Tag Archives: Dr. Oby Ezekwesili

“Take Charge And Take The Tough Measures” – Dr. Oby Ezekwesili To APC Led FG

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Former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili, has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to adopt the tough reform measures in order to save Nigeria’s declining economy due to fall in oil price.

Dr Ezekwesili spoke via her twitter Handle letting the Present Government know that things need to Improve and not let the Troubles of The past Government plague the Nigerian Populace again.

According to Oby, a time of lean finances is Nigeria’s best opportunity to overhaul the structure of polity, governance and economy.

“The administration has inherited all assets & liabilities from previous one and it is what it is. Now take charge & take the tough measures.

“We are once again offered an opportunity to dig ourselves out of oil wells that dull the minds of our leaders & lull them into wastefulness.

“A nation wasted the great opportunity of 5 years of record high oil prices & is now technically broke. We better get ready 4 tough measures,” she tweets.

She added that Nigerians will only buy into these tough measures if the government acts transparently as majority of Nigerians who comments via social media and radio to do so in dark.

“When citizens realize how dire the Public Finance is, they will moderate their expectations & support Majority Nigerians who are commenting on social media and radios do so in the dark. Throw the books of accounts of government open. It will help.

“It’s considerably easier to get a “Buy In” for tough reform measures that a time like this demands if government acts totally transparently.

“My free counsel to the Economic Team is throw the public accounts open. As in, absolutely open the bank statements of FG so everyone knows.

“Citizens will be better served by candor from the Federal & other Governments in this most challenging period. No sugar coating,” she argued.

She urged Nigerian citizens to collectively demand and support a sound restructuring agenda from the Federal Government.

Chibok girls’ rescue: We want Information to produce result – Ezekwesili

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Dr Oby Ezekwesili, a leader of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group, has called on the federal government to back up the statement on the abducted 219 Chibok School girls with result which is the rescue of the girls.

 

Speaking during the normal sit-out of the group, Ezekwesili stated that many information has emanated about the abducted girls and expressed hope that those information will produce the desired result of the girls returning back to their families.

 

“There is so much news of our Chibok girls. Sometimes we think it is so much information that sometimes it makes us scared but we welcome the communication and want the information about the girls to translate into result. It will translate into result when the girls are back. That is what we want to get . We pray it is sooner. Our girls have stayed for so long. Our girls should have been back as soon as we knew they were taken,” she said.

 

Ezekwesili stated that the families and parents of the abducted girls, the BBOG group and other Nigerians cannot afford to have their hopes dashed yet again as they have been so many times by the past administration.

 

“We can’t afford another disappointment like we did last year. I remember in September, when they said that the girls have been rescued and were being transported in buses to the barracks. It turned out not to be so, my heart was broken. We can’t afford that again. Whatever is being said that is being done, must produce result because we can’t be fooled by the savages holding our girls again,” she said.

 

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari told members of the Nigerian community in France under the aegis of Nigerian in Diaspora Organisation that his administration is negotiating with insurgent group Boko Haram for the release of the over 200 school girls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State.

 

The president explained that the government has to first establish the genuineness of members of the sect putting themselves forward for negotiations to avoid the mistake of engaging the wrong persons.

 

Buhari stated that the continued stay of the girls in the hands of their captors was worrisome.

 

–Leadership

Oby Ezekwesili, BBOG Replies Gen Olukolade, Debunks Claim Of Engaging In Hate Campaign Against Military

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Former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili and other key members of the Bring Back Our Girls Group have responded to the letter by Defence Spokesperson, Gen Chris Olukolade in which he accused them of engaging in hate campaign against him and the military.

In its response dated May 19th, the group stressed that it was only demanding the military to find the missing Chibok girls and is in no way engaging in any hate campaign against them. The group stated that no single individual determines the direction of the group as their decisions is based on a collective ideology. The letter reads in part…see it after below…

“We acknowledge receipt of your correspondence dated 14 May 2015 and noted your concerns about our advocacy movement #BringBackOurGirls which has since April 30, 2014 been advocating for rescue of the 219 #ChibokGirls abducted 400 days ago at their school on April 14, 2014. We especially noted  the following four key messages in your letter to our Movement. We wish to respond to the four key issues raised in your letter as follows: Our #BringBackOurGirls movement is a Citizens- led movement with open membership of all citizens who choose to identify with the cause of our 219 #ChibokGirls. No one individual or group of persons within the Movement can determine the direction or position of our Movement on the issues we advocate.

