Our Reporter, New York
Award-winning journalist Chika Oduah has said that the rescued Chibok girls who were taken to the United States have been fully integrated into the US society. In contrast, the Nigerian government abandoned their counterparts who remained in Nigeria.
The journalist made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica.
Ms. Oduah, who was the first journalist to visit Chibok after the abduction of the girls by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, revealed that many of the girls in America have gotten married to white Americans and fully integrated into the US society.
She, however, claimed to have received a message from one of the many girls who remained in the town in Borno State asking for help as they had long been abandoned by the Nigerian government.
“I got a message from one of them a few weeks ago saying that the government has stopped paying her school fees and asking for my help. Obviously, these ones who were taken back to Chibok have been abandoned by the government,” the writer said.
She also hailed the organizers of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) for their amazing work in bringing the attention of the world to the shocking incident of the abduction in 2014. She said although most of the leaders of the movement are now focused on tackling other ills in Nigerian society, their hearts are still on the campaign to rescue the remaining missing girls.
The poet cum dancer also spoke about the activities of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by the detained secessionist agitator, Nnamdi Kanu. She worries over how the group conducts its activities in the South-East.
“I didn’t know that IPOB would descend to the level of killing the people they claim to be fighting for in such a cruel, brutal way,” Chika Oduah said.
“I get reports from some security officials on the ground in the South-East, and the things I hear are very disturbing. This is reminiscent of many cases in history where those who claim to be representing the people end up hurting them.”
She cited the example of the Monday sit-at-home order by the group across the five South-East states. She blamed the group for suppressing the region’s people economically through it.
The leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been under detention in the DSS since his extraordinary rendition from Kenya to face terrorism charges in Nigeria. That trial just started in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. In November 2024, the Finnish authorities also arrested the Finland-based self-acclaimed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu, Simon Ekpa, who stepped in as leader of IPOB after Kanu’s detention on accusations of terrorism.
Chika insists that despite the group’s shortcomings, “the support for the Biafra cause is still very strong in the region even though many people have begun to question the methods being used by IPOB.”
The journalist also accused the Nigerian government of blocking the website of her Biafra War Memories Project in the country. She said the Nigerian IP address of the project had been blocked since 2018, thereby denying people in the country the opportunity to access the over one hundred interviews that she has had with people who witnessed the genocidal war of 1967 – 1970.
“It’s a real plight that the Biafra war is such an inconvenient conversation in Nigeria,” Ms. Oduah said.
“The website of the Biafra War Memories Project, which I started in 2017 and in which I have interviewed hundreds of people, cannot be accessed from Nigeria because it was blocked by the government. The blockage happened around 2018, and till today, it has not been lifted.”
