28 days in the forest: Do not forget them yet, by OluBunmi ODEWUMI

Twenty-eight days ago, gunmen struck three villages in Oriire local government, Oyo state. They came with violence, and they left with our children, our teachers, and their principal. Since that day, the news cycle has moved on. But for those families, time has stood still.

Today, they are still in the forest.

Imagine it for a moment: Boys and girls who should be writing exams now sleep on bare ground. A principal who dedicated his life to shaping young minds now wakes up to the roar of wild animals, not the morning assembly bell. Teachers who corrected our children’s homework now shiver under the heat of the sun at noon, and the cold dew of dawn before sunrise.

They are exposed — to mosquitoes that carry malaria, to ants and reptiles that crawl in the dark, to hunger, to fear, to uncertainty. Most painful of all: they are completely away from their loved ones. A mother’s hug. A father’s prayer. A sibling’s laughter. All gone, replaced by the sound of footsteps of their captors.

Twenty-eight days. That’s 672 hours. That’s 40,320 minutes of trauma.

We must not grow tired.
We must not let silence bury their cry. The longer they stay, the easier it is for the world to forget. But forgetting is betrayal. Prayer is our weapon when we have no guns. Compassion is our duty when we have no power.

To the government and security agencies: We appreciate your boldness and activities We beg you — double your efforts. To ALL, your roles are well seen and acknowledged, God is the rewarder. Every day matters. Every hour counts. A child’s childhood is being stolen.

To every reader: Say their names in prayer tonight. Picture them in that forest and ask God to be their shade from the sun, their blanket from the dew, their protection from every insect and reptile. Ask Him to return them home, whole and unbroken.

They are not statistics. They are not “abducted persons.” They are Daddy Hellen’s colleagues. They are someone’s child. They are Oyo state’s children.

The forest has held them for 28 days. Let our prayers, our voices, and our refusal to forget bring them home on day 29.

_“For I was in distress, and you remembered me.”_ — We must be that remembrance.

#BringThemHome #Oriire28Days