#BringBackOurGirls wins the International Human Rights ‘Emilio F. Mignone’ Prize 2016

The Government of Argentina has awarded the #BringBackOurGirls movement the International Human Rights Prize ‘Emilio F. Mignone’ for work in advocacy towards respect for human rights worldwide.

The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday 6 December at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Buenos Aires.

The #BringBackOurGirls is being represented at the event by two members of the Movement– Aisha Yesufu who is the Chairperson of the  Strategic Team, and Dr. Chinwe Madubuike, a member of the Team.

While in Argentina, they will as part of the award ceremonies, meet with the human rights group– Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo- a Citizens’ group with a historical origin similar to #BringBackOurGirls. It is made up of grandmothers, mothers and other citizens who have since 1977  been advocating for the return of an estimated 500 children abducted or born in detention during the military era and illegally adopted, with their identities hidden.

 

The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo has advocated weekly in the last thirty nine years. Their advocacy bears strong similarity with #BringBackOurGirls which has been on a daily campaign since 30 April 2014 for the rescue of now 196 out of the 219 #ChibokGirls abducted in their school on 14 April 2014.

Other engagements are with Equipo Argentino de Trabajo e Investigación Psicosocial (EATIP – Argentine Psychosocial Work and Research Team), the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EEAF, Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense). Special Representative for Human Rights in the international stage, Ambassador Leandro Despouy; General Director for Human Rights, Minister María Gabriela Quinteros; Director for Subsaharan Africa; and Director for Women’s Issues, Minister María Luisa Martino. Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales). Visit to the ex ESMA (ex Naval School of Mechanics), visit to the Parque de la Memoria (Memory Park). Monument to the victims of State Terrorism, and conclude with a dinner with the Mignone family.

Sesugh Akume

 

#BringBackOurGirls Spokesperson

#BringBackOurGirls demands more accountability on Chibok scholgirls, soldiers

The #BringBackOurGirls group has called for proper accountability on the missing Chibok girls and those reunited with their families, as well as detailed reports on the deployed soldiers who have gone missing at the point of duty.

The call is coming on the heels of several reports of missing soldiers in the media after months of their initial disappearance and the recent news on the arrest of a female who impersonated as a soldier.

The group further called on the federal government to reinvigorate the rescue operations for the reunification of the Chibok girls with their families expressing that, it is about time the government goes all out to ensure the rescue of the girls.

Speaking while briefing the press, the chairperson, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, urged the government to not get comfortable but act to see that the year does not end with the girls still in the Boko Haram camp.

“We must not get comfortable, there must be fierce urgency, we need an update from the federal government,” she said.

The group further expressed that, it is not oblivious of the effort of the government thus far but acknowledge that it is not enough as the constant report of soldiers missing and the blindside of the public in knowing the update on the remaining girls is not acceptable, especially on the emotions of the families affected.

The leader of the #BBOG group said the group will continue to persist until the abducted girls are back and alive.

She added that every missing person should be accounted for, as it is not dignifying for citizens to be missing without identifying them, seeing that the office of the citizen remains the greatest office on the surface of the earth.

She noted that when the public are aware of the soldiers who are deployed it would help avoid issues of impersonation, it would comfort the families who know the whereabouts of their loved ones and avoid months of pending news on soldiers and the girls.

BBOG Urges FG to Hasten release of Remaining Chibok Girls

Mrs Fatima Kaka, a member of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, has urged the Federal Government to hasten the process for the release of the remaining Chibok girls.
Kaka made the appeal on Monday in an interview in Abuja.
She also urged the government to hasten the release of other Nigerians kidnapped in the North East. The Presidency on Oct. 12 confirmed the release of 21 of 291 Chibok girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorists on April 14, 2014.

Kaka said: “We don’t know the number of people in captivity; we just know that a lot of people are in captivity. “The number available to the public is not consistent; the government should double up its efforts for the release of abducted people in the North East.

“For the remaining 197 remaining Chibok girls, the government has to do everything possible and whatever it takes to get the girls,” Kaka said. She noted that the condition of the 21 girls so far released by the insurgents was not encouraging, adding, “the faster we recover everybody, the better.’’

Kaka, however, commended the federal government for its efforts in securing the release of some of the girls, saying that their release in batches was in order.

“When people are taken, another thing is the issue of negotiation; they have to come in batches; that is what happens all over the world.

“As long as they are coming out, we are okay, no matter the number at a time but let it just be fast- tracked,” said the the BBOG member.

She appealed to the government not to jeopardise the prospects of the abducted girls to excel in life.

