In a lengthy write-up that made it to Y Naija last week, Helen Paul
spoke about the devastation she felt because of the incoming
administration's claim that it cannot assure the rescue of the missing
girls.
Actress and TV host Helen Paul says she is disappointed over the President-Elect General Muhammadu Buhari's alleged claims that he cannot promise to bring back the abducted Chibok girls.
In
a lengthy write-up that made it to Y Naija last week, Helen Paul spoke
about the devastation she felt because of the incoming administration's
claim that it cannot assure the rescue of the missing girls.
You can read her full thoughts about the issue below;
"Hmmm…
it’s one year and some days now since the Chibok girls have been
missing. Yet, the days are still counting because we have no clue about
their whereabouts. This is a very sad development indeed. No doubt, it
was a disappointment that the outgoing government failed to locate and
rescue the girls from the hands of their Boko Haram abductors.
As
a mother, who knows what the pains of child labour and child upbringing
are all about, I heaved a sigh of relief when Muhammadu Buhari emerged
winner of the presidential election. It was not because I like him more
than Jonathan, but because I listened to one of his campaigns, where he
promised to bring back the girls if elected into office. Perhaps,
Nigerians elected him on that premise.
I
feel that, at least, it will be a great achievement for whoever locates
and brings back the girls to their respective families. In fact,
whoever achieves that will be celebrated as a hero all over the world.
But then, I have seen another reason to believe that all politicians are
the same.
Their modus operandi may only
be different. A few days ago, exactly when it clocked one year that the
girls had been missing, Buhari broke my heart, just like that of other
Nigerians when he said his government could not promise to bring back
the girls! I felt really devastated because that comment was a sharp
contrast to the promises he made to all Nigerians and the world at large
during his campaigns.
Honestly, I try
not to be disappointed because you can always expect anything from
Nigerians, politicians in particular. They can promise heaven on earth
during campaigns, but the moment they get to power, they promptly renege
on their promises. Such is life in this part of the world where we find
ourselves.
I tried to put myself in the
shoes of the parents, relatives and neighbours of the missing girls,
who, perhaps, solicited votes for the retired General after hearing his
campaign promise that he would bring back the girls. How will they feel
now hearing him say something to the contrary?
There
is an adage in Yoruba that says ‘omo eni ku san ju omo eni sonu lo,’
meaning that it is better for someone’s child to die than to be missing.
I can imagine the different thoughts and imaginations that would have
saddled the minds of those girls’ parents. If the girls are dead (which I
don’t pray for anyway), the parents will mourn for sometime and
recover, but that they are missing is another experience entirely.
More
worrisome is the fact that the parents have to nurture the wound till
this moment, and not even with any hope of sort in sight. Wahala dey o!
Come to think of it, where are those prophets, Imams and native doctors
who claim to have all the powers in the world? Where are those native
doctors we watch on Africa Magic who can disappear and appear to make
things happen? Or they only exist on Africa Magic? Where are the
prophets and Imams who always claim to us that they communicate directly
with God?
Are they all sleeping or they
have just been deceiving people all along? In a country like Nigeria
where people believe so much in spiritual powers, I expect someone to
have used same power to rescue the girls, if they truly exist. I have
been thinking aloud on this issue for a long time.
Can’t
the association of witches and wizards also do something about it with
their powers? After all, Oyinbo men have witches and wizards to, but
they use their own powers positively. Some of the results of it are the
aeroplanes, computers and other things we call technology. But black men
use their own witch and wizard powers to destroy fellow humans. They
can be here in Nigeria and use spiritual powers to ‘control’ someone in
faraway Australia, but they cannot ‘control’ ordinary Boko Haram here to
release our precious girls. This is just my imagination.
Those
spiritual powers may not be true anyway; perhaps we have such a
mentality about them because of the movies we watch. But in every
nonsense, there can be some iota of sense. I’m just thinking aloud with
my ‘jargons,’ but I’m sure there are lessons we can learn from it.
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