‘Habiba’, a musical highlighting the ordeal of one of the 276 girls kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram terrorists in 2014 will be staged at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos on November 23.
The musical produced by Longshot Communications narrates the story of a vibrant, brilliant young girl. It shows the audience her traumatic journey from the day of her abduction to when she escaped from her captors.
Creative Director, Longshot Communications, Kelechukwu Anunibe, explained that the musical asks questions about the unresolved issues surrounding the abduction of the over 200 schoolgirls and the fate of those still in captivity.
“Our stories are designed to bring social issues to the front-burner of the nation’s consciousness by driving conversations that birth social change. As a storytelling organisation, we have been providing artistic and directorial support to a faith-based organisation in Lagos since 2017, and we will continue to do so,” said Anunibe.
He added that the girl whose story will be told in the musical was kidnapped on April 14 and managed to escape along with three others after months of abuses. While some of her friends were killed in Sambisa Forest where they were kept, ‘Habiba’ and three other girls regained freedom courtesy a terrorist who admires her.
‘Habiba’ reiterates how resilience can bring out strength needed to keep going. The ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ (BBOG) campaign that later attracted global attention was born out of this true-life event that the musical relives.