By Ben Agande, Abuja

Not many people have been shot in the head and lived to tell their stories. But for young Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, her close shave with death when Taliban terrorists shot her in the head has catapulted her from an unknown rural girl to international status, earning her a spot to address the United Nations, UN, General Assembly.

So, when the Taliban’s brothers-in-crime, of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in English means, “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”, and otherwise known as Boko Haram, gained international notoriety by abducting more than 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno State, it was only natural that Malala was going to join in not only the international condemnation that greeted the heinous crime, but also champion their release. The crime for which she was shot by the Taliban was the same crime which earned the Nigerian girls abduction. Like Malala, they dared to go to school.

So, when she decided to come to Nigeria to press for the release of the abducted girls, it was only natural that her visit would attract the attention of the international media. After meeting with parents of the abducted girls and some of the girls who escaped from their abductors, Malala met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday.

Though the visit has attracted criticism against the backdrop of President Jonathan’s failure to meet with the parents of the abducted girls more than 90 days after the girls were abducted, the significance of this can be located in the fact that a victim of a terrorist attack can better understand the ordeal the abducted girls and their parents are going through.

For Mr. President, the visit by Malala provided another opportunity for his government to explain to, not only Nigerians, but also the international community that no effort is being spared to ensure that the abducted girls are released – and safely too.

“Terror is relatively new here and dealing with it has its challenges. The great challenge in rescuing the Chibok girls is the need to ensure that they are rescued alive. The time it is taking to achieve that objective is not a question of the competence of the Nigerian government. We have had teams from the United States, Britain, France, Israel and other friendly nations working with us here on the rescue effort and they all appreciate the challenges on the need to tread carefully to achieve our purpose, he stated.

Jonathan added that the rescue of the girls is not an end in itself as the abduction of the girls has exposed the vulnerability of the girl-child which his government henceforth would pay special attention to.
“I personally believe that since about 50% of our population is female, we will be depriving ourselves of half of our available human resource if we fail to educate our girls adequately or suppress their ambitions in anyway.

We are therefore taking steps to curb all forms of discrimination against girls and women, and have also undertaken many affirmative action on their behalf.”
To Malala Yousofzai, her visit to Nigeria to empathize with the families of the abducted girls on her 17th birthday was more important than celebrating the  birthday in a way that a teenager would have loved to do.

For a victim of terror, an attack on any girl in any part of the world reminds her of her close shave with death and would naturally draw sympathy.

She explained: “I am here in Nigeria on my 17th birthday for a price which is to see that every child goes to school. This year, my objective is to speak up for my Nigerian sisters about 200 of them who are under the abduction of Boko Haram and I met President Goodluck Jonathan for this purpose. I conveyed the voice of my sisters who are out of school or who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram; and for those girls who escaped from the abduction but still do not have education. And in the meeting, I highlighted the same issues which the girls and their parents told me in the past two days. The parents said they really want to meet with the President to share their stories with him. And I asked the President if he wants to meet with the parents of the girls. The President assured me that he would meet with them.

“I spoke to the President about the girls who complained that they cannot go to school despite the fact that they want to become doctors, engineers and teachers. But the government is not providing them any facility. They also need health facility, security, and the government is not doing anything. These are the issues I presented to the President today. And the President fortunately promised me that he will do something for these girls and he promised me that the girls under the abduction of Boko Haram will be released as soon as possible.

“This is the promise the President made and I am hopeful that his promise will come through and we will soon see those girls return. Yesterday, I also met with the parents of these girls who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram and they were crying and hopeless.

But still, they have this hope that there is still someone who can help them. They asked   me if there is any chance for them to meet the President because, at this time, they need the President’s support; so I asked the President if it is possible for him to go and see them to encourage them and the President did promise me that he will meet the parents of these girls.   I am hopeful that these two promises – the return of the girls from Boko Haram and meeting with their parents – will be fulfilled and we will see it soon.

“The President promised that these girls would return. There are difficulties which he mentioned, one of which is that it is quite risky to do a military operation and that these girls could be targeted. It is quite a complicated situation. But as far as I know, that depends on the government because they are responsible to the people who elected them; people believe that President Jonathan is the father of the nation. So, he should be responsible for the duties that have been given to him on the seat which he is seating on and I am hopeful that he will do it but we will continue our campaign, we will not stop and this should be kept in mind.

“He has made promises but in politics, nothing is clear. But the President said these girls are his daughters and he is pained by their sufferings and that he has his own daughters and he can feel what they are feeling.

“Even though the promises have been made, it does not mean I am going to stop talking. I will be counting days and I will be looking when those girls are going to be returning home. I can’t stop this campaign until I see those girls return to their families and continue the agitation. This is the position of the Malala Foundation. My father and I and the entire family want to speak out for those 10.5 million children who are out of school. They have no access to education because of many problems”.

Though tender in age, Malala’s experience has exposed her to the double standard of the international community especially when it comes to dealing with issues concerning Africa.