Rescued Chibok girl, Amina Ali Nkeki, will have the opportunity to return to school and live her dreams, President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday as he received the young traumatised girl who was in captivity for two years.
Amina, who is one of 219 girls abducted by the Boko Haram sect and rescued at the Sambisa forest, will receive the best medical, psychological and emotional care that the Nigerian government can afford, the President promised, saying since nothing can be done to salvage the past the rest of her life will take a completely different course.
She arrived the Presidential Villa, Abuja, veiled and escorted by her brother, mother, the National Security Adviser to the President and the Borno State governor.
“The continuation of Amina’s education, so abruptly disrupted, will definitely be a priority of the Federal Government. Amina must be enabled to go back to school. No girl in Nigeria should be put through the brutality of forced marriage. Every girl has the right to an education and a life choice.
“Although we cannot do anything to reverse the horrors of her past, the Federal Government can and will do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course.
“We will ensure that she gets the best medical, psychological, emotional and whatever other care she requires to make a full recovery and be reintegrated fully into society,” the President said, adding that he could only imagine all the girl who were taken away at 17 years had to go through at such an early stage of her life.
Amina, according to her mother, who spoke at the brief ceremony in the President’s office, is one of the two surviving children of her mother. Her father died out of the trauma of loosing his daughter.
The President assured that his administration would continue to do all it could to rescue the remaining Chibok girls, who were still in Boko Haram captivity, “Amina’s rescue gives us new hope, and offers a unique opportunity for vital information.”
The Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima commended the President for his patience, persistence and doggedness in ensuring the restoration of peace in the North East. He said one year ago nobody could venture out of Maiduguri beyond 15 kilometres, as it was on the verge of falling into the hands of demented monsters called Boko Haram.
