War Against #BringBackOurGirls Campaigners

Twice this week, Police and the Department of State Services, DSS operatives prevented members of the #BringBackOurGirls group from matching to Aso Rock to face President Muhammadu Buhari. It seems the BBOG is struggling with the reality that the party with the Buhari administration is over. However, government’s action this week against them was heart-wrenching, considering the role played by this group in the emergence of Buhari as president. I thought the protesters would have been allowed to see the president, even if he had nothing concrete to tell them.

The Chairman of the Chibok Community, Hosea Tsambido, remarked: “Members of the Community and BBOG voted massively for Buhari in 2015 and against his predecessor, who they voted for in 2011. We regret our votes. We regret it. They tell us that our girls seen in the latest video was merely an arrangement. No one has spoken to the family of any of the Chibok girls since the last video was released by the terrorists. We were promised that the president would visit Sambisa, after becoming president. We were also told that within two weeks our girls would be rescued. But over one year now, there is no tangible statement about our girls. The presidency has stated instead that it is confused.”

The BBOG members, just like many of us, are yet to see any tangible measure that will lead to the rescue of the 218 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorists from their school in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014. So, government should not expect them to relent. They have a right to seethe. Another dangerous dimension to the BringBackOurGirls campaign is the strategy of trying to divide the group. This is depressing. Some parents of the missing Chibok girls did not join the protest march in Abuja, due to pressure from a yet to be confirmed angle. Yakubu Nkeki, one of the leaders of the missing girls’ parents, who lives in Chibok, said the parents held a meeting last week and decided they would not attend the Abuja rally. Nkeki said: “All we want is our missing daughters and we are willing to work with anybody who will help us find our daughters. We do not want to antagonise the government which is in the best position to help us find our missing daughters.”

“The women leader of the group, Yana Galang, added: “We do not want to do anything that the government will not be happy about. We are not after any organisation that is against any party or religion, and we are supporting the federal government to help us release our girls.”

The secretary of the parents’ association, Zannah Lawan, also said: “Our own is that we want our daughters. Anyone who has the ability to help us to find our daughters is the person we will work with.” From the tone of Nkeki, Lawan and Galang, it is obvious that pressure is coming from somewhere, for Chibok parents to dump Obi Ezekwesili and herBringBackOurGirls campaigners. Everything is being done to humiliate madam due process. She must be sweating profusely. By the way, where was Hadiza Bala-Usman during the Monday protest? Your guess is as good as mine.

Yemi Adebowale

THISDAY