Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, who is one of the arrowheads of the BBOG, Bring Back Our Girls (#BBOG) movement, a group of volunteers agitating for the return of the Chibok girls, yesterday lamented that Nigeria and its government have failed the abducted girls as their whereabouts has remained unknown and there are fears that they may never be found alive.
In an interview with New Telegraph in Abuja, the former minister said that the girls represented how the nation cherished its human capital. “Our country has let the girls down so far and we hope that it could not continue letting those girls down.
The girls are our future; the girls are our symbol of how we cherish our human capital. And it is really our human capital, not oil that will turn us to the nation of destiny that we ought to have been since 50 years ago. It is not lost on us the tragedy of our missing girls.
There must be credible intelligence and our girls must be brought back,” Ezekwesili said. Speaking in Kaduna yesterday ahead of today’s anniversary, one of the conveners of the group and the Chief of Staff to the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, Hajiya Hadiza Bala Usman, described as unfortunate the inability to bring back the missing girls two years after.
She pledged the continued commitment of the group to campaign for their release, while also commending the Nigerian Army for the success recorded so far in the efforts to rid the country of terrorists. Director, International Institute of Journalism, Abuja, Dr. Emman Shehu, lamented that Jonathan and incumbent President Buhari have failed the Chibok girls.
Shehu, who is also an advocate of BBOG, carpeted the Federal Government on its handling of the rescue of the girls, noting that the girls would have, long time ago, been rescued if they were children of highly placed Nigerians.
“Both governments have failed the Chibok girls, have failed people who are not highly positioned in the society; because if Chibok girls were children of highly placed people, they would have been rescued long before now.
“As of now, Jonathan failed the Chibok girls and Buhari has also failed the Chibok girls. The number one priority of the government, which is to provide security, has not been fulfilled for the Chibok girls. We will keep hoping, as we are demanding something must be done.
219 citizens can’t be lost like that. It’s not possible,” he said. Similarly, a former secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Alhaji Buba Galadima, expressed disappointment that two years after the unfortunate incident, the girls were yet to be found.
“I must confess that I am confused as to whether these girls are still alive or not. I wish they are alive and if they are and we are not doing enough to know where they are and find out strategies to rescue them, then it is bad not only for them and their parents, but for the whole country,” he said.
ActionAid, one of the groups seeking the rescue of the missing girls, yesterday tasked Buhari to keep the promise he made in his inaugural speech by ensuring that the Chibok schoolgirls were not only rescued, but also returned to their families alive. In a statement made available to New Telegraph, ActionAid noted that more than 10 months after Buhari made this pronouncement, the Chibok girls are still missing.
Similarly, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said the Federal Government cannot effectively lay claims to have won the battle against terrorism in the country, unless it successfully rescues the 219 Chibok girls.
The Labour body recalled that it was exactly two years since the girls were criminally abducted from their school environment by Boko Haram terrorists. NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, poured commendations on the BBOG for sustaining the memory of the girls these two years, even as he lamented that many of the girls’ parents have reportedly lost their lives as a result of the trauma.
“The point cannot be overstated that only the return of the Chibok girls would convince the world that the war on terror in Nigeria is not just the war to reclaim territories, but to regain lives,” he said.
Wabba said that the Labour force, comprising over 50 affiliate industrial unions nationwide and six million organised members, joins the rest of the world to demand for the safe return of the abducted school girls at Chibok.
The NLC President said these abducted girls should not be taken for mere statistics as the abductors were robbing the society and nation of future doctors, nurses and political leaders. “An injury to these girls is certainly an injury to all us.
It is not over until these girls are liberated from the clutches of the criminal abductors. NLC hereby calls on Nigerian government to intensify the security measures to liberate the girls.
“We acknowledge the commendable efforts of Buhari administration to smash the dens of the Boko Haram terrorists. But to us in the labour movement, 219 missing girls are future workers, mothers not just statistics. “The received wisdom says if you educate a girl child, you educate a whole community.
Those who abduct 219 girls out of school have definitely criminally abducted communities of future doctors, nurses and leaders. “We must, therefore, join forces with the forces of progress and development worldwide to join forces for the liberation of our beloved girls of Chibok,” NLC added.
An elder statesman and former Political Adviser to former President Shehu Shagari, Tanko Yakasai, has attributed the failure of the government to secure the missing girls’ freedom to what he described as the politicisation of the matter. He accused politicians of using the unfortunate development to achieve personal political gains while the situation gets messier by the day.
Other groups, including the Women Arise for Change Initiative and the Coalition against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), have also pledged their commitment to raising the nation’s consciousness against terrorism and continue to fight for the girls’ freedom.
They made the pledge in separate statements issued yesterday and signed by their leaders, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin and Comrade Debo Adeniran respectively.
