Chibok girls abduction: Remembering 10 years of forgotten tragedy

• Girls Recall Stigma, Pains, Agony Of Captivity
• Silently Cry For Government To Bring Back Missing ‘Sisters’
• It Is Not Over Until The Last Girl Is Freed From Captivity, Fajuyigbe
• Wait For Government’s Promise Continues
• Nigeria Has Not Learnt Lesson From The Abduction

Today, April 14, 2024, is the 3639th day of the infamous abduction of Nigerian school girls. In one fell swoop, 276 of them, mostly Christian female, aged between 16 and 18, were kidnapped by the Boko Haram sect from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok, Borno State.

This year, to mark the 10th anniversary of a largely forgotten tragedy, indigene of Chibok community and a host of activists and media men gathered in Lagos on Thursday, April 4, for the screening of Statues Also Breathe, a collaborative film project by the French artist Prune Nourry and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.

It was held courtesy of collaboration between S.A.B Art Foundation and the Chibok Parents Association. The session was moderated by veteran journalist, Kadaria Ahmed. The full length of the documentary, according to Nigerian-German artist and social activist, Ade Bantu, will be premiered later.

Nourry, in collaboration with 108 students of OAU and the family of the abducted girls, produced 108 clay-head sculptures of the missing girls. Inspired by ancient Nigerian Ife terracotta heads, the series, titled, Statues Also Breathe, tries to recreate the girls’ facial expressions and hair patterns.

“This collaboration aims to raise awareness about the plight of the girls who are still missing while highlighting the global struggle for girls’ education,” Nourry said.

The abduction in 2014 sparked the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign that involved celebrities worldwide including former American First Lady, Michelle Obama; the Nobel peace laureate, Malala Yousafzai; Sylvester Stallone, former World Bank Vice Preside, Dr. Obi Ezekwesili; the civil rights activist, Aisha Yesufu; and others..

Horror Of Abduction
For one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, Amina Ali Nkeki, “one thing that will make me happy 10 years after that harrowing experience is when the remaining ‘sisters’ of mine return home.” She told The Guardian, “I’m a sad person. This is an opportunity to remind government that there are still some Chibok girls in captivity. We still need your effort to ensure ‘our sisters’ in captivity are released so that we can all share the same happiness we have now.”

Ten years on, many of the Chibok abductees, now women, have been freed or escaped, however, there are still about 82 unaccounted for. Amina was the first to gain her freedom. She was found on May 17, 2016 by a vigilante group, Civilian Joint Task Force group in the Sambisa Forest, along with her baby and Mohammad Hayyatu, her husband, a suspected Boko Haram militant, who, ironically, was also abducted. All three were suffering from severe malnutrition when they were found. She was then taken to house of the group’s leader, Aboku Gaji, who recognised her. The group then reunited the girl with her parents.

But what surprised the young woman was when she saw one of her teachers.
“His expression was one of amazement than surprise; his behaviour suggested he did not believe we would come back home again. When I was introduced to him, he just turned his face to the other side. He couldn’t look at me again. I then wondered; why could he have behaved that way?”

Could this have been a sign of betrayal? She nodded her head silently in affirmation. On the night of April 14, 2014, when the students were abducted, there was no teacher around. No male student was equally around.

“Some students who went to fetch water, came back to tell us that they noticed our teachers packing up and leaving in a hurry. When they asked one of them, the teacher told them that it’s like Chibok was not safe. The teacher chased them back in, locked the gate and left,” recalled Amina.

Jummai Mutah, one of the abducted girls, added the terrorists came about 9:45pm in disguise- military camouflage and Ak-47. “They broke into the school, pretending to be soldiers of the Nigerian Armed Forces and dressed in military uniforms. They told us to get out and come with them. The kidnappers came at about 9:45 pm, and for about four hours, 1:00am, they kept us without knowing what to do,” she revealed.

“When they came, they assured us that they had come to rescue us, because we were inexperienced, we believed them and came out from our hiding,” Jummai said.

