Deep in the burrows of the Sambisa Forest near the town of Damboa in Maiduguri – the state capital of Borno – a harried and scared 19-year-old girl carrying a baby was found roaming aimlessly – by village natives.
Amina Ali Mkeki is the name that Colonel Sani Usman of the Nigerian army released as the young woman’s identifier even though previous reports have assigned a different one.
Two years ago the schoolgirls from Chibok were stolen in the dark of night from their dorm rooms by thugs masquerading as tokens of Islam.
Boko Haram was virtually unknown to the world until they staged the unthinkable and inspired one of the top hashtags of 2014 – #BringBackOurGirls.
Boko Haram is winning. Globally they are a trending topic and that I exactly the kind of notoriety they crave to help fuel their renegade antics. The more attention they garner the better and stealing the innocent girls from their dormitories last April was a genius operation that undoubtedly funded their future quests.
#BringBackOurGirls is now a distant memory with random flickers that do nothing more than torture us with the realization that the girls are still missing and will most likely not be returned to their grief-stricken families.
The Missing
The girls were removed without warning
No beeps, alarms or foreboding
Trucks, darkness, the sweltering night air and a full moon
Played host to our present chaos
Helpless and incoherently confused the bound silently accepted their fate
Their eyes gleaming with sorrow and fright, they filed into the imposing carriage
The soldiers of doom offered little consolation as they mercilessly seized their cargo
The world was designated to wake up to the incredulous itinerary established by the cowardly doctrines
Aghast and dismayed, a stunned audience beheld the stormy weather dropping residue of incoherence and mayhem
The girls are sailing with the clouds of chance and danger hoping the wind will dust off their enchanted nightmare
The officers of reckoning detail their tallies without impressive assertion
A sign of the colossal past and regretful present
The truck is speeding like a torched bullet eager to find a patch for mercy
The floor is cold and there is nothing above to hide the potent stars guiding destiny
Bodies piled in haste and desperation shaking with unpolluted fear
There is no instrumental commandment setting the pace
We are crying and stomping for answers that may never come
They are lost but the Republic is found
The generated jury has spoken with relentless unison
The verdict lies in the guilty burrows of a historical dynasty
Tainted by the blood of the courageous few who dared to dream
Those girls, their tattered sheets, empty beds and hollowed absence
Will forever pierce the revival of our existence.
The Niger Delta has served a major purpose in Africa’s most populous country and that is to keep the oil flowing so the companies that export this resource can consistently thrive even at the expense of the inhabitants of this richly blessed region.