We Won’t Relent On Our Pledge To Chibok Girls – Oby Ezekwesili

Co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls group, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has said the group had made a pledge to continue to stand for the abducted Chibok Girls, adding that it will not relent on its pledge.

Speaking during the sit-out of the group, Ezekwesili stated that it gave its word to the Chibok community to continue to be the voice of their daughters until they are rescued from their abductors.

“We gave our word to the Chibok leader that knelt in the rain and begged us not to give up on their daughters until they are back. A pledge is a pledge and every pledge is meant to be actualised,” she said.

Meanwhile, the chairperson of the strategy team, Aisha Yesufu has expressed dissatisfaction over President Muhammadu Buhari’s habit of making statement over burning issues in the country, while outside the country.

In a series of tweets, Yesufu stated that it was unfair that the president could not address the parents of the abducted girls when they joined in the march organised by the group.

“Parents were in front of villa and @MBuhari asked police to block them. Tell PMB the world is a global village.

“Tell President @MBuhari to speak to his people. They are the ones that voted him. He can’t be callous to his people!

“Unfortunately they are not in Kenya and can’t read your mind so President @MBuhari be the leader Nigeria needs and act now,” she tweeted.

While addressing the special adviser, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Yesufu told him that he had failed the president in his trust of employing him.

“You should have advised him to talk to Nigerians since,” she said.

Recall that Buhari has reiterated the preparedness of the Federal Government to discuss the release of the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terror group since 2014.

In an interview with journalists in Nairobi, Kenya, at the weekend, President Buhari said the Nigerian government was ready to dialogue with bonafide leaders of the terror group who know the whereabouts of the girls.

“I have made a couple of comments on the Chibok girls and it seems to me that much of it has been politicised.

“What we said is that the government which I preside over is prepared to talk to bonafide leaders of Boko Haram,” he said.

Buhari Lacks Political Will To Rescue Chibokgirls – BBOG

The #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement, yesterday, took a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari for lacking the political will to rescue 218 Chibok girls.

BBOG said as opposed to the President’s excuse that he lacked “credible intelligence” to rescue the girls, what he actually required was the political will to take decisive action in the present circumstance.

The group stated this in an address jointly signed by its leaders, Oby Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu, which was read during its protest march on the Presidential Villa.

“Mr. President must now exercise firm and dedicated leadership on rescuing our #ChibokGirls just as he would do, were the girls his daughters,” the group demanded.

“As was the case on Monday, security operatives also barred the protesters from accessing the villa, stopping them short at the Bullet Junction near the Head of Service building.

“Reports from former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, after a meeting with Mr. President, suggested that the Federal Government’s position remains a ‘lack of credible intelligence.

“Coming over seven months since our engagement with Mr. President on January 14, and considering the lack of feedback on rescue efforts, this strengthens the position that there has been no focused, coherent and consistent operation to rescue our #Chibokgirls.”

“Having submitted four cogent reasons, it could not be said that there is a ‘lack of credible intelligence’ during our meeting in January and three further reasons just three days ago, the discussion must shift from ‘credible intelligence’ to ‘political will’ to decide on a line of action, and act!.

‘’This is especially so because Mr. President acknowledged the level of first-person intelligence that was to be obtained from the debrief of our #Chibokgirl, Amina Ali, while receiving her in May. Mr. President: No More Delays. The Time to Decide and Act is Now,” the statement read.

The BBOG regretted reports showing that Nigerian troops at the frontlines complained about their salaries and emoluments, urging the federal government to launch an investigation into the welfare of troops.

It quoted the reports as saying that the developmentwass weakening their morale in the fight against insurgency as the food they were fed was in no way better than that served prisoners.

“This is unacceptable and we call for an investigation. At this time of immense sacrifice from our troops on the frontline, it is important to prioritise their welfare and needs, ensuring that they have no cause to complain or worry about basic needs as they serve their nation to rout out the insurgents,” BBOG stated.

Shekau killled for the fourth time?

The BBOG also questioned military reports that the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau was fatally wounded in a recent aerial bombardment of the sect’s stronghold in Sambisa Forest.

The group said the government had on several occasions announced the killing Mr Shekau.

“Another key issue in the last seventy two hours is the military’s announcement that Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau was fatally wounded during air raids. We want it on record that this is at least the fourth time the Nigerian state has triumphantly announced killing this fellow.

“Mr. President should swiftly make a firm decision for their immediate rescue based on the three available options. Military operation, Negotiation with the terrorists or a Combination of the two.

“Mr. President must assess the wealth of information and state resources available to pursue a lowest risk option of these three.

