'We feel for those mothers' – British Nigerians on kidnapped schoolgirls

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/10/british-nigerians-boko-haram-kidnapped-schoolgirls

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In the half-term holiday later this month, Nigerian-born Olu Alabe had been planning to take her daughters – Jameera, four, and Jasmine, one – back to west Africa to visit family. "We're not going now," she said. "There is no security, and how can you go when somebody might kidnap you? And where would my husband and I get money for a ransom? I will not put my girls at risk. What has happened to those poor girls is so sad.

"I have been thinking about it all the time and I find it so upsetting. It could be anybody's kids. I've been going in to check on my girls more every night, because it's all I can think about. It's terrible. The attitude of the Nigerian government is so very selfish – they all have their kids safely tucked away in some private school."

International condemnation of the Chibok schoolgirls' abduction by Boko Haram has escalated recently, but most British Nigerians have been aware for some time of the group's escalating violence, including the murder of schoolchildren, and have been watching the story unfold with despair.

Alabe was out shopping in the weak spring sunshine in Peckham's Rye Lane, an area of south London which is home to the largest concentration of British Nigerians in the UK. Across the street Funmi, 48, and Gloria, 52, who did not want to give their full names, have stopped to chat on their way home from church. "This is what we have just been talking about," said Funmi. "We have been praying for those girls; if you are Muslim or if you are Christian, it's children. President [Goodluck] Jonathan cannot deal with this on his own. As a mother you feel for these mothers. You know you can't eat, you can't sleep, if somebody has your child. We're praying for them to escape."

Gloria added: "It's affecting everybody. Everyone is scared of what might be happening to those girls. These terrorists are not Nigerians."

Opening up his shop, AHK Islamic, Doyn Ade, 24, said he rings his parents at home in Lagos as often as he can. "I am really worried for my mother and father right now – of course I am. They are really scared and we pray that this situation will be resolved."

But like many who have seen ordinary Nigerians suffer under colonialism, war and corrupt deals with multinationals, he is cautious about foreign intervention: "It's good there has been a lot of concern from the rest of the world, and if the US and the UK are going in with the objective of helping, that's fine. But if they do anything afterwards, if they try to get too involved with politics, that's a bit more worrying."

In her hairdressing salon, La Peach, in Peckham's Blenheim Grove, Amina Abanje said: "Nobody feels good around here. People are very scared about what is happening in our country. Why are they taking children? I'm a proud Nigerian but this gives a bad impression."

Like Alabe, many British Nigerians are thinking twice about holidaying back home as the attacks rise. Comfort Momoh MBE is a British midwife and campaigner against female genital mutilation. Born in Nigeria, she was there on a visit when the girls were taken. "We all have families back home that we want to go and visit, but I have friends in Lagos who are too afraid to go to the north now," she said. "When you are coming from the UK you look so obviously like someone who can be kidnapped and held for ransom by these people.

"Hopefully we will get some support – from the UK, from the US – and we can defend Nigeria. It's disgraceful, shameful, that this has happened in this day and age. I'm disgusted with the Nigerian government. They didn't take it seriously and people are powerless, They don't know what to do. It's encouraging that people around the world seem to care. Perhaps once we get the girls home we will get the support to resolve the terrorism. People are scared, girls are scared, so the diaspora is also scared, until we can all get rid of Boko Haram."

Chima Olugh, vice-chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK, said: "There have been a lot of atrocities, and so it's a bit of a surprise that this one has been so widely covered outside Nigeria – although of course it is a good thing, which hopefully will not just get the girls back but also bring back stability to the country.

"I've spoken to a lot of people about this over the past few weeks, up and down the country – in Leeds, Liverpool, a lot of older and wiser people than me – and most think it's because they are secondary school girls, sitting exams, in the north where people are not necessarily as educated as in other parts of the country. Nigerians know the value of education: it's a strong value and many people are angry because they see these girls are our future leaders, business people, our future parents. So for these insurgents to attack that is a real slap in the face to people who fight hard for every opportunity that comes their way.

"We've had a difficult past but we're a democracy now. The diverse nature of our country brings a strong unity when everyone feels outrage. In the UK we are very in touch with what's happening in Nigeria and we feel the impact."