For Chibok… #2

I am really angry. Very very angry. I have not slept well in the past few weeks. I have not been able to eat either. My daughters are missing. They have been missing for over a week and no one has been able to trace them. This is a crazy country. And I am wondering. Since when did it become a crime to send one’s children to school?
My wife blames me. I don’t blame her for blaming me. I blame the government. I wonder who the government blames.
Zainab, the older one should have gotten married last year. There was a suitor. A very rich one. He is a senator actually so you know there is a lot of money. He wanted to marry her last year but I wanted her to go to school. Zainab’s mother wanted her married off. Sometimes, I wonder why I married the woman. She is so shortsighted in her thinking. Anyways, we argued back and forth and then these young activists started a campaign. Child not bride. Or something like that. It had something to do with Senator Yerima and a bill in the House of Assembly. I’m not sure of all the details, but soon, Senator Aliyu stopped coming. He stopped calling and he stopped sending money.
I did not mind. Zainab said she wanted to remain in school. I wanted same for her but the pressure was becoming too much. Zainab. Strong, stubborn and independent. She’s just 15 yet she is so mature and wise. Her sister looks up to her. I have always admired their relationship.
I came back from the Local Government office where I work that day to hear that the girls were a part of some over 200 girls who were kidnapped. I have not been myself since then. I feel helpless, annoyed and depressed. I have gone with other friends and fathers to the bushes in search of my daughters. But each time, I have returned, depressed without them. I am clueless. The government and the military aren’t even helping. They lied that they had rescued the girls when they really hadn’t. Who does that? These girls are everything to me.
My wife blames me. I do not blame her for blaming me. She says if I had married Zainab off to the Senator, she would be in a big house in Abuja and not lost somewhere in Borno. I know she is right. And it makes me feel really sad.
I have not eaten well in days. I haven’t slept well either. I want my girls back. I wish the government and the military will do something.
For #234 For #Chibok #BringBackOurGirls
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