The terrorists demanded to know where the boys were hiding but were told they were day students. They also needed matches! Later, they revealed they were monsters and warned them of the consequences of trying to escape.

Before their encounter with Boko Haram, Amina had heard of the group in passing. She recalled: “I heard of how they were destroying schools and burning libraries. We had a student who came from one of those schools. We didn’t think they would come to Chibok, we were living happily. Our teachers told us that if Boko Haram came to our school, we should not be worried or afraid that they won’t do anything to us, that they might just destroy the school.”

A few hours prior to the raid, residents in Chibok had received phone calls from neighbouring villages warning them of the incoming attack, as they had witnessed convoys containing armed insurgents driving in the direction of the town.

Amnesty International had condemned the Nigerian government, stating that it believed the Nigerian military had a four hour advance warning of the kidnapping, but failed to send reinforcements to protect the school. The Nigerian military later confirmed that they had a four-hour advance notice of the attack but “their over-extended forces were unable to mobilise reinforcements.”

The school had been closed for four weeks before the attack owing to deteriorating security conditions, however, students from multiple schools and villages were in attendance at the time of the raid, to take final exams in Physics.

There were 530 students registered to participate in Senior Secondary Certificate Examination at the Government Secondary School, however, it was unclear how many were in attendance at the time of the attack.

According to accounts given by some of the girls, including a diary written by two of the girls (Naomi Adamu and Sarah Samuel) while in captivity, the militants had intended to steal a piece of machinery and were initially unsure what to do with the girl. This information was confirmed by Amina and Jummai at the Lagos anniversary panel discussion.

“Some girls were loaded into vehicles and the rest had to walk several miles until other trucks came to take them away,” said Amina. “Some of our parents followed us, but they were advised to go back because they did not have any weapon to fight back and it would also have endangered them.”

As wise as these little ones were, while being taken through the bush onward Sambisa forest, they left their scarf, shoes etc, to fall off the bus as a mark. They hoped some people or their parents would find them.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, local vigilantes and parents searched the Sambisa forest in an attempt to locate and rescue some of the kidnapped girls, however, were unsuccessful in finding any of the captives.

The group was said to have also engaged approximately 15 soldiers based in Chibok, who were unable to stop the attack as the militants had superior numbers and firepower, and no reinforcements were sent by the Nigerian Military during the course of the attack. The attack lasted for hours, during which houses in Chibok were also burned down.

The abduction allowed the country’s major political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) to play roulettes with the lives of young school girls in the guise of scoring cheap political points and winning the 2015 general elections.

The ruling PDP and APC had exchanged angry criticisms over the kidnap. Each accused the other of using the captured girls as campaign tool, a pawn in the game of politics. APC accused the ruling party of unwillingness to acknowledge the security lapses that resulted in the abductions and playing politics with the fate of the girls.

Boko Haram, which emerged as a jihadist movement in Northeast Nigeria in 2009, literally means “western education is forbidden.” Fuelled by resentment of corruption, and the marginalised existence and lack of jobs in the north, Islamist insurgencies had killed nearly 350,000 people by 2020 and displaced more than two million others, according to the UN Development Programme.

The Chibok abduction on the night of April 14, 2014 was not the first time schoolchildren were targeted by militants – nor has it been the last. Months before, 29 boys were killed at a school in Yobe state. In 2018, Boko Haram kidnapped dozens of girls in Yobe, and in 2020, more than 300 boys were abducted from schools in Katsina State in March.

The group began to target schools in 2010, killing hundreds of students by 2014. On July 6, 2013, the terrorist group attacked Government Secondary School in Mamudo, Yobe State, killing at least 42 people. Most of those killed were students, with some staff members among the dead. On September 29, 2013, armed men from the group gained access to the male hostel in the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State, killing 44 students and teachers.

These attacks intensified in February 2014, with 59 boys were killed in the Federal Government College. The Chibok abduction was the peak of Boko Haram’s attack on the Nigerian state. believes should not be educated, and use them as cooks or sex slaves. They had used the girls as negotiating pawns in prisoner exchanges, offering to release some girls in exchange for some of their captured commanders in jail.

