Vice President Kashim Shettima expressed excitement on Saturday as 12 of the girls abducted from their secondary school in Chibok in 2014, but who eventually regained freedom, formally completed their university education at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, also celebrated the graduation of the 12 girls, remarking that adversity is not the end of life when the right corrective steps are taken.
The 12 were among hundreds abducted from Chibok 12 years ago, but were later freed and subsequently enrolled at AUN with sponsorship from the Federal Government.
Vice President Shettima, during AUN’s 17th Commencement (Convocation) of the Class of 2026 in Yola, said that although the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls remains a wound on the conscience of the nation, some measure of redemption is being achieved as 12 more of the girls complete their university education.
Represented at the occasion by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Abdullahi Ribadu, Shettima commended AUN, a private university owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for holding the girls to the same academic standards as other students.
‘To the girls, I assure you that your country has not finished its obligation to you’, Shettima said, while the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development noted that the Federal Government has further plans for the graduates.
The minister, who spoke through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs Esuabana Nko Asanye, said the government has invested heavily since the recovery of the first set of abducted schoolgirls and would not abandon the fresh graduates.
Although hundreds of students graduated during the convocation on Saturday, attention centred on the 12 Chibok girls, two of whom, in separate interviews, expressed their joy at becoming graduates.
The President (Vice Chancellor) of AUN, Professor DeWayne Frazier, said in his commencement address that the 12 Chibok girls would walk across the graduation stage in a sacred moment of triumph over fear, resilience over trauma, and hope over everything that once sought to silence their future.
