UNITED STATES-I must say, the crisis in Nigeria has been on my mind for the past few weeks after hearing about the capture of more than 200 Nigerian girls. The kidnapping of the girls at the hands of leader Boko Haram has shaken the world to its core, but why has it taken us so long to take action?
I understand the ideology of not negotiating with ruthless leaders, but I can’t help but think about the safety of these girls at the mercy of a madman. A video was recently released depicting all of the kidnapped girls cloaked in black and gray robes dressed as Muslims.
I felt the fear, the horror, the disgust, watching this video as Haram made his demands clear to the Nigerian government. I know the U.S. rarely gets involved in international affairs, but we have the man power to make a difference, we can’t just sit around and do nothing, can we? Countless celebrities have come out voicing their concerns and advocacy of the release of the girls under BringBackOurGirls. This has helped tremendously by educating the world on the situation of what is taking place and keeping tabs on the current situation.
This is no joking matter; the leader has already made threats of selling the girls as sex slaves. That absolutely tears my heart, because so many of us are unaware that this is a growing epidemic in the United States, but even more so overseas where women and children disappear all the time. With the right people in place, it should not be such a difficult task to locate these missing girls.
I understand the Nigerian government may be doing all in their power to find the girls and return them to safety, but other political leaders can step in to do the same. We have the amenities and tools to canvas such a large geographic region and this would greatly decrease the time frame it would take to locate the girls, with each day, each week, and each month that goes by, it’s just a ticking time clock before something bad takes place.
I fear the Nigerian government isn’t making more movement to make things happen; it’s almost as if they are waiting to see what other political leaders may do before any action takes place. America has so much heavy duty artillery there isn’t a reason we shouldn’t intervene to assist the Nigerian government to locate more than 200 missing girls.
My heart continues to go back to the concept that these are innocent girls who didn’t ask for this, who are frightened, terrified, and not aware of what could happen from one minute to the next from a ruthless dictator who wants the government to free his comrades. We as a nation must step in to end this crisis and #BringBackOurGirls before something transpires that is out of our hands. In this situation, being idle is not an option.