This is because, the basis of all our decisions is Collectivism. Moreover, both our Movement and our members are guided by a set of Core Values of Hope, Unity, Motivation, Affability, Nationalism, Integrity, Transparency, Empathy, Equity, Discipline and Sacrifice (HUMANITEEDS)  in our advocacy. In our public and private communication, we are also guided by our rule of highest respect for adherence to the sanctity of facts or empirical evidence rather than anecdotes. Our communications- statements, briefs, member representations – all pass through one of the strongest internal quality control process  to ensure accuracy in our messages.

Therefore, we wish to strongly assure you that #BringBackOurGirls has never and will never be susceptible to the kind of influence of any one or group of individual(s) engaging in a “hate campaign against you or our military”. Such act would contradict our Core Values and our strictly empirical advocacy for the Government and military to deliver on their duty. Thus, our singularity of purpose remains the rescue of our #ChibokGirls and all other abducted victims of the North East terrorist scourge. We shall continue to be civil and professional in our advocacy as we have widely been acclaimed to be since it commenced more than a year ago.

As a Citizens’ movement, #BringBackOurGirls is a demand for accountability from especially our Federal Government which has the constitutional duty for security of all citizens. In shaping our demand, we rely on publicly available news from your Directorate as well as all known credible media platforms. In furtherance of our civic duty to be eternally vigilant we launched our Accountability Tools for rigorously monitoring, organizing and analyzing all news reports on the counter insurgency war in order to draw out key issues on which we could engage as citizens with our Government to help improve the prospects of success of the military efforts.

As earlier stated be reassured that all our statements and posts on social media conveying the results of our Monitoring/Accountability Initiatives have to undergo stringent quality control processes. It is after these that they are released with utmost sense of responsibility and a readiness to defend our position with evidence. We therefore stand by all our analyses and assessments as conveyed in our statements. This explains why, so far, we have never had to recant, deny, or apologize for any statements we have made in the more than one year of our advocacy. Nevertheless, we are open to receiving any specific instances or episodes of factual inaccuracy resulting from our monitoring, analysis, assessment, questions, scrutiny and statements.

We also recall our meeting of the 6th May 2014 with you and the Chief of Defense Staff team at the Defense Head Quarters. We had at that meeting agreed that the military will act in ways consistent with civil-military relations and democratic accountability by hosting us to a regular meetings to discuss the progress of your rescue mission for our girls and more broadly, the prosecution of the counter-insurgency war. It is regrettable that subsequently following that agreement, none of such meetings ever happened again and that instead, our attempt to participate in your National Information Center briefings was frustrated and then prohibited.”the letter read.

Stop Your Hate And Antagonism On My Person – Gen Olukolade Writes Oby Ezekwesili, BBOG Organizers

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Spokesperson of the The Defence Headquarters, Gen Chris Olukolade has sent out a letter to the convener of the Bring Back Our Girls group, Dr Oby Ezekwesili and other members of the group, Mrs Hadiza Bala Usman and Bukky Shonibare, appealing to them to stop what he termed the “hatred and mindless antagonism” the group has launched on his person since the advocacy for the kidnapped Chibok girls started in April last year.

Gen Chris Olukolade, in the letter, stated that he had a life after the military and would be on fair for the group to “work purely for the purpose of destroying my reputation and years of committed and unblemished record of service to my country. Read the letter after the cut…

The letter in part reads;

“Being in the forefront of the efforts to disseminate information is a job I do with passion and sense of responsibility. I do not deserve the hatred and mindless antagonism your organization has continued to unleash on me. I certainly have a life out of here and it is unfair to work purely for the purpose of destroying my reputation and years of committed and unblemished record of service to my country. Despite the regular focus and disdainful reference to all communication from me as prompted by those who are so determined to ruin other people’s name and career, I have maintained the restraint required of me both by training and upbringing. Indeed, I am also conscious of the enormous power you wield.

