Chibok school girls recently freed from Boko Haram captivity are seen in Abuja, Nigeria, Sunday, May 7, 2017.Olamikan Gbemiga/The Associated Press
A carefully orchestrated photo-op between Nigeria's ailing president and 82 newly freed Chibok schoolgirls is fuelling fresh controversy over the political exploitation of the traumatized students.
The schoolgirls from the northern Nigerian town of Chibok, held hostage by the extremist Boko Haram militia for more than three years, were freed on the weekend after long negotiations with the Islamist radicals, reportedly in exchange for five imprisoned Boko Haram commanders.
But on their first full day of freedom, the schoolgirls were allowed no privacy from the government's cameras. They were quickly flown to Abuja, the capital, to meet President Muhammadu Buhari and other officials at the presidential villa. Just hours before the frail president flew to London for another round of medical treatment on Sunday night, his aides released photos of him with the 82 former hostages.
The photos showed the freed students looking solemn and silent in newly issued dresses and headscarfs. They were given medical examinations before meeting the president. Mr. Buhari, speaking to the freed hostages on Sunday night, described their release as "a pleasant second anniversary gift to the people of Nigeria" – apparently referring to the second anniversary of his own inauguration as president at the end of this month.
The photo opportunity was a political boon for Mr. Buhari, who has been widely criticized for his long absence from his official duties this year. He has already spent nearly two months in London for medical attention this year, prompting many questions from Nigerians about his health.
After returning to Nigeria in March, he was rarely seen in public, and he has missed a series of cabinet meetings, though he has failed to explain the nature of his illness. When his aides announced his latest trip to London for medical care on Sunday night, they said his doctors will determine how long he will stay there. They said he had delayed his departure so that he could meet the former hostages.
The plight of the Chibok students has triggered huge international attention, including a social-media hashtag campaign in which many politicians and celebrities joined.
Of the 276 students who were kidnapped from the school in Chibok three years ago, 163 have now been released or escaped. Despite pleas for privacy, Mr. Buhari and his officials have repeatedly posed for photos with each group of newly freed hostages.
Osai Ojigho, the Nigeria director of Amnesty International, called on the government to "respect the privacy" of the Chibok students. Many Nigerians voiced the same concern on social-media forums. But the government ignored the plea.
In the earlier cases, many of the freed Chibok captives have been detained for months in government custody with little access to their families, ostensibly because they needed counselling and security screening.
The Amnesty director said the government should "ensure that the released girls are reunited with their families and not kept in lengthy detention and security screening, which can only add to their suffering and plight."
After the 82 students were freed on Saturday, their families desperately sought to contact them, but only a partial list of names was released. Some members of Bring Back Our Girls, an advocacy group that has kept the plight of the Chibok schoolgirls in the public spotlight for the past three years, said on Sunday that the government has failed to respond to the families that have been urgently seeking information on the freed captives.
"The parents are under enormous tension," said Aisha Yesufu, a leading member of Bring Back Our Girls, in a tweet on Sunday. "A lot of them are already hypertensive."
She urged the government to call the families and give them the names of the freed students. "Please let them know."
Mr. Buhari, speaking to the freed students shortly before his departure to London, said he was joyful at their release. "I cannot express in a few words how happy I am to welcome our dear girls back to freedom," he told them.
"Let me reassure Nigerians, especially relatives and friends of the remaining girls, that the federal government will spare no effort to see that they and all other Nigerians who have been abducted safely regain their freedom," he said. "No human being should go through this kind of ordeal."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it acted as a "neutral intermediary" to help secure the release of the 82 students, providing a convoy of vehicles to bring them to the government from a remote northern location. The government of Switzerland, the Nigerian security agencies and a number of civil-society groups were also involved in obtaining the release, Mr. Buhari's office said.
The hostages were released "in exchange for some Boko Haram suspects," the government said, providing no details. Reports said five Boko Haram commanders are being released. It is also possible that money or supplies were given to Boko Haram, analysts said.
Ryan Cummings, director of Signal Risk, an Africa-focused risk analysis consultancy, said it was difficult to assess whether Boko Haram would be strengthened by the release of the five commanders. But since the radical militia is highly decentralized, any impact would be "localized" to specific areas where the commanders return, he told The Globe and Mail
Geoffrey York