This is what may happen if Buhari negotiates with Boko Haram over freedom for Chibok Girls
By Rotimi Akinola, Agency, and Local Media Report
Boko Haram will free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok last April in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, AP reports.
While it is believed that all the schoolgirls are alive, the Nigerian government may not be able to say the same for the terrorists in its prisons.
Amnesty International estimates that 8,000 terrorism detainees have died in the hands of Nigeria’s “human-rights-violating” military.
Some were shot, some have died from untreated injuries due to torture, and some have died from starvation and other harsh treatment, AI alleges.
Military top brass Alex Badeh said the army was ready to kill as many terrorists as it would take to crush extremist Boko Haram.
The number of insurgents detained by the army is unknown.
What is known is that the reported fresh round of negotiations to free the girls could be scuttled by the inability of Nigeria’s security agencies to account for the terrorists Boko Haram may demand.
The sect’s demand for the freedom of 16 of its members under former President Goodluck Jonathan in exchange for the kidnapped schoolgirls was probably called off at the last moment because the administration could not produce the detained extremists.
Fred Eno, who is reported to have been acting as go-between in Nigeria’s negotiations with Boko Haram in the past one year, said the military was holding only four of the militants sought by the terrorists – and so both parties failed to reach the deal that would have freed the schoolgirls.
Eno now claims, reports say, the new Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari has a window of opportunity to reach a deal with Boko Haram and free the girls.
Buhari, who on the 2015 campaign trail said no one should negotiate with Boko Haram, has not openly indicated interest in talking with the terrorists. But comments attributed to one of his media aides suggest the government could dialogue with the insurgents.
“Most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table,” Buhari’s aide, Femi Adeshina said.
He said the government “will not be averse” to talks with Boko Haram.
Should both parties come to the table, one would not only hope the detainees are accounted for. Nigerians would hope the captive girls are neither dead nor pregnant.
Reports say some of the girls may have been raped or sold into forced marriages, a plausible explanation for why Boko Haram “favour” negotiations one moment and resume senseless killings the next.
Besides, some of the girls may have been radicalized into potential suicide bombers, reports say. Latest Boko Haram suicide bombings have been carried out by “brainwashed” teenage girls.
It is speculated in some quarters that the girls may have been conscripted into the new female terror army Boko Haram is raising.
This probability raises serious concerns for the devastated parents of the abducted girls, some of whom have died of the stress and trauma to which any mother with a missing kid would be subjected.
Media reports quote Lawan Zanna, whose daughter is among the captives, as saying 14 Chibok parents already died since the mass kidnapping.
While the Buhari administration has promised to cater for the Chibok parents, all will agree that nothing will sooth these parents better than a reunion with their daughters.
Nigerians expect no less.
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