The belief is that your organisation has the determination to ruin the name, career, and reputation of some targeted military officers among whom I have been specifically marked for such cruel treatment. I can only leave such matter to God and the good judgement of people who read or hear you. I am so sure I will enjoy the blessing of being vindicated at last. Meanwhile, I wish your team will consider my point here and spare me and the Nigerian military the undue attacks we have continued to be subjected to in the name of monitoring or calling for accountability.

We call for fairness as against the present campaign that is fraught with calumny and promotion of one man’s malice against us and anything government. I will not be surprised if this appeal draws more or fresh vitriol from your organisation, especially at the prompting of the hawks in your midst who are the disciples of that prominent member and proponent of the malicious campaign. This is more likely, considering the determination and unhidden hatred of those who have been acting with a view to drawing me out for a street fight. I can assure you that I will not react or join issues under whatever provocation. I will be leaving all such sworn enemies to their conscience and God if they believe in Him at all. To you as an organisation, please save your platform from being used to perpetrate this injustice as inspired by the prominent and phony member of your BringBackOurGirls campaign.” he said

Acknowledging that the group and the military can work together to achieve more result to finding the girls, Gen Olukolade appealed to the group to stop its “hate campaign”. He denied claims that the military was engaging in propaganda in any form

“Indeed, there is still room for more merciful and robust engagement or interface between you and the government and security agencies in the drive to secure the return of our girls. Enough of undue hate campaign and antagonism. I have followed your activities with due interest. I personally have nothing against your organisation or its advocacy concerning efforts to recover our girls from captivity of terrorists. I believe that someday, both your efforts and that of the Nigerian military will be duly understood and appreciated. It is unfortunate that some have sought to equate our efforts to give accounts of activities on the nation’s war on terror as propaganda or cover-up. This is not true. We know the difference. The fact is that the battle situation around could be very fluid and susceptible to rapid changes. The situations around the battle could also change accordingly in an inexplicable manner. This trend is also compounded by various perspectives that have been employed to seriously polarise the understanding of the situation along the line of all kinds of sentiments and biases prevailing in the environment. We cannot engage in a shouting match with those who have other motives. We can only try to explain situation to the best of our understanding and available information. The report we present on situations are based on the available information and observance of the elements of propriety, security, policy and accuracy, which has remained our guiding principles. It is really not true as you have been made to assert repeatedly that the Defence Headquarters and myself are the only sources of information on the operation.

The sweeping judgement and insistence that we must do things in a particular way or your claim that we do not follow best practices as well as your remarks comparing our approach to that of other armies is very unfair. Indeed, you must know that no two military operations are the same, and the conduct must endeavour to reflect the realities and peculiarities being confronted in the field. Your allegations or claim that we lack transparency is definitely not well informed neither is it being expressed in good faith.” He stated that no one was being restrained from going to the restive areas to carry out their independent verification of facts presented by the military.

He said the only concern of the military is the safety of anyone who wish to carryout such exercise “Be assured that nobody has been restrained from accessing the mission area in the ongoing operation except when there is clear case of undue interference with safety and operational environment. Infact, occasionally, we conduct the media on tour of the operational area. Our concern remains the issue of safety for anyone in search of information. Much as we want to assist genuine seekers of information, we do not feel obliged to devote scarce resources to satisfying the fancy of pleasure seeking adventurers or the curious and mindless critics who just want to roam around with questionable motives. We should not be blackmailed into compromising the security of information and operations in the name of undefined idea of transparency. We have strived to keep the populace informed in the best way possible in the circumstances we find ourselves.”

Source: The Nation Online

Lagos To Abuja Trekker Leads Chibok Girls Solidarity Walk Today

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In continuation of the campaign for the rescue of the Chibok girls, 33 year old Hasheem Suleiman, will today lead a walk from the Berger Junction to Unity Fountain, Abuja to press home the need to rescue the school girls from Chibok, abducted over one year ago.

Speaking at the Unity Fountain, venue for the sit-out of the #BringBackOurGirls yesterday, Maryam Ekunaiye who invited the BBOG to the walk-out stated that Suleiman will be embarking on the trek as a solidarity campaign for the demand for the rescue of the Chibok girls.bbog-52

Recall that Suleiman, had trekked from Lagos to Abuja to celebrate the victory of the President-elect Muhammadu Buhari and arrived the 20th of April, to a rousing crowd of Abuja residents who trooped out to catch a glimpse of him.

