By Ken Eluma Asogwa
We were told that 315 innocent pupils were abducted in Niger State. Fifty managed to escape, according to reports. That leaves 265 children still in captivity – children whose faces we have not seen, whose cries we cannot hear.
Yet the country moves on as though nothing happened. Have we lost our humanity as a country?
In 2014, when the Chibok schoolgirls were taken, the world stood still. The global outrage was deafening. From Beyoncé to Michelle Obama, from major world capitals to international institutions, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls became a universal cry. The pressure was intense, the solidarity overwhelming.
So one cannot help but ask: Was the outrage about the girls, or about a President who some powerful interests were desperate to remove?
Was that global movement truly about the children or about politics?
Because today, over 250 Niger State pupils remain in the den of terrorists, yet the silence is chilling. No global hashtags. No celebrities lending their voices. No coordinated campaigns. No sustained public pressure. Just muted murmurs, fleeting headlines, and an uncomfortable national apathy.
Do these Niger children not deserve the same solidarity?
Are they less Nigerian?
Less human?
Less worthy of rescue?
Or have they merely become political collateral damage sacrificed on the altar of a political climate where selective outrage has become the norm?
Where is the global conscience now?
Where is the national outrage?
Where are our voices?
If the world once rose for the Chibok girls, then today, Nigeria must rise for the Niger pupils. Their pain is real. Their parents’ agony is real. Their lives are hanging in the balance.
If we could once insist, “Bring Back Our Girls,” then today we must demand, loudly, consistently, and fearlessly:
#BringOurPupils
Because every child matters, not just when it is politically convenient.
Ken Eluma Asogwa is a rights activist and writes from Abuja
