Bring our girls back now
It is about four weeks now since the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, abducted over 250 female students from their hostel in Chibuk in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno.
Although the exact number of girls abducted remains unclear; it is believed that over 200 of them remain unaccounted for.
While the whereabouts of the students were still being discussed and fruitless efforts made to trace them, there were reports last week that eight more girls had been kidnapped in the village of Warabe, also in Borno.
Despite the controversy between parents and the school authorities, on the one side, and the Nigerian government and the security agencies, on the other, over the abduction of the girls, the import of the abductions has not been lost on all peace-loving people in the region.
The continued detention of the girls remains a big security challenge, not only to the government and the people of Nigeria but the whole of West Africa and beyond.
That is why the Daily Graphic is of the opinion that efforts to free the girls from their captors should be co-ordinated in a manner to bring them all back safely and soon.
We welcome the decision by the United States and the United Kingdom to send experts to Nigeria to help in the search for the missing girls and hope their efforts would be rewarded quickly.
As President Mahama, the chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), indicated during his visit to President Goodluck Jonathan, terrorism had no base.
The other day it was in Kenya; today it is Nigeria; another day it will be some other country, no one can determine.
We welcome the announcement by the ECOWAS chair that the community’s protocols on counter-terrorism were to be invoked to counter terrorism and support Nigeria’s efforts at rescuing the girls.
We eagerly await the meeting of intelligence chiefs scheduled for Accra this week to work out a new framework for intelligence sharing in support of efforts at eradicating terrorism threats from Nigeria and other parts of West Africa.
A recent video released by the group gives an indication that the girls have not been harmed. However, the group has called for the release of all imprisoned Boko Haram fighters before the girls will be released, a demand that is seen as a sign of its willingness to negotiate.
Fortunately, a campaign has started, albeit from outside the region, to “Bring back our girls now”.
This is the time for all of us to show solidarity and be our brother’s keeper. Let us not stay silent on this matter.
The Daily Graphic calls on all Ghanaians to join the campaign for the release of the girls.