Suleiman had vowed to embark on a solo trek from Lagos to Abuja if All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the winner of the March 28th general election.

Suleiman’s arrival in Abuja caused traffic jams along the Kubwa expressway where thousands of fans gathered to see him and tomorrow’s walk is set to witness the same traffic with a large number of persons indicating interest to trek with him.

Meanwhile, the BBOG group has commended the military for its recent feet in rescuing some girls, women and children in the fight against the Boko Haram sect at the Sambisa Forest, urging them to continue the fight until the abducted Chibok girls are rescued.

“ We are commending the military for the rescue of the girls, women and children. We are hoping that they will continue in this feet. We hope that soon, we will hear the good news that the Chibok girls are rescued too,” a member of the group, Dr Emman Shehu.

Shehu however, questioned the authenticity of the videos released by the military, showing its fight in Sambisa; and urged the military to bring out credible videos.

that would show the bombardment of the enemies and not the ones showing unattacked enemies running to safety.

 

BBOG Group Demands NSA’s Weekly Update On Rescue of Chibok Girls

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In line with its determination to continue with the demand for the rescue of the Chibok girls and monitor the May 29 deadline given by the national security adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) for the rescue of the girls, the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group has called for weekly updates from the NSA on the development.

In a speech read at the group’s meeting yesterday and signed by its leaders, Oby Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala Usman, the group said it has become necessary for Nigerians to know through the NSA if there is any development in the search for the girls.

Part of the speech reads: “The group, however, noted that in expectation of the development in the weeks leading to May 29, it is extremely worried that the public is not being told the whole truth of efforts to rescue our girls. We, therefore, ask that as part of the recent efforts, the NSA should ensure that the military and federal government present the Nigerian public, especially the parents of our Chibok girls with the truth, the absolute truth and nothing but the truth on the real situation.

“We want the answer to our main concern and key issue: where are our Chibok girls? We demand evidence that our authorities are beyond the usual statements, factually working to both locate and rescue our 219 girls. We want the NSA to commence a weekly update on progress being made by the rescue operation since his April 14, 2015 declaration.”

The group also revealed that it has launched a monitoring initiative to be known as the #BBOGCountDownToMay29, anchored on recent declarations of the NSA, adding that it will continue to monitor the Sambisa invasion to ensure that the girls are rescued as promised by the NSA.

“We therefore wish to notify the Federal Government and the public that#BringBackOurGirls movement has launched a monitoring initiative to be known asThe group also noted that “Our Movement has commenced another monitoring initiative anchored on recent declarations of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

“We therefore wish to notify the Federal Government and the public that#BringBackOurGirls movement has launched a monitoring initiative to be known as theColonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) had on April 14 which marked the the first year commemoration of the abduction of our girls assured the public in his media briefing that our missing 219 Chibok schoolgirls, and others held by the insurgents will be rescued by our military. He assured that as the military invades Sambisa Forest and conquers Boko Haram, our girls among other victims will be rescued on or before the handover of government to a new administration on May 29.”

the#BBOGCountDownToMay29. Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) had on April 14 which marked the the first year commemoration of the abduction of our girls assured the public in his media briefing that our missing 219 Chibok schoolgirls, and others held by the insurgents will be rescued by our military. He assured that as the military invades Sambisa Forest and conquers Boko Haram, our girls among other victims will be rescued on or before the handover of government to a new administration on May 29.”

The group further noted that it is determined to monitor the activities of Sambisa invasion, with a view to seeing theChibok girls rescued as promised by the NSA.

“Over the past one year, our movement has kept faith with hope that our girls will be swiftly rescued. We continue with the strong hope by holding the National Security Advisor to his promise by launching this citizens monitoring tool to enable us to actively follow and track developments as reported by verifiable media sources on the latest rescue mission publicly announced.

 

Boko Haram Leader, Shekau Shuns TIME 100 Gala

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As expected the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, who was named among the 100 Most Influential People in the world by Time Magazine, did not attend the Gala 100 held in New York. The event held at Lincoln Center, New York was put together to celebrate the 100 influential people in the world.

