Sudden separation from a loved one usually leaves a deep pain which can only be erased when a reconciliation or reunion takes place.
Indeed nothing means more to the parents and family of the Christian girl still held hostage on the account of her faith, after 104 of her 110 peers were freed a month following their abduction last February from the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Borno State. Though, five of the 110 abducted girls were reported to have died in captivity before the others were released.
Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl, who refused to renounce her faith is close to six months in the camp of her abductors, the Boko Haram sect. Whether she is still alive or will ever return alive is daunting, as some of her peers and the Chibok girls kidnapped in April 2014 are no more.
Christian leaders have decried the continuous detention of Leah as a clamp down on religious freedom in the country similarly to the killings in the northern part of the country where the Christians are highly concentrated.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) who has been in the forefront demanding for her release, warned that there may be religious war in Nigeria should she die in captivity.
The spokesperson to Rev. Supo Ayokunle, President of CAN in a newspaper interview lamented the silence of the civil bodies and the media on securing her release, as the body accuses the public of seeing it as the headache of CAN.
In the midst of the lone voices speaking for her rescue, it would be gladsome that all hands be on deck to secure her release, like the recent case of 12 Thailand boys and their football coach rescued from a flooded cave network in Thailand’s Chiang Rai.
Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, the spokesperson cum Special Assistant (Media and Communications) to Ayokunle did say in the interview that: “…At every opportunity any church leader has to speak to the public, they demand her release.
“We are doing a lot of things we cannot be disclosing to the public. Our concern includes the silence of the media and the civil society organisations thinking Leah Sharibu is a CAN affair. How many editorials have been written about her plight?
“CAN will not cease the agitation for the release of all the abductees, including Leah Sharibu. Let all and sundry rise up against the failure of the security agencies and ask President Muhammadu Buhari to wake up from his slumber before the terrorists and herdsmen finish the country.
“Leah Sharibu must not die. Her death, God forbids, can spell doom for Nigeria. It can give an open invitation to religious war because Leah is being detained purely because of her religion.”
CAN president in a different interview queried government’s inability to negotiate Leah’s release and accused government of prejudice.
“The security people attached to Dapchi were withdrawn two weeks before the insurgents struck in that school. Why were they withdrawn? When the girls were returned to Dapchi, they came with new bags as if they were coming from abroad. Where did they get the bag to buy in the bush? It was as if they went on an excursion and they came back with reward.
“The Boko Haram members, who kidnapped them, were the same people who returned them with no security agent taking any action. Government missed it in their negotiation. A negotiation that will leave one girl back in the hands of the supposed captors on the basis of her religion is totally unacceptable. It was meant to provoke religious agitation if not religious war,” Ayokunle stated.
He continued: “Why should you do that? You allowed all the Muslims to be released but you could not conclude on the negotiation to release Leah Sharibu because she is a Christian. That appears like complicity on the side of the government against Christians.
“It is a provocative action and very tendentious. It is annoying and suspicious. Those in government must be very careful. If they have done the right thing, we will not continue to criticise them.”
Weeks ago a book entitled “Leah Sharibu: The Girl Boko Haram Left Behind”, written by Pastor Reno Omokri, President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide on social media was unveiled.
The book, according to reports revealed how strange orders were given to the military personnel guarding Dapchi to depart the town after it became known to the security forces that Boko Haram was about to target Dapchi.
The author, who as widely reported said the proceeds from the book goes to Leah’s family, alleged that the present administration deliberately allowed Boko Haram abduct the girls so it could justify its demand to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account, according to a testimony provided by a serving Senator. He also revealed that Apostle Johnson Suleman donated N1million to Leah’s family following his plea.
Sequel the book release, Onyeka Onwenu, the veteran singer appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the killings in the nation and hasten the release of Leah which she revealed to be a straight A student.
“President Buhari, I urge you to use every influence, every avenue to put pressure on Boko Haram to release Leah Sharibu who chose to remain loyal to Jesus Christ and every other person held in captivity.
“Leah is a straight, ‘A’ student,I am begging Boko Haram to please in the name of all that is good, release every captive let them live, let Nigeria live.
“I also call on President Buhari to be inspired by the successful rescue mission of the Thai boys to do the same to rescue children held by Boko Haram.
“Mr President stop the killing in Nigeria, it’s enough. Rescue our children languishing in captivity,” Onwenu pleaded.
In an exclusive interview with SUNDAY INDEPENDENT , Bishop Emmah Isong, Pentecostal Fellowship Of Nigeria (PFN), Assistant National Deputy, South South, commended the courage of Leah.
Giving kudos to Leah’s parents for instilling in her the Christian virtue, he tasked parents to show their children the way of the Lord from cradle.
