By Onyeka ‘Kerous’ Ibeanusi
Every once in a while someone from a somewhat unknown background, somewhere unknown to the world and its powerful media houses, somewhere unknown to the decision makers and Governments of the world pulls a heroic feat and forcefully takes a place in the history of mankind. Our world today has been characterized by terrible news, some of them involving very young people and sometimes we wonder if there is any hope for the future. In these trying times when we hear of teenagers attacking fellow school mates, some have managed to carve a niche for themselves, earning the respect of all and sundry.
Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani became very popular after she was shot in the head by members of the Taliban who felt Malala, 16 at the time was encouraging teenage girls to take education seriously. But by whatever intervention that is beyond human understanding, Malala survived the attack and became very popular that even Christine Amanpour of CNN had to call her the bravest girl in the world. Today Malala is a voice for not only her generation, but women all over the world.
With the recent spate of insecurity in Nigeria and incessant attacks on lives and properties of citizens in the north east of the country by Boko Haram, an islamist radical sect who believe western education is evil. There have been attacks on schools and the most recent of them was the kidnap of over 200 school girls in Chibok, Bornu state. A situation that has sparked global outrage and protests with the #BringBackOurGirls demanding that the government do everything humanely possible to rescue the abducted girls alive.
The leader of the sect had threatened to sell the girls off as slaves or give them away in marriage because they went to school and has been criticized by many for such act against defenseless school girls.
A few weeks ago four Nigerians graduated as best students of Dillard University in the United States and one of them was a 20 year old girl who made a first class honors in Psychology, became best graduating student and valedictorian.Merrilyn Akpapuna finished as the best graduating student from the university, won two other awards for highest academic achievement for the college of arts and sciences and College of general studies. She was on the same podium with Michelle Obama, wife of the U.S President. Merrilyn graduated with a cumulative grade point average of 4.0/4.0 meaning she scored an A in every course she took in the four years of her studies at Dillard.
Merrilyn was not born and bred in America; she is a product of the Nigerian society. She grew up in Lagos, was educated in Lagos until she left for a university degree in America at age 16.At this time when the education of the girl child in Nigeria is being threatened, one will ordinarily expect the federal government to be sufficiently motivated by the hard work of this ordinary young girl who has made us proud. Merrilyn’s success is a model of success for every one of the over 200 school girls being held in captive by the Boko Haram sect. It is timely, coming at the time when these girls are still missing because they wanted an education in Merrylin’s home country, one would have expected to see her celebrated beyond appearing on blogs.
Merrylin is a classic example that if given the right environment, the Nigerian child can excel beyond ordinary expectations. Merrylin should be the face of hope for the kidnapped girls; she should be our own Malala Yousefzai spreading the hope of academic excellence.Nigeria is a funny country were only criminals are rewarded and recognized while hard working citizens who go the extra mile to bring glory to the country are ignored. Merrilyn is from Delta State and as Nigerians were celebrating her, I didn’t see any congratulatory message from the governor of her state neither did I hear her name mentioned by Mr. President’s hype man, Reno Omokri.
Merrilyn’s success should be the message of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign and Merrylin ought to be the face because she has set a good example. Our children deserve an educational environment where they can express themselves academically without the fear of being kidnapped or harassed.
The Nigerian Government should #BringBackOurGirls so that they can be like Merrilyn.
NB: Onyeka ‘Kerous’ Ibeanusi is a Nigerian musician, motivational/entertainment writer and speaker and a social commentator. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University Of Benin. You can follow him on twitter @onyeckerous or add him on facebook. (Onyeka ‘kerous’ Ibeaunusi) or like his official page on facebook (Kerous)
© CC BY-NC-ND 2014