His selection drew criticism from Nigerians who felt that TIME magazine might be promoting the evil of the sect by naming him as one of the Most Influential People in the World for 2015.

shekau-influentialThree other Nigerians, namely, the president-elect, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buahri(retd), award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Adichie and BringBackOurGirls campaigner, Oby Ezekwesili made the list.

“Most Americans do not yet recognize his name, but the citizens of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, know Abubakar Shekau all too well: he is the most violent killer their country has ever seen. Shekau took over the terrorist organization Boko Haram in 2009 after the group had been weakened by Nigerian government forces.

Shekau, who is believed to be in his 30s, began to stage increasingly daring kidnapping and killing raids on schools, churches and mosques thought by Boko Haram to be violating their interpretation of Islam. The taking of over 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 brought Boko Haram into the international spotlight,” reads an honorary essay about the terrorist, written by General Carter Ham (U.S. Army, retired).

In June 2012 the United States Department of State designated Shekau as a terrorist and effectively froze his assets in the United States. Since June 2013, the Department has had a standing reward of US$7 million for information leading to Shekau’s capture through its Rewards for Justice program. In addition, the Nigerian army has offered a ?50 million reward (approximately US$300,000) for Shekau.

Buhari also did not attend the event while Ezekwesili did and called on Barrack Obama to help rescue the missing Chibok girls.

Credit – vanguard ngr

Buhari, Ezekwesili, Adichie, Boko Haram Leader Make Time 100 Most Influential List

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Nigeria’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari has been named one of the world’s most influential people by TIME Magazine.

Other Nigerians who made the list are former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, bestselling author, Chimamanda Adichie and Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.
Read their profiles as written on TIME’s website below:

Muhammadu Buhari – A new choice for Nigeria (by Aryn Baker)
Muhammadu Buhari made history in March by becoming the first candidate to oust a sitting Nigerian President through the ballot box. Now he has to live up to voters’ expectations.

From battling the Boko Haram insurgency to tackling endemic corruption, Buhari has many
challenges ahead. The greatest may be overcoming his past as a military ruler who seized power in 1983. Already the born-again democrat is demonstrating the inclusivity necessary to lead a nation riven by ethnic and religious tensions.

“We must begin to heal the wounds and work toward a better future,” he said in his April 1 victory speech. “We do this first by extending a hand of friendship and conciliation across the political divide.” It’s a promising start for a President-to-be who wants to leave a legacy to match the historic conditions of his election.

Oby Ezekwesili (by Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe)
Like northern Uganda, where I live, northern Nigeria is very isolated. For many years, the women who were abducted from our region remained invisible.

So although I have not met Obiageli Ezekwesili, I know the #BringBackOurGirls campaign that she championed is very important. It would have taken a long time to raise awareness about the girls taken by Boko Haram without her using her platform as a former Minister of Education.

We need to remember that these girls are undergoing psychological and maybe physical torture. So I love that the campaign says, “Bring back our girls,” and not “Bring back my child.” Everybody is in unison with the parents and the relatives. Everyone is feeling their pain. Everyone will be ready to embrace the girls and offer them care and compassion if they are rescued or manage to escape.

It has been a year, and the girls haven’t been rescued, but she has made a difference by speaking about it. Not just speaking but shouting. I know some people will say she is too loudmouthed. The loud mouth is needed. People hear it.

Chimamanda Adichie – Conjurer of character (by Radhika Jones)
It’s the rare novelist who in the space of a year finds her words sampled by Beyoncé, optioned by Lupita Nyong’o and honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. But the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is just that sort of novelist.

A MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Adichie writes of the complex aftermath of Nigeria’s colonial history and her nation’s rise to prominence in an era when immigration to the West no longer means a one-way ticket. With her viral TEDxEuston talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” she found her voice as cultural critic. (You can hear it rising midway through Beyoncé’s woman-power anthem “Flawless.”)

She sets her love stories amid civil war (Half of a Yellow Sun) and against a backdrop of racism and migration (Americanah). But her greatest power is as a creator of characters who struggle profoundly to understand their place in the world.

