Post by Samuel Olanipekun Ola (@sampekun50)
FROM CAPTIVITY TO GRADUATION: BUT WHERE IS LEAH SHARIBU?
Twelve years after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram terrorists, the world recently witnessed a touching story of hope.
Some of the rescued girls who once slept in fear inside terrorist camps have now graduated from the American University of Nigeria through scholarship support.
From captivity to classroom.
From tears to testimony.
From darkness to graduation gowns.
It is a story worth celebrating.
But amid the celebration, one painful question refuses to go away:
WHERE IS LEAH SHARIBU?
Leah was among the Dapchi schoolgirls abducted in 2018 in Yobe State.
Most of the girls later regained freedom.
But Leah did not return.
Reports over the years stated that she remained behind because she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
And since then—
silence.
While other rescued girls now wear graduation gowns, somewhere a mother still cries herself to sleep wondering whether her daughter is dead or alive.
Imagine the trauma of the parents.
Imagine celebrating birthdays with an empty chair in the house.
Imagine a mother hearing every knock on the gate and hoping, “Maybe Leah has returned.”
Imagine the fears, the loneliness, the uncertainty, and the emotional torture the girl herself may be passing through wherever she is.
No graduation photograph.
No freedom speech.
No reunion hug.
Just absence.
And that absence should trouble the conscience of Nigeria.
The Federal Government must answer difficult questions.
If Leah stood firmly by her faith, is that now a crime in Nigeria?
Why has the nation failed to secure her freedom after all these years?
And serious questions must also go to the
Christian Association of Nigeria.
What concrete efforts have been made to rescue one of their own members who reportedly refused to give up her faith even in captivity?
What efforts have been made to comfort and support the mother of a girl who stood for her belief even in the face of freedom?
If there had been a yearly national day set aside in remembrance of Leah Sharibu, perhaps the matter would not have faded so deeply from national attention.
If churches across Nigeria had organized seven days of unified prayers for Leah, perhaps heaven itself would have answered differently by now.
Every Nigerian life matters—Christian or Muslim.
A nation must never abandon citizens who stood courageously for conviction and conscience.
The success story of the rescued girls deserves celebration.
But the continued captivity of Leah Sharibu remains a national wound.
As Nigerians applaud the graduates today, may we also remember the young girl whose own seat at the graduation hall remains empty.
NIGERIA, PLEASE DO NOT FORGET LEAH SHARIBU.
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