By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, had in 2018, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to expedite the release of the lone Christian Dapchi girl in Boko Haram captivity, Leah Sharibu.
A Nigerian, Emmanuel Ogebe, had written to Archbishop Welby, pleading that he leveraged on his friendship with President Buhari to demand that the Nigerian President personally intervenes and secures the release of the lone girl who has now spent 15 months with the terrorists.
Ogebe received a response from Welby’s office, informing him that the Archbishop had since made that plea to Buhari in 2018 when both men met in London.
“Your concern over the wellbeing of Leah Sharibu is of course well understood and this is continually a matter of prayer and concern.
“In 2018, the Archbishop met with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, raising the urgent situation of Leah Sharibu and urging the President to do everything possible to secure her release,” a spokesman for Welby, Dominic Goodall said.
Goodall assured Ogebe that he would escalate his request to the Archbishop through his advisers on Nigeria’s affairs.
But Ogebe is not satisfied. He asked Welby not to treat the intervention on Leah’s plight as a one-off event.
“There could be fewer issues of the greater moment on the planet today affecting tens of millions of Christians that deserve his attention such as this. You do the Archbishop a disservice and Leah too if you do not offer him the opportunity to be personally aware of this request.
“There is indeed a difference between being known for occupying a position or being known for adopting a position. The position of Archbishop of Canterbury is God’s gift of him but what he makes of it is his gift to God.
“Archbishop Justin’s friendship with Gen. Buhari cannot be solely for the benefit of the later. It must of needs be a blessing to someone. Maybe it existed for such a time as this!
“Once again I make a specific request – for His Grace Archbishop Justin to phone Gen. Buhari and ask him to kindly secure Leah’s release for her birthday,” Ogebe said.
Sharibu was among 109 girls abducted by the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists in Dapchi, Yobe State on February 19, 2018. The other girls were released because they were either Muslims or agreed to convert to Islam. Leah refused.
