I have been struggling for the words to articulate my feelings on the Chibok girls kidnappings. A friend of mine asked me, What can we do to help? And sadly, I dont know. There have been so many kidnappings, bombings, and murders over the years that they have become a kind of mundane occurrence, even in local elections. There are virtually no attempts made to prevent, address, or abate them. Justice, insofar as it is a flawed Western concept, is certainly not Nigerian. Perhaps we assume, correctly so, that the government is completely inept--I mean, even police stations have been blown up by Boko Haram, what can you expect? And how do you fight an enemy that wishes to bomb a developing nation into prehistoric oblivion? It defies logic. The reality, made clear in the Westgate mall attack, was that Somalian problems can quickly become Kenyan--and Ghanaian, American, British, and Norwegian problems as well. More than six months hence, and we know little more now about the terrorists than we knew then, sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for the hostages to be released. Recent media reports suggest that there werent even hostages, as we thought. Most of the 67 victims were killed early on in the siege. And now, over 200 girls have been kidnapped from a secondary school in Nigeria. And we ask a government that cannot provide basic services to its citizens--such as light and running water--to round up the captors and bring back our girls. Somehow I think we are both asking too much and too little. There has never been a shortage of outrage or public sentiment on the Nigerian condition--just visit Sahara Reporters and you will find it all there. So when I see people hashtagging #bringbackourgirls I want to take out a long list of offenses we have also failed to address. We are all somehow complicit in losing this long battle--whether it be against underdevelopment, terrorism, religious strife, unemployment, or poverty. There is nothing that can alter this trajectory short of a profound, transformative change that would reshape the entire political, economic and social landscape, reversing the long-term effects of both a collective and personal learned helplessness. So I think the appropriate response to the question, palms open, is, What can we do? Only God knows. (At the risk of sounding Nigerian.)
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 16:19:39 +0000
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