“That Mr. President addresses Nigerians on his rescue plan and timelines of our #ChibokGirls. That Mr. President immediately constitutes a #ChibokGirls Rescue Operation Monitoring Team made up of representatives of Federal Government, parents of #ChibokGirls, KADA (the Chibok community), and #BringBackOurGirls.

‘’ This multi-stakeholders platform should act as a transparent mechanism for feedback on evidence of Mr. President’s sustained action towards bringing back our #Chibokgirls.

“Mr. President should immediately preside over National Emergency in the North East Conference to articulate a cohesive response plan to the Humanitarian Crisis and designate a ‘Special Envoy’ responsible for the inter-agency collaborative work required, as well as mobilize the private sector, Nigerian public, and the international community,” the BBOG demanded.

Bring Back Our Girls Or Resign, Chibok Families Tell Buhari

Relatives of the abducted Chibok girls have accused the federal government of abandoning their daughters to suffer in captivity, and have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign if he cannot rescue the girls.

The relatives spoke yesterday in Abuja after they were stopped by security operatives from reaching the Aso Rock presidential villa to see the president.

The protest march, the second in a week, was organised by the BringBackOurGirls group.
The relatives of the missing girls said the president neglected them after repeated unfulfilled promises.
The girls were abducted by the extremist sect, Boko Haram, since April 14, 2014.

Enoch Mark, father of two of the girls, said Buhari had failed the Chibok people who voted for him in 2015 with the hope that he would ensure the return of the girls.

“Many Chibok parents voted for you because we believed that you would ensure the return of our daughters. You promised us that you were a military man and that you cannot lie. You said the war will not be over until the girls are back,” Mark said.

“Now we hear shouts of victory. And you turn around and say you do not know how to get our daughters. Former President Sani Abacha told us that no country can fight war for up to 24 hours without its government knowing about it. If the president lacks intelligence to bring back the girls let him resign.

“We have men who can do the job. There is nothing that Nigeria does not have. What is stopping the president from giving the orders?” he queried.

The mother of Dorcas Yakubu, the girl who spoke in the recent Boko Haram video, said the federal government should exchange the detained terrorists for her daughter if the government had no better option.

“Because it is obvious that no serious effort has been made to ensure the rescue of our daughters, otherwise we would have heard some good news,” she said.

Yakubu said the security operatives preventing her and the other members of the #BringBackOurGirls group from reaching the president were stopping her from fulfilling the request of her daughter.

“My daughter pleaded with me to try and see the president personally and talk to him regarding the rescue of the Chibok girls. They named her Maida. I named my daughter Dorcas, but they changed her name,” she said.
Yakubu called on the first lady, Aisha Buhari, to do her best to assist mothers like her.
Hauwa Abama, another mother of one of the abducted children, said the government was responsible for her ordeal.

“Government is the one that has taken my daughter from me,” she said.
Other relatives, Rhoda Ishaku, whose only sister, Zara, has been with her captors for over two years, and Martha Enoch, wife of Enoch Mark, called on the government to put an end to the silence and return their children.

Mrs. Enoch said her husband suffered a heart attack as a result of the trauma they have been through.
The co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls group, Oby Ezekwesili, expressed disappointment over the government’s inability to rescue the girls.

She said she was more disappointed that after seven months of the group’s engagement with the president, he was still saying that there was no credible intelligence to lead the government to the whereabouts of the girls.

She said the group would repeat their march to the Villa every 72 working hours until the president made a decisive decision on the Chibok girls’ rescue.

She said: “Mr President, we are tired of being told that there is no credible intelligence. When Gowon visited, the president said the same thing. Credible intelligence will not fall from the sky. It doesn’t fall from the sky. The president should make decisions. We can’t take it and go home.

Nigerians voted for you to solve this problem. Your excuses will not work. We are so disappointed because there is low energy in the issue of our girls. Close your eyes and imagine that any of them are your granddaughters. They would not still be in captivity.

“When you campaigned you said you will bring them back; you would do everything possible. Have you done everything possible?”

Credit: ThisDayLive

Gimba Kakanda: Aisha Yesufu; Victim Of Partisan Savagery

Aisha Yesufu has been in the news for the right reasons. What got her in the line of partisan fire was her account of the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and parents of the abducted girls of Chibok, which she witnessed and reported last week. She wasn’t impressed, and wasn’t also afraid to admit so. For this brave indiscretion, a tribe of partisans has risen and formed a counterforce against her activism. Their outrage was a betrayal of what she advocates as a strong pillar of the #BBOG campaign. 

