As I entered the danger zone from Potiskum to Damaturu I could taste the fear in the air, in the way the forked tongue of a snake tastes the fear of its victim. This was it. The reality that we had been blogging about, the famous hashtag that had gone trendy on CNN - #BringBackOurGirls. This was it. This was my beloved Yobe of the fantastic landscapes. The land where I helped to plant the vision of a new university, to take aeons of ignorant illiterates out of the Boko Haram ideology that forbade Western Education. #BringBackOurGirls remind me of the Malaysian Airlines syndrome. Of families who will not give up in the face of harsh reality. Some still believe their loved ones will come back. Whilst we focus on the girls that Boko Haram is holding hostage, the army cannot act for fear of hurting them and many other hostages, and bringing international condemnation. Yet every night Boko Haram insurgents burn more villages and kill more people, yet the hostages tie up the hands of the military. Sometimes we have to take ruthless decisions in war, like the decision to starve 2,000,000 Biafrans to death, for the sake of One Nigeria, which is the excuse that Gowon keeps using to justify that genocide. The harsh truth is that we have to make a harsh choice, and tag along with the harsh reality. Harsh truth. Tag along. Reality. This is our Harsh Tag Reality: between finding the 200 girls of Chibok and saving the villages of Borno we may have to face a choice, or linger on in limbo. .............. When I asked the question, “Why the Chibok Girls?” those focused on the success of the hashtag did not understand the deeper implications of that question. Racism.Think of what happened in Rwanda, Mali, Central African Republic. It is until thousands die and governments are toppled that America and the West notice disaster in Africa. Why did it take the dramatic capture of 200 girls in the middle of the night to wake up the feminist liberation movement, that was more concerned about the rape of the girls than the dying of thousands in Borno. Please do not get me wrong. Raping the girls and selling them into slavery is a terrible thing, but like in Jos, or Biafra, when you are burying hundreds of dead in a trench, one more dead body means nothing to you. Death and pain is relative to your degree of suffering. 200 Abducted girls rings terrible in Lagos, Abuja, London and Washington, but 200 abducted girls mean nothing in Borno. They are more concerned with 200 burnt out villages. You get? The people that will save Borno and hundreds of abducted girls and burnt out villages are the Nigerian Army, the junior JTF and the hunters who have volunteered to do so. The Nigerian Army and our soldiers from the South probably lack the motivation, but the hunters and junior JTF need to be trained and armed properly if we are to save Nigeria. Their motivation to save their homes, like our motivation in Biafra to save our lives from massacre, is strong enough to match the religious zealotry of Boko Haram. Continue Reading: skytrendnews/index.php/column/sunday-column/2207-sunday-digest-with-agha-egwu-harsh-tag-reality-my-journey-to-borno Cc: Remi Adeoye Adedamola Adetayo Adedeji Sunday Akintayo Skinner Moses O Chukwu Chijioke Iyabo Ughojor Viola Okolie Osita Udenson Bucky Hassan Olutoyin Adeyinka Eweje Abdullahi I. Mahuta Abdullahi Maikudi Aliyu Abu Maryam Abubakar Ibrahim Muazzam Mahmoud Baba Koki Aliyu A. Wali Ali Garba Abdulhamid Al-Gazali Aderemi Alo John Aderogba Amaechi Kelechi Justin Kelechi Deca Kelechi Ekezie Kelechi Jeff Eme Kelechi Nwagbaraocha Obinna Kelechi Oliaku Obinna Okoro Tope Fasua Nneka Duke Nneka Wai Ogosu AnoDavinci Ebirim Eba Okorodudu White Adaugo C E Uzoma Cade Adams Agbugba Aare Oluwaseun Akinwande Agha Egwu Fred Aghanenu Saya-Braide Ebi Femi Adebajo Femi Adebowale Akinwumi Ayinde Katunga Ayo Awe Joseph Ayo Moses Ayo Turton Funmi Adewola Funmi Macaulay Aliyu Bello Aliyu Mustapha Ibrahim Ahmed Saliu Alubankudi Al Bashir Alaka Olabisi Alayande Stephen Tolulope Aminu Mohammed Dz Zainab Usman Zainab Abba Haliru Safiya S Musa Penshd Ibiminji Darego Chukwuemeka Nwosu Benny Merriman-Johnson Mercy Ugo Ikenna Iheanacho
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:43:58 +0000