•As abduction enters 77 days
It is now 77 days since over 250 girls were abducted from a school in Chibok on April 14 by Boko Haram jihadists whose name means “Western education is sin” in Hausa language.
Their rescue remains a long shot.
Some fathers of the missing girls, looking depressed.
Information on their whereabouts and well-being is unclear. Likewise progress by the Nigerian military, the United States and other foreign countries which are offering military support to bring the girls back home.
What is certain, however, is the steady increase of the trauma of the parents of the girls.
Anguish leads to depression
A clinical consultant psychologist/psychotherapist at the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Lagos, Dr Patricia Chiegboka, said: “The parents can easily develop hypertension, mental challenges like depression, peptic ulcer, anxiety reactions, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorders, abnormal brain electrical discharges which can lead to simple or temporal lobe or complex partial seizure.
“It can also lead to chronic psychosis.”
She added that the impact of the abduction could also affect other Nigerians. “Even some of us whose children were not caught in the event have issues with sleeplessness, poor appetite.
“We live in fear because it seems that even our government is helpless and may not resolve the problem.”
Reels and reels of information on the girls have been depressing since they were kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly 80 days ago.
Obasanjo adds bombshell
Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, released a video saying he would sell them in his market where he sells women. Then the Associated Press (AP) reported that two of the girls have died of snake bite.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo added his own bombshell to the series of bad news.
After holding talks with people close to the Boko Haram leadership in his Abeokuta Hilltop residence, he told the BBC Hausa service: “I believe that some of the girls will never return. We will still be hearing about them many years from now.”
For families of the missing girls, the trauma is overwhelming. A few of them have even died.
Mary Lalai, mother of one of the girls, died of heart attack. Mutai Hona, father of two of the girls also died of heart failure.
Life has been a living hell for the surviving parents. One of them, who identified herself as Mary, said she has lost appetite, has sleepless night and a recurring headache.
Paltry palliative from Borno
The Borno State government, in a bid to alleviate their pain, set-up a committee and gave it N150 million to rehabilitate the families of the abducted girls and the 53 girls who had escaped from their Boko Haram captors.
Apart from medical care, Chiegboka suggested psychological therapy for the 53 girls who escaped and the others if they get released.
“They must be pampered and made heroines and celebrated. They must be off-cameras to avoid stigmatisation. They should be given scholarships to study further and be made to study in very good schools with serious activities to occupy them.
“They should be taught how to increase their faith in God their creator. They should also receive exposure therapies to relieve them of post traumatic stress disorders.
“They must learn about great women who may have been victims and survivors of rape, kidnapping and prisoners of war,” she counselled.
She canvassed involvement of professionals to help the parents to manage trauma.
“If a person is subjected to trauma, whether physical or emotional, that trauma must be relieved through psychological management. If not done, the consequences are enormous. It can result to acute psychosis, suicide, amnesia, withdrawn behaviour et cetera.
“Nigerians have not learnt to engage psychologists and other mental health experts when there are natural or man-made disasters.
“For example, after the Dana Air crash that happened some years ago, some relations of the deceased were not psychologically evaluated and some of them lack sleep to date.
“Psychologists, through their professional skills can predict and forecast events. This helps them plan for preventive measures. Neglecting mental health services is greatly to the country’s disadvantage.
“We prevent, predict, forecast, evaluate, diagnose and treat mental health disorders. We do recover people who would have been wasted due to mental challenges.”
Abductees psychologically worse off
While parents of the missing girls can be reached and assisted to overcome trauma, the fate of the abductees remain uncertain.
Chiegboka said the girls may be in worse psychological state.
“Emotional distress, depression, anxiety reactions, guilt feelings and regrets, suicidal ideations will be present. The torture and multiple sexual involvements these girls are exposed to are devastating.
“Remember they are all under 18 years and may all be virgins. Can you imagine their state of hygiene, poor feeding and cruel life exposure? What will be going on in their minds are many. Some may as well die in the course of this problem.
“They will be thinking about the exam they never finished, their future, their families and why did they fall victim of a crime they never committed. What did they do? Poor little children!
“Oh! my God help us find solution to this problem.”