Abubakar Shekau – Scourge of Africa (by General Carter Ham (U.S. Army, retired)
Most Americans do not yet recognize his name, but the citizens of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, know Abubakar Shekau all too well: he is the most violent killer their country has ever seen. Shekau took over the terrorist organization Boko Haram in 2009 after the group had been weakened by Nigerian government forces.

Shekau, who is believed to be in his 30s, began to stage increasingly daring kidnapping and killing raids on schools, churches and mosques thought by Boko Haram to be violating their interpretation of Islam. The taking of over 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 brought Boko Haram into the international spotlight.

By most accounts, Boko Haram has killed more than 10,000 people and is spreading into neighboring countries. Shekau’s latest action may finally summon a U.S. response: he has publicly aligned his group with ISIS, the terrorist group that holds territory in Syria and Iraq and has expanded its reach into Yemen and Libya.

Watch Aye Dee Compare Missing Chibok Girls To His Father’s Missing Goat #ChibokGirls #BringbackourGirls

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PDP loyalist and constant Goodluck Jonathan Campaigner Mr Aye dee sat with an Agent of change Mr Kayode Ogundamisi in a political chat, on Nigeria before The March 2015 Elections with the Bring Back Our Girls campaign for the missing Chibok Girls a major talking point on Politricks show. What is shocking about this interview is the fact that Mr. Aye dee could compare the lives of 219 missing Girls to His Father’s Goat that went missing as a child. An issue with a magnitude so large should be treated with respect and concern for the lives of those under age girls in the hands of Terrorist as mean as Shekau and his cohorts. This is either a case of he has lost it or he simply didn’t think we all were going to sit down and see this interview someday .

Watch Mr Aye Dee show his Blind loyalty here …. His Speech Comes in at 6.40 On this video clip

Jonathan Is Not Fit For Leadership – Dr Oby Ezekwesili

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Nigeria’s former Minister of Education and one of the leaders of the BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) campaign group, Dr Oby Ezekwesili says the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan to rescue the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls, who were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in April last year has shown how unfit he is as a leader.

Ezekwesili, who spoke yesterday, observed that President Jonathan’s slow response to freeing the girls from the grip of the Boko Haram sect depicts incompetence in the country’s affairs.

Drawing a line between the French government’s quick response to terrorists attack on the country three days ago with Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram, the former Minister stressed that the latter has not demonstrated the requisite will-power to rescue its territory from invaders.

She expressed concerns over the increasing spate of female suicide bombers in Nigeria, stressing that the development points to the failed security index of the nation.

The rights advocate however pledged to continue to advocate for the freedom of the girls in the face of blackmail, intimidation and threat to her group from the federal government.

Source – Daily Post Ng

#KakandaTemple ~ A Letter to that Nigerian-Palestinian

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Dear Friend,

Before you accuse me of finding nothing worth praising about you and yours, let me quickly empathise with you, and of course myself, over the killings in Gaza. You, as a humanist, one whose empathy has no border, are a citizen of the world, one of the reasons the earth is still habitable by the sane. It would be morally irresponsible for anyone to frown at your frantic advocacy which seeks an end to the killings in Gaza, only that commonsense demands a man whose house is on fire to rush for the extinguisher for his own dwelling first, before attending to a similar fire elsewhere.

London stands up for Gaza, because London is not bereaved. New York Stands up for Gaza because New York isn’t being threatened by hurricane-somebody now. Palestine would not stand up for Chibok because they also have a strip of misery in which they are just as worthless: Gaza. And the young Malala Yousafzai who came and roused the conscience of her fathers in Nigeria, was not here as a Pakistani as you have announced in defending your geographically insensitive activism from my “secular advocacy”. She was here as a Birmingham, England-based NGO owner, to stand with the girls of Nigeria in whose education Malala Fund has invested thousands of dollars. She has, as the news says, even “offered to partner with the UN efforts to mitigate the impacts of the abduction and help the girls (whose welfare is a responsibility of her NGO) return to school.”

You see, it’s not the way you internationalise your empathies that disturbs me, it’s this seeming pretence that all is well in your backyard while you weep over the blazing fire in faraway Gaza. If you, and others like you, had been half as passionate and emotional in your reaction to local tragedies as you are over the killings in Palestine, the troubles in the northeastern Nigeria wouldn’t have escalated to its present extent. The Palestinians, and their global solidarity soldiers, have gone berserk over the burning of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, their citizen, and you, amnesiac activist of a burning nation, have also been losing sleep over Khudair, ignoring the tens of Khudairs who die in your backyard every day!