Some of the released Chibok girls on their way back home

In Sambisa Forest, it was another world altogether, said Amina and Jummai. “They lived their lives as we do. There were markets, houses etc. “They kept us, started teaching us the Quran and asked to know those who wish to convert to Islam. Abubakar Shekau came and told us that they don’t want to hear about school in Nigeria; that it’s a taboo. He said what they are teaching students- biology, geography, etc, is taboo and that it spoils children’s behaviour. The only school they wanted was Islamic school. They also didn’t want anything like mixed school,” Amina recalled.

Jummai added, “they treated us badly. We discovered that they deceived us when they promised to take us to our parents if we convert to Islam. They said we didn’t know how to read the Quran so they said they’ll keep us till we learn.” She explained further that they were told that the abduction was in line with an agreement they had with the government. The girls were given the option of becoming their slaves if they refused to marry them. Out of fear, many married their abductors; some others were sold as slaves.

Jummai, however, refused to give in to any of the options because their lifestyle was repulsive to her. She also said her faith in Christ kept her strong. Eventually, she was among some of the girls exchanged with some Boko Haram members held by the government.

Stigma Of Being A Chibok Girl
Though happy for their freedom, the girls face stigma in the outside society. To them, the name Chibok has been reduced to that of scorn and derision. While trying to navigate their life back to normalcy after years of living with the extremists, people treat them as inferior. They are plagued by “heartbreaking” suspicion and stigma. Rumours have continued to circulate among their community that the girls were sexual slaves and had been raped over and that they have children abandoned in the forest.

Those who returned home, some of whom gave birth while in captivity, have often been viewed as Boko Haram collaborators and shunned by their communities, stigmatised for becoming victims of the Islamist militants. There has also been resentment in parts of the northeast over the publicity given to the girls.

“In school, we face a lot of disrespect and disregard. Nobody wants to be with us in our study group. Once a Chibok girl is allocated to any group, people begin to protest. They don’t want us in their groups because they say we don’t know anything. Whenever we excel in any assignment, the first thing that comes up is cheating. Nobody believes that we can perform excellently academic-wise,” said Amina, a year two mass communication student of the American University of Nigeria.

Traumatic Moments For Parents
According to one of the parents, Yahi Bwata, 48 parents of the girls have been traumatised to death. Narrating the trauma he went through with his child in captivity, Jesua Adamu, father of Lydia Jesua, said: “My child and two of my brother’s children were in the captivity, but by the grace of God, three of them are out. One of them married yesterday (April 3); that was where my wife went to, if not, she will be here. The pain was much. It was after my daughter came out that I became happy. If you see me then, you will pity me. My beards, my hair were so white that I appeared scary.”

Another guardian/sister of two other Chibok girls abducted who also spoke at the event, narrated how the girls’ father died of heartbreak. One of the girls is back but with gory tales that can redesign one’s psyche for life. The little girl was married to three different Boko Haram fighters, lost her baby, had two of her husbands killed during raids. She came back with her third husband who surrendered to the Army. “That’s too much for a teenager! Sadly, her sister is still missing. The sisters didn’t see each other again after they were taken from their school,” she said.

Although the Nigerian public rallied around calls for the girls’ rescue in the early years, interest gradually waned. Waning interest and ongoing mass abductions by militants has left campaigners and families of missing pupils in despair. Many are beginning to question government’s commitment to the girls’ freedom. The Guardian gathered there are no negotiations under way for the release of the remaining girls, despite assurances given to parents by the Borno authorities.

In a statement issued on April 14, 2023, titled, ‘Nine Years Of No Result’, and signed by Florence Ozor, Gapani Yanga, Aisha Yesufu and Oby Ezekwesili on behalf of #BringBackOurGirls, the group recalled, May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari inauguration speech at the Eagle Square, where he said, ‘we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok Girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents’.

The group said: “Our hearts remain shattered at the failure of President Buhari’s government to close this shameful chapter in our country’s history. The negative level of attention and priority that this administration has given to our Chibok Girls is not only disgraceful, but a de-motivator for poor parents who are not convinced that educating their daughters is the best decision they can make for themselves and society at large.

