A WISE CONVERSATION ABOUT NIGERIA : My daughter, the Chibok Girls, and I ... By Aniedobe

 

"Daddy, has anybody found the Chibok girls?" 

"Honey, those girls may never be found." 

"Daddy, 270 girls? Are they hiding in a submarine? How come nobody saw them being carried away from school?  How come no army or security Officer saw what happened? They must have used many buses or something.  Didn't a road lead to the forest where they are kept? Don’t they eat?  Who buys their food, toilet roles, and sanitary supplies.  Daddy, this story is very hard to understand. Do they sleep in houses or on trees? Where do they go to toilet? Did somebody dig a well for them? How can they not find a place where over 200 girls and their captors are hiding.  Daddy, didn’t you say that some spy satellites can read the license plate of your car from space?"

"Honey, remember how Daddy told you to pray at every situation."

"Yes, Daddy. I remember. All things are possible with God."

"But Daddy, is anything at all possible with Jonathan?  Fighting corruption is not possible with him.  Giving us light is not possible with him.  Fixing our roads is not possible with him. What is possible with him, Daddy? How can he not find those girls?"

"Honey, that is why Jonathan's wife said there is God."

"I agree, there is God but why can't they beg God to help find the girls?"

"No, Mrs. Jonathan did not mean it that way."

"How did she mean it?"

"She said that her husband is Nwachinemelu."

"Meaning what?"

“Meaning a humble man who depends entirely on God.”

"Honey, you won't understand but this President is an incredibly lucky person and his luck has not ran out yet. "

"How so?"

“Every post he ever occupied, he was literally pushed into it. Remember Prof Akunyili that just died.”

“Yes, Dora, God bless her.”

“She pushed the President to go from Vice President to Acting President.”

“Really!”

“Yes, those who kidnapped the Chibok girls have now made it impossible for him not to be re-elected for a second term in Office.”

“Really!”

"Yes, when they took those girls, they basically sealed his re-election bid.  It is kind of sad but people believe that some politicians are behind the abduction of those girls and some of those bad people are making it very hard for the Nigerian army to find and rescue those girls. Any time the Nigerian soldiers try, Boko Haram kills them.  That shows that some people in the Nigerian army are working with Boko Haram.”

“Chineke, Daddy, what kind of a country is this?”

“I don’t know honey but what is going on in Nigeria is shaking our belief in the decency of our fellow country men – shedding blood for power and kidnapping girls and killing traditional rulers just to rule our country is a very difficult thing to swallow.  Many people are changing their mind about even being the same country with people who act like that.”

"Daddy, I am afraid O. Will those people come and kidnap us in school.  We asked our Principal why we do not have soldiers in our school and he said he will discuss with you people in the next PTA meeting.  Please, Daddy, we want soldiers. We are afraid."

"Don’t worry, they won’t cross Benue State.”

“But they already bombed Jos. If Jonathan wins in 2015 won’t they become even more violent?”

“Honey, that is why it has become very important for Jonathan to win.  We know that Jonathan has not done well in Office but all the killing around him just to remove him from Office is exactly the reason why Nigeria will fail if he is removed from Office.”

“Daddy, but if they remove him, they will stop killing people. Some people said that it is bad Moslems who don’t want girls to go to school that are doing this but the way some leaders of the North are folding their hands, it means that they are using Boko Haram.”

“Yes, Honey, Christians and all good Moslems will join in fighting bad Moslems but Boko Haram is so well equipped that it is not about bad Moslems versus good Moslems. Some politicians are using Boko Haram to drive Jonathan out of power. If they succeed, some other group will also start killing people in order to remove the person who replaced Jonathan and we will have an endless cycle of violence in our hands.  But if Jonathan gets re-elected then they will see that violence and blood shed is not the way to get political power in Nigeria. It is even possible that they can impeach Jonathan with all the money he cannot account for but they don’t want to just impeach him, they want power.”

“Daddy, I hope you are right because I am scarred.  In school, we are afraid to come out of our hostels at night.  Some of our students dream about being kidnapped. One girl called Uju woke up one night shouting Boko Haram and was sweating and we asked her what happened and she dreamt that she was being raped by Boko Haram.  The other day, we saw some people  at the gate and they looked like Fulani people and we all began to cry and shout but it turned out to be only Cattle people. Daddy, we are all afraid.”

“Daddy, won’t they just divide Nigeria so that they will elect their own people and we will elect our own people and they won’t kill us anymore.”

“Honey, it is not easy to divide Nigeria anymore.  More people want Nigeria to be together than those who want to divide it. In the North, for instance, there is a lot of Christians and they don’t want the North to be declared a Moslem country. Also, there are many other minority tribes in the North who don’t want to be ruled by Hausa-Fulani anymore and they prefer Nigeria. Also, many Hausa Fulani have interest in the oil from Niger Delta and they do not want to divide Nigeria because they will lose that.  Then people in the middle belt don’t know if they will go South or go North. Honey, dividing Nigeria is not going to be easy. Even in Kano State alone, there may be up to one million Igbo people. ”

“Daddy, but why can’t Americans use their drones to destroy Boko Haram and free those girls?”

“Honey, you won’t understand but America does not want to fight a war that belongs to Nigeria and you shouldn’t blame them. Moreover, if they use force, the girls might be killed and everybody will blame them.  If anything will go wrong, they want it to go wrong in the hands of Nigerians so that people won’t blame them and say that they made the matter worse.”

“Daddy, so you think that the girls will be found someday?”

“May be, sweet heart. We will have a vigil on Friday and will pray for them. Please remember to always pray for them.”

“Yes Daddy. Luv you.”