It’s not the internationalisation of your empathies that disturbs me, it’s your lack of wisdom to understand that Khudair has his fighters — and he’s fully named, his age too revealed –while all the killed and abducted Dantalas and Asma’us and Johns and Naomis of Yobe and Borno are seen as mere statistics, unworthy of collective advocacy by you.

Ours is not a criticism of the northern establishment, but that of its hypocritical allegiance to “brotherhood of faith”, which is what you say in your solidarity with the Palestinians, ignoring that we’re just as bereaved here, and unknowing that Palestine is also a home for non-Muslims. But, wait, what sort of a human being is responsive to the tragedies that fall upon just the people of his faith?

Ours is a criticism of the collective, not of a specific group. This is a reminder that we have not done enough, not a declaration that we have not done anything at all. It’s a criticism of me and you who, safe from the bullets of Boko Haram, have not done anything comparable to the emotions shown in the sensitivity of our countrymen to the happening in Gaza. Are you, my dear global citizen, trying to say that we, especially resident northerners, need CNN and Aljazeera to remind us that there are carnages going on in our backyard before we acknowledge them?
Haven’t we all lost friends and friends of friends and relatives and relatives of relatives in this madness? What media is more effective than being actually bereaved? The most effective media is our emotions, and on this I dare say that we haven’t shown and done enough. My participation in #BringBackOurGirls shows me the hypocrisy of our Muslim brothers and sisters who, dismissing our hashtags as a gimmick, are now loud champions of #FreePalestine.

See, we are as bereaved as the people of Palestine and it’s quite ironic that, instead of gathering our lots to empathise with ourselves first and demand solutions and justice, we pretend as though all’s well in our house. Why are the people of Palestine not empathising with the people of Borno if our “brotherhood of faith” is actually reciprocal? Why? I repeat: why aren’t the people of Palestine extending their “brotherhood of faith” to us in the hours of our bereavements? The Palestinians have never stopped fighting. They have their men up and running against oppression. Who’s up fighting for us, especially for Chibok and the larger northeast? Why leaving these campaigns against Boko Haram’s terrors to just the members of Civilian JTF and #BringBackOurGirls campaigners?

You even said that no atrocity is more than that going on in Gaza, and I ask: is there an experience worse than having minors abducted, savagely raped and impregnated by terrorists? Saying that no atrocity is as bad as that in Gaza means that the sanctity of a Palestinian’s life is higher than that of a Nigerian’s. And that, fellow countryman, is an unfortunate and disturbing utterance.

Similarly, you have to be really careful in your advocacy. At least get relevant history books to properly understand the religious and political complexity of the territorial conflicts that have turned Gaza into a prison-mortuary. Your alignment with the Palestinians, your brothers-in-faith, may lead you into something called antisemitism. And you also need to understand that it’s the peak of such misguided hatred that resulted into the formation of a racist ideology that once sought to promote the “Aryan” German race as the best of humans. Nazism, consequently, championed the killings of the innocent Jews, who were considered threats to proposed German nationalism.

In your analyses of the happenings in Gaza, you have, quite sadly, pandered to a way of the Hitler-led Aryan racists who considered the Jewish race abolishable pests.

Do have restraint in understanding that the happenings in Israel is not a crime perpetrated, and supported, by the whole of Jews. It’s a crime perpetrated by a monstrous ideology championed by a people of Jewish identity, just the way Nazism was not supported by the whole of Germans, but by a small but powerful National Socialist party clique. If you’re to adopt this form of flawed thinking in portraying ethnic or religious groups, obviously the whole of Muslims should be similarly persecuted for the crimes of Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabbab, the Taliban and even Boko Haram who all pretend to be advocates of rights for the Muslim!

