Our hearts are really gladdened when news broke in the early hours of March 21st 2018, that one hundred and one (101) of the abducted Dapchi girls have been released by the Boko Haram.
The Social Advocacy Project (SAP) of Al-Mu’minaat urges President Muhammadu Buhari-led government not to relent on the war on terror especially in the Northern part of Nigeria; the Boko Haram and the herdsmen.
Security of lives and property of Nigerians is the primary responsibility of any Government, the PMB-led government cannot afford to relax. We are using this medium to call for the release of the remaining Chibok and Dapchi girls’. The intelligence that led to the release should be kept and not breached so that the remaining girls can come back alive and safe.
Stories of how girls have concluded that they won’t return to school get to us daily. Once beaten twice shy. No one can blame parents or even girls who concluded that school isn’t safe for them. Experience have taught them, and nothing better that experience.
This is one of the very important reasons why our government cannot afford to relent on ensuring security for schools.
Girl-Child education and women empowerment is at stake. If this apathy isn’t addressed by ensuring safety of lives of the girls who choose to attend school then the future of women, family may be affected negatively.
Social Advocacy Project (SAP) of Al-Mu’minaat, as women / children rights advocate thus demand that returnees be recovered from their homes and be given necessary rehabilitation.
Adequate and impenetrable security be provided to all schools with special attention given to girls’ schools in the areas where the insurgents still operate in the North-east, while efforts continue to change the battered image of schooling.
Parents of the deceased girls’ should be adequately compensated although no amount of money can bring back the dead girls. It will however ameliorate their pains.
We pray that Allah (SWT) bring the menace of Boko Haram to an end and expose their sponsors for justice to take its full course so that the victory can be total. Amin.
Sherifah Yusuf-Ajibade
Coordinator, SAP
