Bring Back Our Girls. Poem by Chiazo Egbukwu

My good people of Nigeria, join me and search
For her as I implore the church
To pray for the return
Of my daughter, our daughters, who has gone to learn
Modern techniques and prevailing
Processes and skills in solving
Our numerous problems as a nation
That is seeking for care and attention.

She is my daughter with the name; Grace.
I gave her a mark near her nose to differentiate her face
From that of her identical twin
Whom she used to call her “next of kin”.
She is yet to return from school,
And I had thought this to be an April fool
Now my sun had been set at noon
And my darkness seizes to brighten, even at the fool moon.

In my absence, they had taken away
To were I knows not on a school day,
By men with bazooka and antiaircraft gun.
They had darkened my day, even my midnight sun.
Separating our love several distances apart,
Kai! Things have fallen apart!


All my income I spent to buy her any book
She desires, now, they came and took
Her away from my reach,
From watching her recite the part of speech
Which she always sings like a song
In her good time all day long.

My heart is broken in pieces,
My misery has seen an unusual increase,
My eyes has refused to stop weeping.
My ears are tired of their daily press briefing.
Bring back my daughter
Bring back our Nigerian daughters.


Making my moments so miserable, as I weep
Like a heart broken lost sheep
Whose shepherd had gone astray
In the search for the right direction or way
In which she could be found.
Like a music speaker with a quaking sound
My heart beat.
Like as if am sitting on a hot seat
My whole body ruins in disorder.
Who shall restore my peace to order?

Come hell or high water,
My long is to see my child, my daughter
Our daughters, the Nigerian Children who
Had been taken away with no one knowing what they’re passing through.
Bring back my daughter
Bring back our Nigerian daughters.

My spirit is broken
And my hope had been taken
Away. Who will be to me a mildest daughter?
Like Grace, my daughter.
Who will drink with me our kunu and well water?
Who will take our farm produce to chibok market?
Who will make me walk on a red carpet,
As you promised when you become a celebrity
That our lives will flourish with fun and activity.

Bring back my daughter
Bring back our Nigerian daughters.