TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari had said his government would not rest until the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in Boko Haram’s captivity are rescued.

While speaking during a bilateral meeting with Switzerland President Alain Berset, on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference on December 4, 2018, the president assured the Swiss president that the issue of the remaining kidnapped girls and other abducted persons will remain a priority for the Nigerian government.

That day, exactly 80 days to the commencement of Nigeria’s general election, was the last time either the president or the federal government spoke of the girls in public.

Saturday also makes it 130 days since the president made the comment, which had come on the heat of election campaigns.

The silence is, no doubt, worrisome especially amid accusations that the federal government is not prioritising the abduction. Could it be because of the elections?

A TOTAL OF 276 WERE ABDUCTED, 117 STILL HELD

Two hundred and seventy-six girls were kidnapped after Boko Haram insurgents raided their school on April 14, 2014. While 117 of them are still held captive, 57 managed to escape from captivity while 107 were released in batches.

Sunday will make it exactly five years since the abduction; five years of horror living with the insurgents in God-knows-where, and of sorrow for not just the girls’ families but for Nigeria and the global community.