Hate the Israelis who, under zionism, did to Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews, but do not go close to hating the whole of Jews. Saying I hate the Jews means I hate some significant figures that shaped me, mine and the larger world. Saying I hate the Jews means I hate Jesus, who in my theology is Isah (AS), needed to authenticate my belief; saying I hate the Jews means I hate Moses (AS), similarly needed; saying I hate the Jews is an ingratitude to Albert Einstein’s contribution to science; saying I hate the Jews is an ingratitude to Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, whose invention has redeemed me in ways I’m incapable of repaying; saying I hate the Jews is also an ingratitude to Mark Zuckerberg whose innovation is the reason you and I are “friends” – even though we’ve never met – sharing thoughts on the ways of the world.

As long as you’re on Facebook, and employ Google to aid your quests for knowledge, both creations of inventors of Jewish identity, declaring that you hate the Jews is a contradiction, a joke clearly on you. And, as Muslims, your faith is threatened the moment you withhold your love for Jesus and Moses.

Don’t let a criminal be a representative of his race, religion and nationality. This approach, this dangerous stereotyping, has been the reason for these many conflicts we are still unable to resolve in this damned world. We must embrace our humanity, the only thing we all have in common, if we’re indeed interested in resolving our racial, religious, political, regional, territorial and ethnic conflicts!

Unlike you, whenever I see a group of people, the first identity that strikes me is the human, not the religious, not the political, not the racial, and obviously not the ethnic. Aside from my immediate family, my next closest family are the righteous people, people always in pursuit of Justice without discrimination, and of their other identities I’m unmindful.

I’ve long overcome the naiveté of hating a people based on the crimes of a group of which they are non-compliant members, just the way I don’t owe any non-Muslim and southerner apology for the atrocities of the Boko Haram. I only owe them explanation, defence, solidarity and empathy. My seeming silence over the killings in Gaza is simply because I’ve also been mourning, and also holed up in a mess of immeasurable depth. The Palestinians, I know, have global solidarity soldiers fighting for them. But, beyond hashtags, who are actually fighting for the redemptions of this place in which we don’t need a visa to reside?

This week, at our Abuja’s #BringBackOurGirls sit-in, as I listened to Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a woman whose public service records never really attracted my curiosity, but I’ve come to like as a humanist and patriot of impressive resilience, lament on the fate and conditions of the abducted girls and the dysfunctionality of the system in charge of our safety, something within me collapsed. So I withdrew from the crowd, hoping that could stem it, but I still couldn’t fight the tears. And that was how I left the sit-in, broken. This is because, in the cruel politics of migrations in this century, I have no home other than Nigeria, and the tragedy that befalls a fellow countryman, irrespective of his/her religious and ethnic and regional affiliations, is a shared grief.

I’m not inconsiderate to your reference to “brotherhood of faith” in standing for the people of Gaza, but I will never ever stand for them simply because we’re of the same religion. My own version of that excuse of yours is: “faith in the universal brotherhood of Man.” I only empathise with them because of a shared humanity. As for those who rightly explain that humanity has no border, which I also endorse, my belief in yours may only be confirmed if you also recognise the conditions of the Iraqi Christians who’re now fleeing Mosul, for they have been told by the ISIS animals to convert to Islam or lose their lives. Many of you are in Abuja, but participating in #BringBackOurGirls is seen as a “waste of time”, insulting those who defy the tasks of their 9-to-5 daily to be a part of the campaign, ignorant of the impending dangers, the danger of becoming refugees in your own city!

Yet, some of you have sought to typify my refusal to label corpses in order to know which deserves my empathy as simply a bid to earn a medal from the non-Muslims I’ve been struggling so hard, according to you, to impress; some of the same non-Muslims who, in a spark of mischief, have in their turn called me an “Islamic propagandist”, whatever that is, for condemning the profiling of northerners in the East, for endorsing a Muslim as presidential candidate… But I’m indifferent to their malicious labeling just as I’ve been to yours because you’re both incapable of denying me the rights to such expressions.

Humanity is still a joke because of this army of cerebrally malfunctioned brothers and sisters to whom we’re seen as hypocrites merely trying to impress the non-members of our group, for exposing a form of oppressive hypocrisy. Well, my dear friend, I don’t write to influence or change you; my writing is a sport that seeks to prove that I don’t think the way you do, and that the way I think is independent of yours. I hope this would be taken in good faith. May God save us from us!

By Gimba Kakanda
@gimbakakanda (On Twitter)