Simao Kikamba’s Going Home sums it up. Though a chilling fiction of an Angolan immigrant in racist South Africa and the harrowing experiences that attended the day-to-day living in a foreign land, the text narrates the pang of nostalgia and lack of substitute for “home”.
Chibok is home to Kibaku people, but the pang of loss and negative publicity that their once cherished root has attracted in the last one month is not in any way cheering. As it is now, home, to the Kibaku, is a bugbear and a spot where wolf stalks its victim.
The wolf – Boko Haram – bared its fang on innocent schoolgirls recently when it swooped on and took them to a yet-to-be-known location, thus throwing up global protests, while spirited efforts have been made to rescue them unharmed, all to no avail.
While the world waits with bated breath to see what would eventually end the schoolgirls abduction saga, the leader of Boko Haram sect, Mallam Abubakar Shekau, has told the world what he intends doing with the over 200 abducted girls.
Sheaku’s latest video
As widely reported, Mallam Shekau has, at last Monday, said he will sell the girls, stating that none of them will be released until the Federal government frees all insurgents in detention.
The girls, who dressed in Islamic attire, were videoed reciting verses of the Holy Qur’an, while Shekau was quoted as saying that some of the girls who refused to be converted into Islam would be sold.
In his message, which was rendered in Arabic, Kanuri, Hausa and English, the sect leader said that, “We have the girls in our custody and as you can see from the video, they have all accepted to become Muslims. In just a matter of few days, they have learnt to recite the first chapter of the Holy Qur’an fluently.
“We did not force them, but we have explained Islam to them clearly and they have all accepted it; and even some of them are now calling on their parents to join them in Islam, while they have been groping in the dark all these years.
“You are all out there worrying about these girls, but they are here now converted willingly into Islam. They are happy, because we treated them very well in the manner women are supposed to be treated.
“If you like you can go on again and insinuate, as usual, that we have given them some concoction to drink. Yes, go on and say Shekau has given them some portion to change their minds. But you should all know that we don’t drink anything here, we don’t drink alcohol. We are Muslims and our concoction is the names of Allah and his prophet.
“These girls have become our property as it is the injunction in the Qur’an. We decide what to do with them. Yes, I repeat, they are now our slaves and acquired property; whatever we wish, we will do with them. As I have said earlier, we can even sell them if we wish.
“But the fact remains that these girls remain with us until the Nigerian government releases our brothers and sisters being held in various detention facilities across the country.
“Just because of these few girls that we have taken, the world is shouting. But you should know that we have also abducted and taken boys that tripled this number in the past. Why is the world not talking?
“Let Obama, Ban ki Moon and Goodluck Jonathan know that there is nothing you can do to us, because this is the war of God and not human. This is not capitalism, this not socialism, this is not democracy; this is not United Nations charter; this is the religion of God, this is Jihad.
“These girls will go nowhere, until our brethren in Maiduguri, Abuja, Enugu and Lagos are all released from captivity. So, it hurts this much, yet you have kept our brethren in detention for over five years; our women have been kept in cells without marriage for all these years; some of our members, about 20 of them, were given poison to drink and they died silently in the cells. No one is talking about them.
“Let the world know that we are ready for whatever troops that are being deployed to fight us; we don’t fear American troops. Let even King Pharaoh himself be sent down here, we will deal with him squarely,” Shekau boasted.
US marines in Nigeria
The US marines arrived Nigeria penultimate week to help locate and rescue the abducted girls and step up the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria. Though the US Senate has ruled out the possibility of sending American Special Forces to help confront the insurgents, the marines have combed the Sambisa evil forest in search of the girls. To prove their expertise, the marines were said to have made arrests at Anyibe in Logo Local Government Area of Borno State, while other foreign nations like Britain, Israel, France and China were reported to have shown their readiness to support Nigeria in rescuing the girls alive and combating Boko Haram menace.
Mutiny in Maimalari Barracks
Just last Wednesday, soldiers in Maimalari Barracks were reported to have mutinied against the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 7 division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Abubakar Mohammed, over his alleged insensitivity to their plight and the killings of their colleagues by insurgents.
The enraged soldiers, according to an online news portal, were said to have lamented the neglect of their welfare by the military authorities, claiming that “We, the soldiers, didn’t have the kind of arms and ammunition that Boko Haram fighters have. So, every day, they kill our men anyhow, but it is never published in the media.”
The GOC was said to have escaped death by a whisker as the angry soldiers fired shots at his vehicle. The GOC has since been redeployed and replaced by another senior officer.
More protesters call for the girls’ release
Global condemnation has grown against the inhumanity perpetrated by Boko Haram, just as hundreds of protesters across the globe have continued to call for the unconditional release of the girls. The list of protesters is endless. It includes celebrities, politicians, sports men and women and religious leaders. While some women under the aegis of Women Arise Against Terror Group (WAATG) threatened to storm Chibok nude in protest against the abduction, overwhelming displays of solidarity by women groups all over the world have continued to pour in for the girls. The Senate President, David Mark, for instance revealed last Monday in China the readiness of the Federal Government to fight insurgency in the country with its resources, stating that, “Boko Haram has become a real nuisance…We will not allow it to go on for too long”. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has similarly called on the insurgents to release the girls unconditionally. According to him, “We condemn their action and also appeal to them to release the girls unconditionally, because they have important contributions for the future of this country.” Of importance also is the avalanche of tweets and messages in the social media calling for the release of the girls.
Cancellation of President Jonathan’s visit to Chibok
President Goodluck Jonathan was allegedly billed to visit the beleaguered city of Chibok last Friday before jetting out to France, where he was expected to hold discussion with French and some Francophone African leaders on how to end Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. News, however, spread early on Friday that the visit had been cancelled over security reasons. The president had earlier paid an official visit to Congo last Monday to consult with Congolese president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, on security situation in West and Central Africa.
Any hope of release?
What the world is waiting for is to hear the news of the girls’ release, but threats from Mallam Shekau seems to have foreclosed any possibility of this. He appears hell-bent on holding on to the girls until his conditions are met. Time will, however, tell what b
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