Managing Editor, Opinion Columnist
It seems unlikely that in this day and age, more than 200 teenage girls could be kidnapped in plain sight and sold into marriage with their abductors for the price of a dinner plate at Olive Garden. It also seems unlikely that if this were to happen, few people would know about it or try to stop it. And yet, this is the harsh reality in Nigeria right now.
“A medieval kind of slavery. You go and capture women and then sell them off,” Pogu Bitrus, a community elder in the Chibok town of Nigeria, told Al Jazeera.
Bitrus was describing the incident that occurred three weeks ago at the Chibok Girls Secondary School in Borno state, where a reported 276 girls went missing. The suspects are Islamist militants and extremists who have been identified by the girls fortunate enough to escape as part of the Boko Haram terrorist network.
“Well, it is a huge embarrassment to the government and the military because it’s been over two weeks, and they haven’t managed to rescue these girls,” Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition, said recently in an interview with Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, an NPR radio journalist specializing in issues related to West Africa.
Quist-Arcton agreed, voicing the opinion of hundreds of parents by asking, “Where are our girls? Why can’t the military find them and put down this insurgency that is causing us so much grief?”
Aside from outrage from Nigerian men and women, bombings and riots are ongoing as a result of the lack of action taken to find the missing girls. It is baffling to me how hundreds of 15 to 18-year-old girls can be abducted and forced into marriage and, weeks later, nothing has been done about it. If there are so many details as to the state of these girls, why is all of this still happening?
The world remains puzzled by the lack of answers surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing almost two months ago. There were 239 people on that missing plane, and there is no real sign as to where they could have gone. A plane went off the grid, and although news stations went crazy by covering the story (or speculating, rather) 24 hours a day about where on earth it could be, there was still concern being built around the subject.
What does it say of today’s society that there is something so outrageously wrong going on that can actually be solved, yet nothing is being done about it? The current conflict in Nigeria is similar to that of the genocide that started over a decade ago in Darfur by the Sudanese government.
The most disappointing factor of the situation in Nigeria is that this is not new. It is sad that something this disturbing is also unsurprising, and even more sad that it is not deemed worthy enough of significant international attention. Why don’t CNN and NBC speculate this issue for hours every day? Better yet, why doesn’t someone with authority actually do something about what is going on? I find it hard to believe that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan meant it when he said that “we must find our missing girls.”
“The cruel abduction of some innocent girls, our future mothers and leaders, in a very horrific and despicable situation in Borno state is quite regrettable,” Jonathan said.
Maybe next time, Mr. President, put down the thesaurus and come up with a tangible plan to help the hundreds of girls wondering why their government isn’t standing up for their freedom instead. The situation isn’t just “regrettable”—it’s solvable.
arildefonso@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
Recent Comments