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PREMIUM TIMES’ Samuel Ogundipe spoke with Aisha Wakil in an exclusive chat, below is an excerpt from the interview. The full interview is on Premium Times
It’s a perilous position when you play the negotiator between the government and a terror group, how did you manage to earn the trust of both parties without being frustrated with suspicion by either or both parties?
If you see white, you know it is white. If you see black you, you know it is black. And if you are pretending, three days anybody can detect you. So this is 7th year now and I am still where I am. So that trust is there because I am the type of woman that carry “gulma” from this one to this one. If this is what I discuss with you, that is what I discuss with you. If she asks me, I will say ‘you are not supposed to know’. If you must know, you go and ask yourself. I don’t discuss military is here, Boko Haram is there. And the military officers know it. If they ask me where they are? I say I don’t know where they are. If Boko-haram asks where? I say I don’t know where they are. So, it is like that. When they arrest them, my name is straightforward. They say “go meet this woman, she is the only one we trust”.
What do you think is the prospect of rescuing the rest of the Chibok girls?
Assuming I had a clue that they were going to kidnap the girls, I would have been in Chibok sleeping. Then I would have been in that hall and everybody would be kidnapped. I didn’t know about it. When I heard about it, I told the government to calm down. They should keep quiet. I was able to pass the message across. I said ‘please start releasing them’. It did not take time before some of the girls were released. So by the time I knew it, the whole thing was in the media. Boko Haram now called me and said mama we are no more releasing. The Chibok girls have become diamond and gold. I asked why? They said even Obama’s wife is carrying ‘Bring Back Our Girls’. They now knew they were very important as attention was focused on them.
After that I became really disturbed. I started tracing them in the bush to see whether I could get to where the girls were. I slept in the bush. Then later they told me where to come and pick 50 of them. I was heading there with Dr. Steven Davis and one general. We slept in that bush. So by the time we got there, civilian JTF alerted them in the bush and was chasing them in the bush and they now took off. I went there with the ambulance. They called me in front of the general and requested that I should come to a certain location the following day and pick 50 girls. They said we should have 14 ambulance buses on standby. I said ‘okay’. They also told me to come with shai which means tea with milk and put plenty sugar. This is because some of the girls were very weak and one with a broken hand.
So Dr. Davies and that high-ranking general now decided to go with University of Maiduguri vans and some doctors and nurses. They warned me never to come with a military and if I do they would slaughter me in front of the military.
So we were making the preparation. The general with us received a message on his telephone: “Chibok girls sighted.” So we rushed. By the time we got there civilian JTF had seen them and gave them a hot chase.
By the time we got there they had driven them too far. I was calling on the telephone but their lines were switched off. It was later in the night I got them and they asked me: mama what happened? Did you tell anyone? I said ‘no I did not’. Civilian JTF chased them and there was a massacre.
They killed so many of them —up to 400— that time. We lost them, We slept in that bush with the military and commander of the military know me and everything. They were so happy that I could take this risk.
Early morning, they called me and asked ‘mama where are you?’ I said ‘I am somewhere’. They now said the roads were dangerous that we should pass through Monguno on our way back to Maiduguri. That was how we lost that one. If they had not chased them. If they had not sighted them we could have just finished this thing. Those 50 girls would have been in our custody. everything would have been over by now.
Okay, what would you say is the best approach now to rescue the girls? Do you think it is the military or diplomatic approach that is the solution? Would Boko Haram release the girls to you?
They will release everybody to me or you. If they find you worthy, they will release to you. They can release to anybody. What they wanted before was that they said they were going to send thirty commanders to me. If those thirty commanders can come meet the security, they would discuss and they need trust. If they trust them they go back to their bush and the next thing they will bring two girls.
Then, they will now make their demand during the meeting and bring some more girls
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