♯BringBackOurGirls: The Long Wait

It’s been almost two months since the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 girls from their boarding school in Chibok. In this time, there have been conspiracy theories, talks of intervention, protests, celebrity exposure, video messages and more bombings. And over 200 girls remain missing.

Our history is riddled with atrocities, for years people, organisations and governments hid behind the phrase “We did not know” when asked why it took so long to do something about those who were suffering. Justifications such as “even if we knew, what could we do” were used whilst thousands were slaughtered in Rwanda. This all changed however with the boom in social media, no longer do we have to wait for news cycle to report bombings or kidnappings. Indeed, the news in Chibok broke on social media before being picked up by most news networks. The largest media campaign since “Stop Kony”, #BringBackOurGirls reached beyond celebrities to the White House, with Michelle Obama and many other politicians following suit.

Despite all this, the biggest question remains…why are these girls still missing? When talks of American intervention began, two weeks after the media campaign had taken strength, this sceptic wondered, what’s in it for them? History has shown that rarely does the international community intervene in any situation that is not advantageous to them. Libya was politically beneficial to France, economically beneficial to Italy and the United States made it clear that action will always be measured against interests.

Speculation that the United States was trying to increase its presence in Africa surfaced as they expressed their strong desire to intervene. Indeed Senator McCain’s remarks that he “wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan,” to intervene and send troops added weight and unease to this claim. However, no definitive action was taken and finally it seemed the Nigerian government was going to take the reigns. They had finally been nudged hard enough to take action. Soldiers were sent to the region, claims that they knew were the girls where were made and hope, be it a glimmer, was restored. But as more days pass and the girls are still not returned, this glimmer has fast faded.

In this time of government inaction we have it seems solidified the Boko Haram position, whatever it may be. We have attached to them a mandate that they perhaps had not thought of, we have given them more publicity than they could have thought possible and in doing so, effectively said that kidnapping girls works, it brings you to an international stage and the world will listen to your ravings and do nothing. Further International intervention can only have one of two outcomes; Save the girls but make the Nigerian government even less effective if such an incident should occur again OR save the girls and begin years of instability due to a need to “stay and help”. But in the silence that has fallen on the past few weeks is further intervention still on the table? In 2011, President Obama stated “some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different”. So why are our girls not yet home?

-Ndidi Esiri

#currentaffairs