700 days and counting, is there any hope left?

The over 200 girls were abducted on April 14, 2014, and most of them remain in Boko Haram captivity.

The kidnapping generated waves all around the world and saw world leaders joining the calls to “Bring Back Our Girls.”

However, 700 days later, the world is silent.

The Bring Back Our Girls group has continued its calls for the girls’ rescuewith bravery and resilience, but the question on the mind of the average Nigerian is “Is there any hope left?”

Even the most optimistic of minds has to admit that the situation is a delicate one. What good could possibly have happened to teenage girls left unprotected with blood-thirsty terrorists for almost two years?

According to a female Boko Haram victim, identified simply as Hajiya Aishatu, bringing back the Chibok girls would amount to importing vampires into Nigeria.

“Bringing back chibok girls would amount to importing Vampires into the Country, the campaign for Chibok girls is not in the interest of this country,” she said during an interview in Jos, Plateau State, according to The Nation.

“Chibok girls are not existing anywhere in the world, most of them had been used as suicide bombers by those who abducted them. Young girls involved in suicide attacks in the last two years till date were the Chibok girls, it will be a waste of time for anyone to be talking of rescuing Chibok girls," she added.

A similar sentiment was expressed by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo who said that anyone who promises to rescue the girls is telling lies.

“Anyone saying they (Chibok girls) will return is telling lies…” Obasanjo said on Friday, February 5, 2016.

Obasanjo had expressed a similar sentiment during an interview with Rosie Collyer of Radio France Internationale (RFI) in 2014, the year the girls were abducted.

“We will never be able to get those girls again. And the story of those girls will go on for the next 30 years,” he said.

“Some of them will come out when they are adults or they will be sent back when they are pregnant by those who have captured them. If anyone is thinking of being able to get those girls released intact, he must be day dreaming,” he added.

This opinion has however been countered by Kaduna State Senator, Shehu Sani who believes that the girls are alive and can still be rescued.

“Something that has bothered some of us here in line with the insurgency is, when will the Chibok girls be freed?” he said while speaking at a symposium in Akure, Ondo State.

“Someone said the Chibok girls will never be free, but I can tell you that they will be free and they are alive.

“They said they were going to free the girls on the condition we freed their people. And when we came to the negotiating table, and the government said it cannot free the terrorists because they have done a lot of harm,” he added.

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed a willingness to negotiate with Boko Haram to secure the girls’ release, but only if he can verify the credibility of the sect’s leadership.

"We have to be very careful about the credibility of various Boko Haram leadership coming up and claiming that they can deliver. We have to be very careful indeed and we are taking our time because we want to bring them safe back to their parents and their school,” Buhari said on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, during an interview on CNN with Christiane Amanpour.

When asked if he was against negotiating with Boko Haram, he said:

“I cannot be against it because as I told you our main objective as a government is to rescue those girls back to their schools and rehabilitate them back to normal sight. If we are convinced that the leadership that presented itself can deliver those girls safe and should, we will be prepared to negotiate what they want.”

However, during the Presidential Media Chat on Wednesday, December 30, 2015, Buhari admitted that the girls’ whereabouts were still unknown.

“There has been no firm intelligence where those girls are physical are and what condition they are in,” the president said.

The Buhari government however showed that it was tiring of calls to rescue the girls during a meeting with the BBOG group and the girls’ parents on January 14, 2016.

According to BBOG coordinator, Oby Ezekwesili, Buhari failed to “connect” with the parents during the meeting while the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan said that the Chibok girls weren’t abducted under Buhari’s administration.

The continued captivity of the Chibok girls is a tragedy because their parents might never be able to find closure until they at least see their children’s corpses.

However, the question now is, is there any hope left?

The military is clearing Boko Haram camps daily and claiming successes against the group. The terrorists are going hungry and surrendering to avoid starvation. Where then are the Chibok girls being kept? Will they, can they, ever be found?

Is there any hope left?