This is the fourth blog post I have done about the Nigerian schoolgirls and the fifth centred around the activities of Boko Haram (‘Western education is sinful’). The first post about the schoolgirls was on April 16th and covered the initial news of the kidnapping. The post on April 17th was about the supposed rescue of most of the abductees by the military. The third post was about further developments, such as the revelation that the military didn’t rescue the girls and that there were more missing than expected.
It has clearly been a few days since I have posted about this and there have been even more developments. Unfortunately one isn’t the rescue of all the girls.
By the numbers
One of the more confusing aspects of this whole series of events is the lack of clarity about the number of schoolgirls missing. The following is a basic timeline of the changing total:
- April 16th (my first post about the abductions) – over 100 (BBC and Al Jazeera)
- April 17th (my second post about the girls) – 129 (SBS)
- April 18th (the third post that covered misinformation) – 129 (Wall Street Journal)
- Later on in April – 234 (AllAfrica)
- April/May – 276 missing, over 300 abducted on April 14th (680News)
- May 5th – 276 (AllAfrica)
- May 5th – 329 (AllAfrica)
- May 5th – no girls abducted (AllAfrica)
- May 6th – 276 (Al Jazeera)
- May 6th – 234 (AllAfrica)
Essentially, there doesn’t seem to be one true figure and that is worrying. How on earth can you complete a successful rescue (regardless of the amount of international assistance) if you don’t know who and how many need to be found? You would have thought it’d be quote easy to get a figure. If you assume that the schools in Nigeria have a register system, you can simply count how many haven’t attended for a few days since the kidnapping. Of course, you would also need to check with parents to find out how many are being kept at home for their own safety.
In what seems like quite a sensible move, multiple organisations have gone for estimations. The BBC and Reuters have stated that the figure is over 200 and the Independent says it’s nearly 300.
When getting an accurate figure, there is something else you have to consider – politics. I have already noted the unreliable information from the Nigerian military. The First Lady (Patience Jonathan) has also suggested that there are no missing schoolgirls (see the relevant article in the timeline) – something quite ridiculous. The President (Goodluck Jonathan) has been relatively quite and not gone into numbers. This is quite shameful for a country that is the largest economy in Africa and one of the biggest in the world.
A word from the leader (no, not the one you think)
We have finally heard words from the leader of Boko Haram, a group that has a significant presence in the north east of Nigeria – where the schoolgirls came from. He made a 57 minute long video that was passed on to AFP and contained the following:
“I abducted a girl at a Western education school and you are disturbed. I said Western education should end. Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married”
There was also this:
“I will sell them in the market, by Allah”
In all honesty, nothing that was said is surprising. There were suspicions it was that group from the start and their raison d’etre was well-known. You could argue that this wasn’t really news at all. However, at least it serves as a confirmation.
International Assistance
The BBC report that the United States has offered help in terms of “information sharing” and improving the “forensics and investigative capacity”. Reuters states that the UK have also offered assistance (“practical help”), but no specifics were noted. Both countries offered this help after a request from President Jonathan. This was the right time to offer help as Nigeria should have the chance to solve it’s own domestic problems first.
It turns out that the UK have provided assistance to Nigeria in the past though (in the area of security). The Nigerian Police website published a press release on April 9th (prior to the kidnapping) about a partnership with the “British Government”. That has obviously failed to be effective so far.
Finally…
According to the BBC, some of the girls have already been sold into slavery (in places such as Cameroon and Chad). Some others have been forced to marry Boko Haram members for the low, low price of £7. This was suspected early on and it’s worrying that these girls are losing any hope of a full childhood by the second.
After my post about the misinformation on April 18th, I received a comment via LinkedIn:
“Why attempt to analyse the workings of a place such as Nigeria through the rules of the West? When you have enemies that are not amenable to reason there comes a time when you need to either face them down or run away and face them down later. Those poor schoolgirls will probably have been mutilated, beaten and raped by now and would not be accepted back into their own communities anyway. It is sad really but apart from dropping a few copies of Sun Tsu it beat me!”
It is an interesting point. Nigeria doesn’t have the same laws as us. It has different a different culture, ethnic setup, history and set of issues. In response I would say it’s absolutely important that the government faces their enemies in this case. Boko Haram have been a terrorist influence for far too long and need to be stopped. As for the other point, I would hope that the girls are accepted back into the community as these are an extreme set of circumstances that were not something they chose. Nigeria might not be the same as a typical western nation, but it’s people still deserve human rights, the rule of law and an effective government.
I am a firm believer in respecting the sovereignty of nations and their laws. Boko Haram and their leader clearly do not think this way. It goes against modern day Nigeria, as well as the UN Declaration of Human Rights. There entire campaign of violence and fear is based on an extreme interpretation of religion and they have no willingness to develop the country in which they live. By most standards, their actions are completely despicable.
As the Nigerian government and military have clearly failed to do what is expected in this situation, it is only right that they ask for help. It should not be armed assistance though. It should only be intelligence-based and resources to help combat domestic terrorism in the long term.
So, what do you think?