by Emmanuel Chidiogo

It is 100 days today since over 200 secondary school girls at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, were abducted. A few days after the kidnap, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign began as an attempt to pressurise the government into swift action for the rescue of the missing girls.

As of today, fifty-seven, 57, of the girls have been reported to have escaped captivity, while hopes on the capability of our security forces to rescue the remaining 219 girls are growing dimmer with each passing day.

Yesterday in an interview with the BBC on the programme Hard Talk, a former education minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, who is also one of the organisers of the BBOG movement expressed a belief that the Chibok girls will be rescued.

Ezekwesili said that although there was a lot of speculation, fear and doubt, regarding the ability of the government to rescue the girls, the Bring back Our Girls campaign would not stop trying to do its bit to force the government to act.

“I believe in miracles and in something divine. There are possibilities that some of these girls may not return but I don’t want to look at that,” she said in response to a question posed to her regarding whether the girls would be found.

Ezekwesili added that the group was optimistic and had faith in the government even though the FG had been slow to respond to the kidnapped girls.

She said that this incident presented an opportunity for the Goodluck Jonathan government to reach deep down into itself and prove to Nigerians that it has the capability and capacity to relieve the agony of the bitter parents, as well as regain the faith of Nigerians in government.

“We cannot give up on our government or security operatives because they have not been able to rescue our girls at the moment. On the contrary, the reason the Bring Back Our Girls campaign is still mounting pressure on the government is because we still believe in their capability and functionality,” Mrs. Ezekwesili said.

Ezekwesili highlighted the main achievements of the bring our girls campaign as calling the attention of the government towards its responsibility and also to cause action to be taken towards harnessing the situation. This she said was unlike previous cases of insecurity in the country which were allowed to fizzle out.

Speaking on the statement made by the Presidency about not having any intentions of using military force to rescue the girls because of the potential threat to life, as well as the refusal to negotiate with the abductors, Ezekwesili said that there was a need to create a window for dialogue, as dismissing all possible options to get the girls will be counter-productive.

Responding to the issue made by the Presidency over the BBOG campaign being political, she stressed that there was nothing political about the campaign.

“There is nothing political about the Bring back Our Girls campaign. It is a campaign completely borne by everyone with the feeling of humanity fighting against a society that completely moves on despite irregularities in the atmosphere.”

Ebi Bozimo, a Port Harcourt based architect and radio show commentator, who spoke on the possibility of the girls being rescued said, “I don’t think there are any ‘guarantees’. Every effort will be made to rescue them. Some might die in the process. Others might not. The first task is to determine EXACTLY who is/was missing because that’s really the only way to determine the ‘success’ or otherwise of a rescue mission if not the possibility exists for naysayers to forever speak about ‘girls who were not rescued’ or who were ‘left behind’ – to which I would respond that all those left behind can be found where George Bush’s ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ were allegedly located.”

So, what do you think? 100 days after, will the Chibok girls ever be found?