The headline on every daily yesterday was in harmony, ‘Nigerian Army rescues another Chibok Schoolgirl’ and the picture of an elated Buhari smiling at a young girl with child was displayed. The story went on to inform us that the Army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said soldiers freed the girl after a Thursday night battle in the northeastern Sambisa Forest in which it liberated 97 women and children and killed 35 extremists. He said the rescued girl is No. 157 on the list of the 218 girls who were seized more than two years ago from a boarding school in Chibok.
But was that the truth? Reports coming out from Chibok, Borno State claims the opposite. Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus has revealed that No. 157 has a different name. According to him, the list has two other young women sharing the surname given by the military, and the rescued girl may have been visiting older sisters at the school the night of the kidnap.
Also, contrary to what was reported in the press, he said the first Chibok teenager to be freed with a 4-month-old baby and was discovered by hunters wandering on the fringes of the Sambisa Forest on Tuesday and was flown to Abuja to meet with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari.
Many have frowned at the way the government has chosen to politicize the Chibok tragedy and try to score cheap political points at the detriment of millions of Nigerians and the world in general. Why didn’t the Nigerian government and military carry out a thorough investigation before publicizing this issue and why take a young teenage mother rescued from a forest to meet the president instead of taking her to a facility where she can receive concrete medical care and counseling; then have the president come see her there?
One thing is for sure, this is not the last we will hear on the Chibok girls’ saga. We just hope however, that the military and Nigerian government will stop calling every girl (and woman) found in Borno a ‘rescued Chibok girl’.
Today is Day 767 since the Chibok girls were allegedly taken from their school hostel in Chibok, Borno State. May God help us all!
