Is Nigeria ready for the return of the Chibok girls? I think not.
The over 200 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014, almost two years ago.
Their abduction gave rise to the #BringBackOurGirls movement and a group which has tirelessly campaigned for their rescuedespite the many odds faced.
At a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, January 14, 2016, some of the girls’ mothers were seen weeping profusely, poverty and pain etched on their faces.
It was very obvious that they had been receiving very little care, if any at all from the government.
Therefore, a very important question that must be asked is, what are the Chibok girls coming back to?
A person who is incarcerated in the very best of circumstances would still require emotional and mental assistance before he or she could be expected to return to a normal existence.
The Chibok girls would have been subjected to the worst possible conditions known to man because they were kidnapped by murderous, savage, blood-thirsty terrorists who think nothing of taking a human life.
Those of them who are still alive have been held by these animals for almost two years, one cannot even begin to imagine what they’ve been forced to endure.
The failure to rescue the girls is one thing, but what happens if or when they come back?
Where are the medical experts who will treat their physical and psychological wounds? Why haven’t these experts been treating their mothers?
How safe will they be from fresh Boko Haram attacks? Chibok and the villages around it have been attacked several times since the mass abduction.
Is this government, which announced that the girls weren’t kidnapped under its watch, ready to handle them if or when they return?
What happens if some of them have been radicalized to a point of almost no return? What happens to those who were forced to kill for the sect?
Are we truly ready for the Chibok girls’ return?