In Memory of Chibok's Damsels

The warm Chibok breeze caressed my skin. Earlier today, Mahmud, my classmate, had made a comment I considered silly. "Your skin is stainless", he said. My mind simply flickered around his statement and the WAEC examinations ahead of me. From childhood, my big brother had fed me with a doctrine that if one passes this examination, one could conquer the world! I was at the verge of conquering the world, I thought. With this, my face brightened and i peered back into Osei Yaw Ababio's authored Chemistry textbook that was sprawled before me.

"Shh shh, did you hear that?", Ladi whispered from her bed. Ladi had come from a rich home. She had seen a lot on the television, the news. On our return from a suspension that had been placed by the government, she gave us a brief of why we had to stay that long at home. Terrorists had promised to disrupt the examinations. Well...I heard our Governor over my father's handheld transistor radio insisting that all the children are safe from violence. It was on this backdrop that the suspension was lifted and the examinations were to be conducted.

I peered through the window beside my bed. Ahhhhh! Houses burning? People screaming and running. At this point, my sweat buds broke lose and in no time, my lace nightgown was damp with sweat.

Suddenly, gunshots filled the air. A security man gave a sigh of death and fell heavily on the wooden bench he sat on. The school gate was opened wide. Vehicles drove in...trucks and pick-ups actually. Through the vehicles' headlamp, i could see a man's figure. Fully clad with bullets and a finger clutching a gun I only saw with Rambo and Terminator in American movies, the man motioned in the vehicles.

Gbraaaam!!! The door to my room came crashing. My heart skipped uncountable beats. Lights filled the room, so, I could barely see faces. "Where are the boys?", a hoarse voice demanded. "Learn to read signposts, its a girls' school you are in!"...Ladi answered in her usual saucy manner. The lights were reduced so we could see some faces. The last I heard from Ladi was a scream of terror, as one of our assailants squeezed her throat, sniffing life out of her, and flung her lifeless body on the floor just beneath my feet. That, too, was the last I saw of Chibok. I fainted!

I awoke about an hour later amidst several other girls in a truck dangling through the rough roads beneath. Then I realised we had been kidnapped. What had happened to the security our government promised us? Where are our soldiers? Where were we being transported to? What was our fate? We kept questioning ourselves.

One thing was sure, our government had failed us. We had been sold out on the platter of politics. "So help us Allah", I whispered amidst my sorrow and took a second look at my 15 year old skin. Mahmud was wrong, at least for now. Marks of torture from being dragged into the truck caused several unfriendly designs on my skin.

Whenever, whoever and however you get to read this, please, tell me parents I love them...and beg our government to SAVE US!

I am an i~Witness.