For the girls of Chibok
This week I have no time for nice prose or satire. Since the Nigerian government does not listen to anything without a bullet in it, my thoughts shall be delivered in bullet points.
• Someone in the Nigerian government needs to take responsibility for
1. The definitive but totally false statement made on international television by the Minister of National Planning that the Nigerian security forces had rescued most of the over 200 girls kidnapped from the girls school in Chibok by unknown gunmen.
2. Providing accurate information to parents and to Nigerians on progress being made with the search for the girls in the Sambisa forest or wherever it is believed they are held by their captors. • For every day that passes, the kidnapped girls face, inhuman and degrading treatmentanything from assault to gang
Oduma Achara is an agrarian community in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu state. Oduma is easily the most populous clan and perhaps second to Igbo Eze clan in Enugu state. During the administration of Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, Oduma was split into eight autonomous communities with each producing a traditional ruler.
Oduma quickly comes to my mind because of its enormous farm produce. The Oduma swampy soil is noted for rice, yam, okro, palm oil, etc and other economic fruits. It is because of their enormous farm yields that Oduma and its environs are referred to as Aninri - the land of food.
Oduma was one of the most neglected areas in Enugu state in terms of social amenities. The road passing through the swampy area was so deplorable that only lorries with auxiliary gears contemplated it on the specified market days. It is like drying through quick sand. So marshy and slippery nature of the Oduma land was the Oduma road that a high-ranking government officer whom it is safe not to mention
• rape or even death. It is shameful and unacceptable that the Nigerian government and its security forces allowed matters to degenerate to such a state that the parents took matters into their own hands and went into the dangerous forest themselves to begin the search. • The Nigerian government cannot in any good conscience welcome delegates to the World Economic Forum and assure them of the security of their lives and property when it has abandoned hundreds of its most vulnerable population: young girls in a war zone. • The Nigerian government is inadvertently sending out a message about its inability to handle the crises in the North East and telling Nigerians there that they are on their
own. • No decent leader can be out campaigning and canvassing for votes when hundreds of girls are facing the prospect of rape, torture and murder in a terrorist camp. • The president needs to start acting as if we are at war. Because, WE ARE AT WAR! Nigerians need to know if their government is incapable of giving them protection and if so, do the responsible thing by giving way to persons who can do so. Nigerians need to be shown some respect. There has to be consequences for government failure. • The people of North-eastern Nigeria are human too It will not kill the president if for once he takes responsibility and apologises to the people of Borno and Nigeria for being unable to help them when they need help. It is never too late to start taking responsibility. SEND OUR FORCES INTO THE FOREST TO BRING BACK THE CHIBOK GIRLS NOW. Finally my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the hundreds of Chibok girls who were abducted. I hope that at least they can be found alive.
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