different Chibok girls.
- A “Serah Luka” is on the list of the girls who are still missing; however, the same is the name of a Chibok girl found in May 2016, who, though a student of Government Secondary School, Chibok, was abducted in Madagali, Adamawa State.
- The Nigerian Military reports that three of the girls were found in 2019, but we are unable to find any record of such. However, our findings and data on the number of girls who have returned tally with that of the Military.
So far, 183 #ChibokGirls have been brought back, while 93 are still in abduction or unaccounted for. It has been 9 years, 1 month, 7 days (that is 3,324 days) in abduction.
*#BringBackOurGirls*
Apart from the Nigerian Civil War, it is doubtful if any other tragedy attracted the cosmopolitan attention that the Chibok girls crisis did. That says something about the state of consciousness about the biological as well as social vulnerability of women in the Nigerian society. It is a struggle that continues!
One Comment
Abdullahi Musa
Insecurity in Nigeria is a phenomenon that defies rationality.
By the time it became all pervasive it convinced all who are not operators of the system that the State had decided to abdicate it’s responsibility with regards to protection of lives and properties.
When the loss of Chibok girls was compelling us to accept it’s permanence, Dapchi happened.
There the theatre of the absurd started to unfold: Boko Haramists decided to bring back Dapchi girls into town in broad daylight, hailed of course by zombie citizens.
That was not enough. A military gate on Kano-Maiduguri road was closed turning vehicles and passengers into sitting ducks.
Boko Haram descended upon them, killed all the passengers, set the vehicles ablaze.
That was all! The victims were blamed for staying the night there.
A busload of passengers was intercepted on a highway leading to Sokoto, and were roasted alive. That was all! Nigerians had to be made available for mass murder.
And GSS Yauri had to be allowed to happen, so also Bethlehem school.
It was some people’s design and those who wanted to rule at all cost had to allow it to happen.
With thousands of people dead, with ordinary people being made available for kidnapping, ransom collection and slaughter, praise of infrastructure was elevated, in order to dry up the rivers of blood.
Should we pray that the vampires set loose against us are now fully gorged on our blood and are ready to give us a reprieve?
Or would Boko Haram be forced to surrender, hand the baton to a more lethal IPOB who would also create lakes of blood to quench their anger over a Failed secession bid that masqueraded as a Nigerian presidential election?