Now that Dapchi schoolgirls are released…

Nigerian militant group, Boko Haram, this week, agreed and returned 105 girls abducted from a school in Dapchi, Yobe state, a few weeks ago.
The militant group reportedly returned the girls in nine vehicles with some people claiming that was the same way they abducted the girls.
The federal government said that nearly all of the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by militants in the town of Dapchi, last month, have been returned, just like President Muhammadu Buhari promised they will be returned during his recent visit to Damaturu.
Surprisingly, the government did not make any mention of deaths or tried to explain the discrepancy between the 110 abducted and the 105 or so returned girls. This, however, does not take anything away from the significance of the release of the girls or the joy of Nigerians and the international community.
The government had been strongly criticised after the abduction in February, amid reports that the military had pulled out of Dapchi the day before.
Nigeria had already suffered the Chibok kidnapping when 276 girls were taken from a school in 2014. Though some girls have been returned, more than 100 are still missing.
Among those to witness the release of the Dapchi girls were some of the Chibok parents who had gone to the town to console its residents on their loss.
“Our visit became something else,” one of the Chibok mothers told Reuters news agency, adding that the scenes of reunion made her weep for the fate of her own daughter.
Though some critics of the Buhari-led administration say that the government had given something in return for the girls’ release, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said that “no ransom was paid.”
The minister said the girls were taken to hospital in Dapchi, and they would be quarantined and offered psychological counselling before going back to school.
However, despite the claims made by the minister and those opposed to the President, it may be safe to say that Wednesday’s release did not come free. Boko Haram might have got something in return for releasing the Dapchi girls.
And they must because that is the nature of negotiations – give and take here and there. The problem going forward, however, is that this will encourage the Boko Haram militants to raid another community and abduct another set of people.
Still, the Buhari-led administration might feel, and it has reasons to feel so, that it has averted the kind of world condemnation suffered by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, following its poor response and handling of issues surrounding the kidnapping of the Chibok girls.
The release of the Dapchi girls is only a temporary victory for Buhari’s administration simply because the Boko Haram and its various factions suffered no losses in releasing the girls on Wednesday and they will remain a scourge in the country.
And a scourge the sect has always been in the country for some number of years now, claiming many lives, maiming some and destroying property worth billions of Naira.
It is, therefore, time we stopped politicising the Boko Haram issue and, as Nigerians, come together, think together and work together to eliminate all traces of extremists and militants in the country.
Happily, the Buhari-led administration is at the vanguard of this initiative and our security operatives have demonstrated the willingness and competence to wage war against the Boko Haram sect and criminals in the country.

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