Chibok girl bags degree seven years after escaping B’Haram captivity

Mary Katambi, the last Chibok girl to escape Boko Haram captivity in 2014, has graduated with a degree in accounting from the American University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State.

Of all the Chibok girls who remained in Nigeria, Mary is the only one who stayed the course, graduating from university.

Mary was one of the 276 Chibok girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram terror group in 2014.

Her graduation not only defies the group’s extremist ideology, but her triumph also gives hope to millions of young women in Nigeria’s North East, bearing the brunt of Boko Haram’s deadly onslaught for over 12 years.

In that space of time over 2.2 million people have been displaced, over 100,000 killed and about 300,000 have fled the conflict, living as refugees in neighbouring Cameroon and Niger Republic.

On April 13, 2014, Mary bade her mother, Saratu, farewell as she prepared to return to Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, 21km away from her village, Makalama.

As Saratu hugged her daughter she felt a chill course down her spine. Perhaps a bad omen, but she did not want to alarm her young 16-year-old only child. Mary was eager to return to school to be with her best friend Amina.

Saratu was a farmer, she planted maize, millet, beans, and seasonal vegetables. At the crack of dawn, when Saratu prepared breakfast, Mary always feigned sleep. She would only drag herself out of bed by 7 am to sweep the floors and do her favourite chore, taking care of the family’s goats and cows.

Her father, Katambi, was hardly ever around. He was a fishmonger plying his trade on the banks of Lake Chad.

During Boko Haram’s reign of terror, the group burnt down her village, killed her favourite uncle Bitrus and her neighbour Bello.

When Mary returned to school that Sunday in 2014, she met her best friend Amina and other girls in the school’s courtyard. They had dinner and talked about their plans for life after secondary school.

-Daily Trust