The poignancy is not lost that on the eve of Mother’s Day almost 300 girls are hostages of Nigerian terrorists. Many are to be sold as child brides, the others as prostitutes.
The perpetrators are members of Boko Haram, a Taliban-style group. The armed men raided a girls’ school, saying their education was against Islamic law. The irony of their fate today takes your breath away.
And it’s not only girls. Boys, too, are kidnapped and forced into slavery as soldiers or miners.
The Nigerian government wants the world to look the other way. Its oil resources make it the most prosperous of Africa. In 2012, its economy grew 6.7 percent.
In my mind, that’s blood money.
A government that puts a priority on industry over the welfare and safety of its people is negligent.
To illustrate the point, Nigeria’s first lady said the reports of the kidnappings were fabricated in an attempt to smear the government.
In his reign as president, Goodluck Jonathan, has done nothing to curtail the atrocities of the Boko Haram. In the last five years its forces have killed an estimated 4,000 Nigerians.
On the day the school was raided, the entire town was ravaged with more than 300 people slaughtered.
PRESIDENT Jonathan, whose outsized ego prevents admission of trouble, has denied the outside world’s requests to intervene.
It’s only now with worldwide attention focused on the wide-scale kidnappings that Nigeria is beginning to sense the outrage and the campaign to Bring Back Our Girls. You can add your voice by “liking” the site on Facebook.
