If she were the president’s daughter

Sir: It’s been two years since Christian girl Leah Sharibu was abducted in her school, Dapchi, Yobe State, Nigeria.

On February 19, 2018, at 5:30 p.m. (Nigeria time), Sharibu who was just 14 was abducted alongside 109 others aged 11-19 when Boko Haram terrorists stormed her school, Government Girls’ Science and Technical College.

Hours before the kidnap of Sharibu and other girls, the military reportedly withdrew from Dapchi without informing the local police.

On March 2018, the government was said to have allegedly paid a sum of £3 million to the terrorist group for the release of 106 girls, leaving behind Leah Sharibu, the only Christian.

Two months ago, Leah was delivered of a baby boy for Boko Haram commander. A report claimed that the 16-year old girl who refused to renounce her Christian faith was forced to convert to Islam before she was married to the terrorist commander.

She is not Hannah Buhari, she is not the president’s daughter. If she was, she would have been rescued; she would have been flown on a Presidential jet for a personal engagement. Leah would have studied in the UK and even become chairman of a government parastatal.

Hanan, a ‘certified’ creative photographer and youngest daughter of the president, recently flew on a presidential jet to attend a special Durbar ceremony organised in her honour by the Emir of Bauchi, Rilwanu Adamu, while Leah is making babies for a Boko Haram commander in God knows where.
Since the kidnap of Leah, the president has always paid lip service for her release.

As in the Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping, so too in the Dapchi kidnapping, the government took days to respond both and then responded with several assurances that the kidnappers would be promptly apprehended and that all of the girls would soon be returned safely to their homes. In the Chibok event, five years later still approximately a third of the abductees remain in the hands of Boko Haram, some of them have been released via ransom payments, while only one low-level kidnapper has been apprehended and is standing trial till date. Meanwhile, Boko Haram promoters continue to enrich themselves via the millions of dollars thus far paid to them by the Nigerian government.

And hundreds of the captured terrorists since the Buhari government came on board in 2015 have been released, with many getting trained with taxpayers’ money. Rumour has it that some of the so-called Boko Haram repentants’ are getting trained to join the Nigerian Army.
Don’t forget to pray for Leah Sharibu.

Eniola Daniel wrote from Lagos.