200 days without Avese By Iorliam Shija I started following newspaper countdowns, religiously ,somewhat in 2007. In those days, while on my compulsory one year National Service(NYSC) in Benin-City, Edo State, I read , regularly, three Nigerian Newspapers ; the papers that make sense to southern Nigerians, then and perhaps now; Vanguard, The Guardian and Punch. It was Punch that was carrying the countdown now. The then ailing president, Late Umaru Musa Yar-adua, was hurriedly flown out to Saudi Arabia and/or Germany for what saharareporters and Newswire, online news portals ,were saying was, for treatment of a terminal sickness. As it has become tradition, the State House media crew were arguing, no journalist or media practitioner, would have envied Mr Segun Adeniyi whose duty was to do the defending and create arguments to justify his principal’s absence. To Adeniyi and others, all was well, unlike what Saharareporters was saying, that the president was “incapacitated” , he was just out of the country for a “routine” medical check. The days were counting, 1,2,3……17, 18,… So maybe to keep the fact that a nation like Nigeria was without a president for those days, on our national conscience, Punch was doing a countdown. Any edition of Punch that one picks, one was to see on the top corner written very boldly, “20 days since the president left the country”. We know the history, how his vice, Goodluck Jonathan was made an acting president, how he was later brought in by an air ambulance and how he died and Goodluck was sworn -in as substantive president. Today, another newspaper is carrying a different countdown. Daily Trust, the widely read paper in Northern Nigeria is dutifully keeping tab on an issue. For days now, any edition of the paper you pick, somewhere on the cover, you will see something like, “149 days since the Chibok Schoolgirls were kidnapped”. Yes, and today, 21st September, 2014 is the 200th day. Waoh, 200 days without my lovely, enigmatic, beautiful, ready to learn, compassionate, innocent, Avese, my daughter? I will simply die. Yes, in a newspaper report I saw some months ago, many of the parents of the Chibok girls have died. who is surprise? Who amongst us, who have children, would have fared better? The mystery that exists between parents and children can’t be explained in a short piece like this. The sincere love that children exhumes, the “reports” that they rush to bring, their funny schemes while trying to mischievously request for a favour, the valuable things the break in the house, kai, and the books (yes, real book, not newspapers) that they tear, in most case, are what sustain most marriages. Children, stand most times, serve as the only link, between estranged couples and shaky marriages. In Tivland, Benue state, divorced or partially separated wives, could use the ploy of coming to see their children, to make amends or secure a quickie. This is what, little as they are, children could achieve. As a father of only two little children, the older three and the other will be, by God’s grace just one, next month, I shouldn’t be seeing as speaking authoritatively about children and digressing from the crux of the matter here which is an underlying point I want to make; that those Chibok girls who were kidnapped by the sect, Boko Haram, have parents. And those parents, those who are alive, have lived as of today, 200 days with these children. Initially, I never appreciated how grave the Chibok issue was, until I brought my daughter, Avese in the picture. Imagine that those girls who for 200 days have been moved from one location to another, under rain, sun…. by drug addicts and fanatics were your children. Would you rather play politics with the matter? Would we have been this docile? There was a time that it became fashionable to write something on a piece of paper like “#BringBackOurGirls” and drop on social media. Celebrities took the craze, even politicians; certain people in the strongest presidential Villa in the world, While House, also carried the hashtag. To what extent this has done to the efforts of rescuing the girls is not clear to some of us. I was at Transcorp, Abuja, in July , when that popular Pakistani girl, Malala came to identify with the joint session with campaigners or rival “groups” that are at the moment seen as the “official” owners of “#BringBackOurGirls” hashtag. While I appreciated the tone of the Child-activist, and recorded her powerfully message with deliberate intension of playing for my babies someday, I saw from the body languages of the BringBackOurGirls “groups” that the whole issue, to some of them, has become a business. A sort of money making venture. Yes, there might be those who sincerely want those girls to be brought back amongst the lot, but I think this issue needs all of us now. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister while discussing Iranian Nuclear credentials, some years ago, spoke of Iran “Crossing the red line”, I think, with the 200 days mark, the Chibok issue too, has crossed the redline. Those children need us, the surviving parents too. Let us at our individual levels, and in our various capacities; Nigerian diaspora, police men, the army, Journalists, politicians, Christians, Nigerians, citizens of the world, use the 200th day of the kidnapped girls of Government Girls secondary school, Chibok, Borno State, to reflect on how best we can be involved to have the girls back. For me, because of Avese, I have taken my stand.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 10:42:40 +0000