Do we still remember Miss Leah Sharibu? In case we have forgotten, she was one of 110 female students abducted by terrorists from their hostel at Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapch, on February 19, 2018, at about 5:30pm. Dapchi is located in Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State. The sad event occurred under the governorship nose of Mr. Ibrahim Geidam, who currently sits in the Senate of the Federal Republic as a lawmaker.
Recall also that when Leah and her colleagues were kidnaped, the state governor, rather than take action, abdicated responsibility and pushed blame to the military, which he accused of removing a road block on the major road leading to the school. In his little mind, the removal of the road block aided the terrorists in the execution of the crime. Well, this is no longer a matter of buck passing between the governor and the military.
Recall also that effort was made by the Nigerian government to recover the girls, five of who, unfortunately, lost their lives during the abduction. After several days of negotiations and under-the-table agreements, all of the girls were freed. But we were told that the criminal abductors held back Leah because she was a Christian. As it now stands, Leah has lived the last four years of her life as a captive. No one is certain about her living condition. No one knows her state of health, mental and physical. The little girl has lived for more than 1,450 days in the enclave of people she neither likes nor loves. She has lost her time in school. She has lost her schoolmates, many of whom may have forgotten her name. She has lived the past four years plus away from the warmth of her family and friends. And by the last count, she should be 18 years by January 1, 2021 having been taken hostage when she was just 14.
Leah is not a metaphor. She is an existential reality, one that says she is in captivity because she refused to deny her faith and convert to another, as allegedly demanded by her abductors. But the sad reality is that, despite promises to rescue Leah by both federal and state governments, Leah has been severally disappointed by those her parents exercised their franchise to vote into power on her behalf. By exercising their franchise legitimately, Leah’s parents submitted their will to the state, believing that the state would, in return, protect them from such crimes as kidnapping. But the state hasn’t. The state has failed them and failed almost everyone that hitherto believed in it. It is for this reason that erstwhile President of the Senate, David Bonaventure Mark, recently warned that citizens would eventually have no option than to take up arms in self-defence. Mark is not the first to sound the alarm.
Leah’s parents had dismissed earlier insinuations that she may have been killed in captivity. They confirmed that she was still inhaling and exhaling air, possibly contaminated. But what baffles me about the Leah Sharibu story is that everyone seems to know when she is impregnated and when she puts to bed, but no one knows her exact location for possible rescue. Isn’t that an irony? This week, the online media have been awash with reports suggesting that Leah has put to be a second time. This indicates that the little girl is now a mother of two; but who is the father of her kids? Recall that her parents had also dismissed media reports that she had been married off to one of her abductors.
Like I asked: how come we know when she puts to bed and how her babies are faring but still do not know where she is being held? Other developments around Leah are public knowledge, yet, her location is unknown. Leah is in captivity against her faith and against her conscience. She has been systematically damaged and ravaged by vampires who have neither regard nor feeling, and would, someday, be reintegrated into society by the government as repentants. I imagine the pain her mother feels remembering that her precious little daughter is in the hands of beasts who know neither innocence nor conscience.
This is where Nigeria failed. As a nation and a people, we have failed Leah. We have also failed her parents and family. We have every reason to hide our face, as a nation and a people, in shame for our collective inability to rescue and guarantee the safety of just one 14 years old helpless girl. Like many others, Leah looked up to the Nigerian state, with hefty annual security budgets, to guarantee her safety and freedom. Sadly, Nigeria cannot. Nigeria cannot guarantee the safety of Leah Sharibu.
It also cannot guarantee the safety of hundreds of other schoolchildren who are daily faced with the threat of abductions. To these kids, Nigeria no longer cares, especially when the leadership has publicly pushed the buck on responsibility for safety of schools to proprietors and management. Sadly also, the Nigerian government, whose basic constitutional function is the “security and welfare of the people,” has progressively shown lack of capacity to guarantee the security and safety of anyone, not even its governors. Its only known expertise is in sending condolence messages and threats. What government has refused to realise is that each time it sends those messages it advertises how deeply disconnected from reality it is.
The fate of Leah will continue to haunt and torture all those who publicly promised to rescue her in 2018 but have failed to do so and moved on with their offices like nothing happened. The image of her face will disrupt their sleep, having disappointed her and behaved like she no longer matters. But she does! Leah matters because she represents the Nigerian child who has been told severally that tomorrow belongs to him/her. As far as Leah and the Nigerian child are concerned, tomorrow will never come. This is because those who had promised to protect their tomorrow have rather raped it and in the process alienated them from it. The tomorrow of Leah Sharibu and the Nigerian child is blurred, it is depressing. It is so because those who had been given today to protect and manage for the future care not about what that future holds for the Nigerian child.
It is disheartening that a little child of 14 became a mother of two, as at today, against her will and wish. One only wonders how many more kids she would bring forth before she is reunited with her family. Besides, even when she is reunited with her family, at a time only God knows, how will she look at the kids she bore in her womb? How will her parents welcome their grandchildren? My mind runs wild with imageries and chills. But it is the reality that Leah lives with. It is also a reality her parents manage to sleep with. It is the reality of a nation that does not care, a nation that has failed in its duty of care for the vulnerable. It is a reality, which only a leadership that does not care entertains.
Many have wondered if Leah would have been subjected to her present fate were she to be an adherent of the same religion as those that were freed. Maybe not! The narrative that she was offered conversion to the religion of her abductors as bait for freedom says it. However, after four years in captivity, and allegedly with two kids, the government of the Federal Republic has forgotten her. It has moved on like she never existed. I guess that is why it is possible for the public to know when she becomes pregnant and when she puts to bed while the government lacks knowledge of her location. For me, it is either the government no longer bothers itself about her and has moved on or she was offered to her abductors as part of ransom to free her mates. So sad!