By Henry Umahi
Her name is Rejoice but there is little or nothing for her to rejoice about. For her, life is nasty and brutish. Indeed, for her, life is not a song worth singing; it is repulsive and agonising.
Growing up, 24-year-old Rejoice Sanki wanted to be a medical doctor. She loved the profession so much because it would give her the opportunity to help her fellow human
beings when they have health challenges.
So, to be able to achieve her dream, she was studious. She rejoiced during school hours, enjoying her books.
Then something happened and it changed the course of her life completely. She went through the valley of the shadow of death, but fortunately she has the good fortune of being alive to tell her story.
Rejoice is one of the 244 students of Chibok Secondary School abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in April 2014. Like the other girls, she was in the dormitory when the evil men came and bundled them into their truck.
Inside the forest, her innocence was stolen. She was violated endlessly. She was forcefully married by a Boko Haram fighter named Musa and before she was rescued by the Nigerian military recently, she had given birth to two children for Musa inside the bush.
Daily Sun met Rejoice yesterday in Maiduguri, the capital of Bornu State, and she told her story. According to her, although she didn’t like what happened to her and how she was forcefully married by a man she did not know but she loves her two children without measure.
Asked if she had ever contemplated abandoning or doing any harm to the children, she said no.
“The children are mine; they are my blood. I love them so much,” she said.
Rejoice further disclosed that Musa treated her nicely in the bush.
“He did not beat me, he was giving me food. He was nice to me in the bush,” she said.
She however added that she wouldn’t want to meet Musa again. She said she married Musa because she had no choice.
“If you don’t obey whatever they tell you, they will do whatever they like to you,” she said.
One other thing she regrets is that she was forced to convert to Islam by the insurgents.
Rejoice said that although the Borno State government has been taking care of her for one year, she wants to go back home because there is no place like home.
She said she was happy in Chibok before the evil men came into the picture. She further said that her dream of becoming a doctor has not died. “I still want to go to school,” she said.
Twenty-four-year old Ruth Bitrus, who had one child in captivity, also adores her baby.
“I love my baby,” she said.
Similarly, Asabe Ali, 24, who was married to Mohamed Abu and had one child for him, remains a dotting mother. She loves her child but is not missing the father.
Asabe is looking for help from government so that she can fend for her one year and four months old baby and herself.
