When news broke earlier this month that one of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria had been freed, the Nigerian government offered it as evidence that their push into the militants’ stronghold was beginning to bear fruit. The rescue, however, comes against a backdrop of increased suicide bombings, condemnation of the government’s lackluster response to a second mass abduction of children in Damasak, and allegations that donor money earmarked for tackling Boko Haram has been siphoned off by President Muhammadu Buhari to fund a political witch-hunt against his rivals.
A year into Buhari’s term, these controversies have raised serious questions about the government’s claims to be living up to its campaign promises of defeating the terrorist group whilst eradicating corruption.
Amina Ali Nkeki, the rescued Chibok girl in question, was recovered in the Sambisa Forest in the northeast of the country with a young baby in her arms. She was accompanied by a man claiming to be the child’s father, two years after Islamist militants took her and 275 of her classmates from their school.
The plight of the Chibok girls garnered worldwide attention; during the Nigerian presidential elections, it became a stick for then-candidate Buhari to beat incumbent Goodluck Jonathan with as he accused him of lacking the resolve to take the fight to Boko Haram and find the missing girls.
It was on that platform, as well as a hard stance against corruption, that Buhari won the election. One year later, and thanks to a concerted effort with the Chadian army (along with U.S. support), the Nigerian government can indeed claim some success in retaking land from the ISIS-affiliated terror group.
