As the 200 plus schoolgirls who were abducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, enter their second month in captivity, the federal government has still shown no sign of coming close to recovering them from their abductors.
Instead, since the second video on the kidnapped girls was aired four days ago, the world has been subjected to discordant tunes from government officials on whether to negotiate or not to negotiate with the terrorists to get the girls back and reunited with their families.
The best their parents and the rest of the world have to hold on to, is the video, wherein the identity of 77 of the girls who featured in it, reciting the Qu’ran, has been established.
In a statement yesterday, the Borno State Government restated that the exercise to identify the other girls in the video was on-going with a new set of parents, teachers and students, even as it released the names of the 23 names of girls who had been identified on Tuesday night.
The statement issued by the Special Adviser, Communications to the Borno State Governor, Isa Gusau, said: “The exercise is continuing with a new set of parents, teachers and students. The three sets of people (parents, teachers and students) were brought to Maiduguri in batches.
“Another set is to continue the identification exercise tonight (last night) and we will get back to you (media) with any update.
The 23 girls whose names were released are: Fibi Haruna, Laraba Mamman, Saraya Yanga, Hauwa Mutan, Deborah Abari, Hauwa Nkeki Mbalala, Rejoice Musa, Yana Joshua, Esther Ayuba, Helen Musa, Mwa Daniel, Hannatu Ishaku, Yayi Abana, Mary Ndamah and Monica Enoch.
Others included Amina Ali, Ashe Ezekiel, Lydia Simon, Naomi Bitrus, Kawuna Lalai, Kawuna Luka, Lydia Habila and Margaret Watsai.
Britain Surveillance Planes Join Search
But as their parents continue to keep hope alive over the fate of their daughters, Britain joined the United States (US) by offering Nigeria surveillance aircraft and a military team to help with the search for the girls, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.
“Today I can announce we have offered Nigeria further assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft, a military team to be embedded with the Nigerian army in their HQ and a team to work with US experts to analyse information on the girls’ location,” he told the British parliament.
Specialist teams from the United States, Britain, France and Israel have been sent to help in the search operation, which Nigeria’s military has said is concentrated on the Sambisa forest area of Borno State.
US surveillance planes have been scouring a vast swathe of northern Nigeria looking for the girls.
Send US Forces Even if Nigeria Disapproves, Says McCain
In addition, US Senator John McCain, who is renowned for his straight talking charged the US military to rescue the schoolgirls, even if the Nigerian government disapproves.
The longtime US senator and two-time presidential candidate told US online news website, The Daily Beast, that the US should feel no compunction to withhold sending special operations forces to find the kidnapped girls – especially in a country led by “some guy named Goodluck Jonathan”.
“If they knew where they were, I certainly would send in US troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country,” McCain said on Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan,” he declared, in reference to Nigeria’s president.
As he suggested last week in a CNN interview, McCain insisted that if he were US president, his administration would have prepared special forces ready to enter Nigeria if a rescue opportunity was apparent.
His rationale for military intervention rests with the United Nations charter, he said, since the mass abduction was akin to “crimes against humanity”.
“The United Nations Charter recognised crimes against humanity, this fits into the category of crimes against humanity, and that gives any nation the licence if they can to stop a crime against humanity, the same reason we should have if we could have freed the people at Dachau or Auschwitz,” McCain said.
McCain stressed that the US need not receive permission from the Nigerian government, as Abuja would give thanks to any American effort that ends up saving the young girls.
“I would not be involved in the niceties of getting the Nigerian government to agree, because if we did rescue these people, there would be nothing but gratitude from the Nigerian government, such as it is,” he said.
“If we rescued these young girls, it would be the high point of the [President Obama’s] popularity,” McCain said.
But a top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, told The Daily Beast he would only advocate the use of US forces if the Nigerian government approved.
Boko Haram Leader an ‘Obscenity’, Says Soyinka
Adding his voice in condemnation of the kidnapping of the teenagers, Professor Wole Soyinka yesterday described the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, as an “obscenity” who is likely to be incapable of dialogue, as the government considers opening talks with the terrorists to exchange the girls for suspected criminal members of the sect held in government facilities.