“For nine grueling years, Chibok Girls’ parents have desperately waited for their daughters to return home. The #BringBackOurGirls Movement has constantly declared that our Chibok Girls are a symbol of the Girl Child in Nigeria and the world, and that the abduction and the prolonged captivity of the remaining 96 girls has become an assault on girl child education especially in the North East.

“Our movement has endlessly called on the government of President Buhari to fulfill the campaign promise he made in 2015. All to no avail. Nearly eight years ago, barely a day passed without President Muhammadu Buhari talking about the Chibok Girls and the need for their urgent rescue. Today, both him and his government are completely silent on the issue. He has simply moved on and forgotten about our precious girls.

“It is a known fact that a nation that leaves behind its female population is an underdeveloped society. The unresolved plight of the abductions is regarded as a de-motivator for poor parents who should be convinced that educating their daughters is the best decision they can make for themselves and society at large. The growth of our nation is under threat.”

Ten years after this largely forgotten tragedy, what lessons have Nigeria learned? Many are worried that the security lapses that resulted in the Chibok kidnapping remain in place in many schools. They believe that in coming years, a confluence of factors will produce an unprecedented shortfall in the necessary supply of requisite skills in the country.

Schools continue to be targeted, particularly in remote areas of the north where security is lax and kidnappers can escape into vast forests. According to Save the Children, more than 1,600 children have been abducted or kidnapped across northern Nigeria since 2014, most recently last month when gunmen kidnapped at least 287 pupils, aged between seven and 18, from a school in Kuriga, Kaduna State. The kidnappers demanded 1bn naira (£640,000) for their release, but before the deadline about half of the pupils were rescued by the army.

For many children across northern Nigeria, the pursuit of an education means facing the constant threat of abduction or kidnapping.
Children are facing the harrowing dilemma of sacrificing their safety for education.

Analysts worry that the security lapses that resulted in the Chibok kidnapping remain in place in many schools. They believe that in coming years, a confluence of factors will produce an unprecedented shortfall in the necessary supply of requisite skills in the Northeastof Nigeria. They said if left unchecked, this shortfall will result in a series of harmful economic outcomes. And one of the best strategies for expanding the supply of skills is through access to education.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), one in three children in Nigeria is out of school, totalling 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the junior secondary school (JSS) level.

The UN education body also indicated that 12.4 million children have never attended school, and 5.9 million left school prematurely, contributing to Nigeria’s out-of-school population, which accounts for 15 per cent of the global total.

The Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, lamented the growing number of out-of-school children (OOSC) in Northern Nigeria, deeming it “unacceptable” and “disheartening.”

Research on Improving Systems Of Education (RISE) revealed that despite compulsory free basic education, around 10.5 million children aged five to 14 years are out of school in Nigeria.

It added that approximately 50 per cent of these children reside in the northern region, heavily impacted by the Boko Haram insurgency. Linda Masi, a creative writer, whose debut novel, Fine Dreams, won the Juniper Prize for Fiction, said: “An attack on young girls, women, and the people of any region in Nigeria is a scourge on the entire nation.”

Masi, who holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi, said, “in the wake of these acts of terror, lives are snuffed out untimely, there are disruptions and displacements, and talents and dreams go to die six feet under. On reflection of the Chibok Girls’ abduction, 10 years after, how long must kidnappings endure, and female bodies continue to be sites of violence during these horrific attacks? What lessons have we learned about the Chibok experience regarding the circulation of power and the dynamics of personal, religious and group identity that could prevent subsequent abductions?”

She added, “as a nation of diverse people, for this plague to be expunged, we must engage acceptance, tolerance, sympathy, and political will.”Dr Michael Olusegun Fajuyigbe, a lecturer in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said: “Government has not really tried because it is not over until the last girl is free from captivity. So, that’s just the situation. Nobody likes it in captivity. So, When you are in captivity it seems you have been abandoned, you’ve have been forgotten. Then you want to resign to fate. And that is what is happening to some of these girls to be there. As if they don’t bother any more again.”

