Forged in Fire

Nikki Armstrong Measure of a Woman, Episode 3

By: Vinny Green

Narrated by: Jacqueline M. Robinson

Kashim Shettima, the state Governor of Borno, emerged from a meeting and made the following statement to journalists at the presidential villa after a meeting with President Jonathan:

“Boko Haram are better armed and are better motivated than our own troops. Given the present state of affairs, it is absolutely impossible for us to defeat Boko Haram."

Of course, this did not include the day that Boko Haram met Ensign Nikki Evelyn Armstrong.

On the morning of April 15, 2014, the world woke up to the news of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. What most of the world did not know was that this was not the first of such acts by the growing terrorist organization.

Some years earlier, the group stormed a small village in Nigeria and had taken a group of Peace Corps and United Nations workers hostage. Mikaela Armstrong, Nikki’s older sister, was amongst that group. It was not an act highly publicized, then or now.

©2022 Vinny Green (P)2023 Vinny Green