We Want To Come Home, Chibok Girls Cry Out

As the world marks Children’s Day today, the 223 schoolgirls still being held by Boko Haram in their enclave in Sambisa forest have cried out to the world that they want to come home.

Revealing this during his visit to the camp where the girls are being held, Ahmad Salkida, a journalist based in Borno, appointed by the Federal Government and the insurgents in a back-door deal to swap the schoolgirls for some Boko Haram members being held in the country’s jails before it was cancelled by President Goodluck Jonathan, said the girls are in good condition but eagerly want to be reunited with their families.

Salkida also revealed that the girls were being well fed, adding that all the girls wanted was to come home to their parents.

The deal that would have led to the girls being freed in batches was terminated at the last minute by President Jonathan who called from Paris during the four-nation security summit on Boko Haram organised by the French President Francois Hollande on 17 May.

Though the Jonathan government had declared that it would not negotiate the release of the girls in exchange for the release of Boko Haram members, it was learnt that the government unofficially allowed back-door negotiation with the insurgents to secure freedom for the girls.

Daily Mail of London revealed that the prisoners swap was about being implemented when President Jonathan halted the deal. The leader of Boko Haram, Ibrahim Shekau, was allegedly infuriated over the sudden cancellation and threatened to kill the schoolgirls and make the video public.

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, on Monday in Abuja, expressed confidence in the ability of the Nigerian military to win the war against Boko Haram.

Obanikoro gave the assurance when a delegation from the Royal College of Defence Studies, Britain, paid him a courtesy visit.

He said: “I can beat my chest anywhere in the world to say we have some of the finest military men and women in uniform.

“So, with that kind of satisfaction, I am not worried about our capacity to prosecute this war.

“In a crisis situation, all these western media that are writing negative things about us always queue behind their own governments.

“So, our own media should take a queue from that, this is not a Jonathan war, this is not a Federal Government war, it is a Nigerian war, all of us must stand up to be players and be counted.”

The minister said that whenever there was crisis such as the insurgency going on in Nigeria, all manner of things would be aired by foreign media.

He added that the foreign media were writing false reports about the Nigerian military, adding that the government should not lose focus in its fight against terrorism.

Obanikoro, who condemned the killings by Boko Haram members, said the act showed how callous the group was, stressing that “the war is not about anyone, but about all of us in Nigeria.”

Corroborating Obanikoro’s stand that the military was capable of handling the insurgency, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh confirmed that the military knew where the abducted schoolgirls were being kept.

Badeh told protesters during a rally in Abuja yesterday that the military knew where the girls are but would not use force to rescue them.