For Fajuyigbe government maybe winning the war, “but it’s been prolonged. It is being prolonged.
I believe it is being prolonged, because if there is a will, if the political will is there, I believe strongly by now the last girl of the Chibok students must have returned. Sambisa is there. What about our security agency. There should be collaboration: Navy, police, army and Air force. By the time they come together and focus, all this is achievable.”

He called on everyone to work together and ensure that the business of security is a collective goal, saying: “We should be there for one another. We should be at alert. When we hear of kidnapping or any form of marauding, we should come together. United we stand, divided we fall.”

A recent survey by the United Nations children’s agency’s Nigeria office found that only 43 per cent of minimum safety standards are met in over 6,000 surveyed schools. Just months after 276 girls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State on April14 2014, the Federal Government partnered with stakeholders to set up a Safe School Initiative as a quick response to the crisis and as well as prevent a reoccurrence of the attack and kidnap of school children.

Ten years after, Nigeria is still grappling with attacks on schools, as well as kidnap of pupils and students. The Safe Schools Initiative has failed to fly with the repercussion of increased attacks and kidnap of pupils across the country, because its enforcement regime is weak.

In 2021, Nigeria’s then-Senate president Ahmad Lawan, following an investigation into the utilisation of the funds for the initiative, declared that it was designed to fail without a National Policy and Strategy for the Safe School Initiative and the leadership of the Federal Education Ministry.

The same year, government adopted the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence Free Schools aimed at improving school security, strengthening the capabilities of security agents to respond to threats, and ensuring that education continues for children displaced by conflict and crisis, among other reasons.

The authorities committed to investing 144.8 billion naira (about $314.5 million at the time) over a certain period to finance this initiative. In 2023, they announced that 15 billion naira (about $24 million at the time) had been earmarked to pilot the initiative in 18 high-risk states and 48 schools. However, details of the implementation are sparse, and it remains unclear the extent to which this has been done.

“We haven’t made up our mind to implement this yet,” said Colonel Hassan Stan-Lebo (Rtd). The Safe School project contains a set of protocol on school safety ranging from protective wall fencing, lighting, access, security, visitations, pick-up arrangements and others.

Unfortunately, only a few private schools have so far implemented it. As for government public schools, the response has remained extremely poor. The initiative sought to improve the protection and safety of students, family members and teachers focusing on rehabilitating the security infrastructure at schools and establishing community-orientated security concepts, transferring students from high risk areas to safe schools and providing complementary trauma counselling and providing education for internally displaced persons in camps and communities.

Of note is that the Federal Government launched the Safe Schools Fund as an initial response with a contribution of $10 million and another $10 million pledge from the private sector, with the Ministry of Finance managing the fund.

The contributions from Federal Government and private sector were to be complemented by the establishment of Nigeria Safe Schools Initiative Multi- Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for UN support, co-financing and implementation of activities pertaining to the initiative.

It seemed to have kicked-off well with some positive result because by March 2015, 750 pupils were moved to boarding schools in safe parts of the country, where they were able to continue their education.

A public policy and advocacy expert, Adewale Adeduntan, told The Guardian that “ensuring the safety of schools is inherently linked to creating a safe and secure environment for all members of society.

“Addressing issues such as poverty, unemployment, social inequality, and corruption is crucial for promoting overall societal stability and safety, which in turn contributes to the protection of schools and students. By adopting a holistic approach that prioritises the safety and well-being of communities, including schools, initiatives can effectively address the underlying factors that contribute to insecurity and violence.”

According to him, investing in education, social services, and infrastructure not only enhances the resilience of schools but also fosters a more inclusive and equitable society where all individuals can thrive.

Programme Manager, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA), Damian-Mary Adeleke, also told The Guardian it is a big shame that children are being used as puns, shields or baits by non-state armed groups. He said that 10 years after the Safe School Initiative, the attacks are still on maybe because the schools are porous and no effective security architectures within the school premises.