Nigeria: DW talks to the father of a kidnapped girl

Deutsche Welle: How did you feel in the moment, you found out, that your own daughter had been kidnapped by Boko Haram?

Father: I was very sad and angry with the government. I didn't feel happy at all because the school girls are under the control of the federal government. It is not in our hand. So when I heard that my daughter was kidnapped by Boko Haram, I didn't feel happy.

What about your wife? How did she feel?

I'm better off than my wife. If you saw her now, you would be surprised. She doesn't eat. She always wore earrings or a necklace. Now she doesn't wear any jewellery. If you saw her, you would think she was an old woman.

So she was extremely depressed?

Yes.

So after this terrible thing happened, what was your reaction? I heard that there were even fathers who went to the forest to look for the girls. What did the community do?

They didn't do anything. There was a time when we, as parents of the girl, organized a protest in Chibok. The top officials refused to join us. They ran away from Chibok.

So you didn't receive any help?

They didn't help me. We always go to Chibok and come back and we have to pay the fuel for the motorcycle. [The kidnapping] happened on April 14. The following day our chairman came to say he would send soldiers. A week later, on April 21, the governor of Borno State came to us. Since then we haven't seen anybody.

Do they tell you about any progress they are making in finding the girls?

No, we just hear it from the television or radio. Some of us have a television at home. But the government has not called to tell us something about our children.

Do you think there is a chance of rescuing the girls?

How can I know that? I think that if there was a chance, these girls should have already been rescued. We would already have our daughters back. But they have been gone for over a month. And there are no good news about it. They just published the pictures that were taken by Boko Haram on the television.

Did you identify your daughter in the video?

No. My eyes are not very sharp. And she is also not wearing the clothes she usually wears. They covered her head, so I could not identify her.

So, I guess your hopes of a rescue are becoming smaller each day.

Yes, because the girls are not moving on their own. They are under the control of these people. There is nothing they can do. If they are told to jump, they will jump, to lie, they will lie, to kneel they will kneel.

How does it make you feel to know that your own daughter is under the control of these people?

There is nothing I can do, no matter how I feel. If we parents say we want to go to Sambisa (ed. the area in which the girls are suspected to be held), the government will tell us: no, we are working on it.

Would you sacrifice your life for it?

Yes. If they ask the parents to follow the girls, I will follow them. I am ready to die. We all know that there is only one life.

Could you tell me a little bit about your daughter?

My daughter is a very kind girl. She is always respectful and she is very intelligent. She is the fourth born. The three older siblings finished their secondary school and her older brother went to a polytechnic school in Maiduguri. Our first-born died. Our second-born married on April 12. That was two days before the kidnapping. The day she was kidnapped, I brought her to school on my motorbike. Her last words to me were: Thank you father – until we meet next time. The following morning, I heard that she was kidnapped.

Do you have any message you would like to add?

We want the state and the federal government, with the help of outside intelligence, to help us to get back our daughters.