“Sharibu’s doggedness in renouncing her faith even in the face of threats by the Boko Haram sect is worth celebrating even outside the Christian community.
“Leah Sharibu is a heroine that epitomises true Christianity and she deserves to be celebrated even by the Christian community. The world should also celebrate her that she is bold enough not to renounce her faith.
“Every Christian should learn from her action. I congratulate her parents for bringing her up in the way of the Lord,” Isong said.
While urging the government to see to the swift release of the girl, he argued that any plan to islamise Nigeria will always be in futility.
“We demand that the girl be released immediately. Boko Haram’s radicalism and the plan to islamise the country will not work and will continue to fail. Even before Boko Haram there have been plans to islamise the country which failed.
“Nigeria as known is a secular state and no one should threaten another to accept another religion. Religion is not by force,” Isong added.
A writer who spoke with SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, viewed the rescue call of Leah by CAN and others as sentimental.
To Johnson Audu, Leah is not better than the Chibok girls, who perhaps are Muslims. He believes Nigerians should put away religious and tribal sentiment and always speak up against evil.
“What about the Muslims girls that are still held in captivity, why should the concern be on her alone? Her life is not better than the soldiers that have lost their lives. It is pure sentimental. Will people be talking if she were to be a Muslim? Leah was abducted in what can be described as a war like situation which reiterates that anyone can be a victim of war,” he said.
Debunking that government is docile about Leah’s rescue, he asserts that government need not announce the strategy to free her as doing so may jeopardise its efforts.
“How are we sure that government is not making efforts to secure her freedom? It is a very sensitive matter; government may be making effort without making it a public affair.
“I see it as a political tool to discredit the present government. I am not a politician but that is the way I see it. The idea that government is not doing anything to facilitate her release does not hold water.
“Also Boko Haram may be using it as a bargain tool to get their request met. It is unfortunate that she is still not released, as the country at the moment is overtaken with talks of elections, decamping, politicking and the likes, ” he expressed.
On the stance of Leah not to denounce her faith, Audu unlike the PFN Chieftain, Isong frowned at her decision.
“Leah should have done what the sect wanted her to do and then come home to ask for mercy from God. Besides Isaac even Abraham lied and denounced their wives in the face of looming danger. It is about applying knowledge. I’m sure God will still have forgiven her,” he stressed.
Human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, who heads the US Nigeria Law Group, called for urgent action in the release of Leah, while alleging insensitivity on the part of government in reaching her parents as at June, four months after her abduction.
“We wish to decry the failure of the Nigerian Government to meet with or brief the Sharibu family on the state of their abducted daughter four months after the fact.
“Indeed the only government official to have met the family is a visiting EU parliamentary delegation. This is an unfortunate repeat of the failure of Nigerian government officials to meet some escaped Chibok girls until after they met a visiting US congressional delegation in June 2014,” Ogebe said in a mail sent to SUNDAY INDEPENDENT.
A brand strategist, who chooses to be anonymous, said the situation surrounding Leah’s continuous stay in the camp of Boko Haram sect shows that President Buhari deserves not to be reelected by well meaning Nigerians.
“It is so sad that Leah was held because of her faith in a country that is supposed to be secular. It is unfortunate that such can happen under the watch of the president. I believe with this and other things happening in the country, the president does not deserve a second term,” the strategist said.
His Eminence, Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie in his article ‘We are watching and waiting’, grieved that electioneering propaganda has replaced good governance.
His statement: “Boko Haram cruised in a convoy into Dapchi, abducted over 100 young schoolgirls without the Nigerian Army firing a shot, cruised back a few days later to return the girls, again, the Nigerian Army was nowhere to be found. If a defeated army can walk in and out of Nigeria with so much ease, like a hot knife through butter, what will an undefeated army do to us!
“As we speak, Leah Sharibu, one of the girls is still in captivity because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. A few days after her mates were released; the Inspector General of Police was on television assuring Nigerians she would be released in just a few hours.
“In just a few hours, the story changed. The boss of the Nigerian Police said he was misunderstood. Do government officials take us for fools? Nigerians of today are no fools!”
Additionally, he said that: “While the Boko Haram inferno continues, murderous herdsmen emerged, killing innocent Nigerians in a brutal reminder that government is either unable or unwilling to secure this land and its people.
“Instead of indecently jostling for positions in 2019, the immoral electioneering propaganda that has replaced good governance, and the vicious fight over whose turn it is to capture the pot of honey that Nigeria’s wealth is, our politicians across party lines should stop and ponder: what type of Nigeria are we handing over to our children and to our children’s children?
“Whether our political leaders in all the parties will seek wise answers to that question is left to be seen. That is why we are still watching and waiting.”
Credit link: https://independent.ng/when-will-leah-sharibu-regain-freedom/
