“Forget The Dapchi Girls Now” -By Olayinka Ajila

So soon, but here we are with a lifetime achievement and awards everywhere in the bunker. I do not have a clear statistics, but to begin to count the precious lifes that brought  this despicable honours is to begin to understand how large we could be regardless of what the population census specify. But even if you pick grains one after the other, time and tides will not stop you from successful completion if the grains cannot grow wings and fly. Day and night, anytime, I mean everytime, the whole world is braced with utmost alacrity to hear from Nigeria stories of hostility, sacrileges, and barbarism. Yet, these scenes of slaughter and the pride taking in bestiality is blinding us the fact that Nigeria is ending.

“Imagine how the world would respond if 110 girls disappeared from U.S. school”. These were the words of Isha Sessay of the CNN that tells how funny this country could be. And when I pondered on this comment that sounded to some people like showing-off, I see the truth of the statement is not in the grace of the name America but the value her people holds for every single life. That which we do not have!

At the burst of the missing Dapchi girls, I was on a personal assignment to kwara state and I had the opportunity of listening to a news session on Royal Fm where they had a guest in the studio to help analyze the emergency. In his opinion, he emphasize on the need for sacrifice and stated bluntly that Nigeria should forget about the missing school girls. His reason was that a handful set of people has seen it as an avenue to exploit Nigeria of her scarce funds. That which he believes it’s more important than life! I thought of this and I felt like striking him in the face but that impossible through the radio. I took my calm and decided to put a call through as it was airing with the studio lines opened for participation. In the process, someone called into the program to commend the idea of the guest with a sounding applause, and there and then, my heart was broken and I had to withdraw my attempt to the studio. This was because I needed no prophet to make me understand that there are many more people with same ideology. And as it is always said, everyone has a right to their opinion.

Now, in a country where life is considered the cheapest commodity in the market, there are many angles one must look into  before tossing blames around. What  happened in Dapchi is more than enough to query the government of any nation for carelessness, negligence of duty, and inefficiency. In fact, it is an impeachable offence greater than the diversion of public funds, especially where it isn’t the first of it kind. However, we can see through the glass that Dapchi in itself is a major player in the story, that which in legal term is regarded as suspect. And by this, I mean to understand how Boko Haram like ghost, would appear at the school only at the moment of attack and leave without a trace like some kind of epic movie. For God’s sake, even if you transport life cattles or chicken in such a large number, the darkness of the night would never make it pass unnoticed except for hypocrisy.

As we don’t know who to trust these days, so we don’t know everyone who’s benefiting from these chaos that has overtaken the country’s peace and progress. But unlike the probably childless news analyst who murdered the sense in his idea in the name of money, I want to say that there is no mystery behind the talking drum other than the hands that beats them.

In whatever condition, opportunists are people you cannot live without, and they are bound to come up as sure as the sun would set. Oby Ezekwesili has since tried to make a hero out of herself using the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign which actually was one of the many strong avenues that led to the failure of former President never go unnoticed even Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election. Perhaps she might be anybody’s  hero as the case may be, but we have gone too far to be fooled by fake emotions. My reason is best understood speaking in retrospect to the then APC spokesperson who now occupies the office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. He capitalized on the missing Chibok girls at the time to sell himself and promote the party which actually payed off in their strategies to destroy the PDP. Now that their story is far worse than yesterday, the same  Ezekwesili joined the Red Card Movement in a bid to throw both the PDP and APC out of office in the next general elections. Perhaps she has forgotten that the history of leadership in Nigeria is not complete without her especially when we talk about the PDP. So, whether its #BringBackOurGirls, #StandUpForDapchi, our #RedCardMovement, all I want to say is that she is no different from Lai Mohd as she wouldn’t be any different if she finds a place in this regime.

We are all guilty of the state of this country and someday, somehow, a fire that will consume this fake empire would come. When and how, I do not know, but I am very sure that even the youths that are agitating for their share of positions in the corridors of power cannot bring the necessary change.

It’s a pity that we have to live like a roach in a hole. And we have become strangers to our own environment because of some mindless killing machines. I don’t care what you call them, but should this continue like this, Nigeria may sooner than expected become history.