Aisha is a private citizen, businesswoman, wife and mother. She’s an advocate of good governance, she is not a member of the political establishment. I know her well enough to express that she hano political affiliation, nor ambition.  Born and bred in Kano, she’s of Edo State descent. A sketch of her biography is all one needs to realise the extent of her sacrifice in a clime of “federal character principles”, where the cartographers of ethno-religious bigotries will never even let her aspire to a political office. One may thus see now why she’s misunderstood by the fire-spitting minions who always lurk around to pounce on any critic of Buhari.

Her account of the meeting portrayed the President as emotionally absent and his Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Aisha Jummai Alhassanas contemptuous, insensitive and mischievous. Even Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, in challenging reports that the President left the meeting visibly angry, corroborated claims that parents of the missing girls present “didn’t feel him”. Both the President and his Minister, according to various accounts, were uninspiring. The summary of the meeting was: the group was mounting too much pressure on the government even though the abduction took place in the last administration.

On Twitter, Maureen, another extraordinarily resilient member of BBOG, reported a troubling exchange between Aisha Alhassan and Aisha Yesufu. The Minister, according to Maureen, asked grieving parents to leave everything to God. In their defence, Aisha Yefusu asked why she went to court and not God on losing the Governorship election in TarabaState. Poignant!

If there’s one voice I will always regard as unquestionably credible in this campaign, it has to be Aisha Yesufu‘s. Unlike the others who’ve had a stint with a government or have been politicians, she IS neutral to partisan allegiances. She’s only pitched tent with the better alternative, and furiously supported Candidate Muhammadu Buhari in the period running up to the 2015 general elections.

Some of the cyber-thugs who have taken up a challenge to shame her, have never done in their entire life what she does in a single day, committing, for the about 750 days past, her hard-earned resources to advocating for the rescue of our Chibok girls. At the time many were reluctant to lending their voice to the story of the abduction, she emerged from absolute oblivion and challenged the Jonathan-led government to be honest in admitting its poor response to the condition of citizens abducted in northeast Nigeria.

Of Chibok girls, while some bigoted people attempted to deemphasize them for being mostly Christians, this Muslim woman defied the polarizing scheme of mediocrity in championing what has now become symbolic. She drew the attention of the world to the previously overlooked cases of abduction of our innocent citizens in that terrorist-infested region. She was so notorious in her confrontations with Jonathanians that when the veteran journalist, Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, died in a stampede in Saudi Arabia, some, mistaking Bilkisu for Aisha, put up a picture of of the latter to celebrate the death. Because she was a bogey to those agents of darkness who promoted the tragedy that was Goodluck Jonathan.

Aisha’s only flaw, which her critics fail or refuse to recognise, is that she’s not politically correct. Unlike Dr. ObyEzekwesiliwho’s friends with prominent people in our political establishment, she does not belong in the elite class, and doesn’t give a damn how she’s perceived by them.

A day to ministerial inauguration, Barr. Solomon Dalung, then a ministerial designate, was at the BBOG sit-out, and Aisha, being Aisha, looked him in the eyes and said, “You are one of us. Tomorrow you will be a part of them. We don’t know your portfolio yet, but we want you to represent our interests there. And if you don’t… ” And then she shook her head. Dalung got her message.

This is the Aisha these partisans who have never done anything different to promote justice in this country seek to shame. It doesn’t matter to them that her account of theBBOG group’s meeting with President Buhari was simply her honest perception of the man’s attitude towards them. She hadn’t come to look at a deity in reverance, but to meet ahuman elected to do better than a failed human before him.

Some of her traducers, in the last bid of their desperation to shame her, resorted to sharing a 5-minute video of Aisha Alhassan to present the events of a meeting that lasted for hours. I hope they see the cruelty of their mischief. And those who are asking the campaigners to “give up and face reality”, such damning absurdity is not a surprise coming from partisan savages. I just hope they know what it means to imagine their own biological daughter alive, and being abused, among a cult of their fellow savages who differ from them only in the style of their savagery

If the girls of Chibok were of famous surnames, children of the criminally wealthy somebodies of MaitamaAsokoro and Aso Drive districts of Abuja, and abducted at Loyola Jesuit, Whiteplains British School, El-Amin International School, International Community School or Nigerian Turkish International College, there would never have been a loss or lack of intelligence on their whereabouts, and no government would ever risk not making them its priority. That we have a kind-hearted woman such as Aisha Yesufu, who’s neither a politician nor political, losing her resources and health to amplify the voice and publicise the agonies of the nobodies whose children were abducted, is one heroism we ought to support. May God save us from us! 

 

By Gimba Kakanda 

@gimbakakanda on Twitter

One of BBOG Campaigners, Elvis Iyorngurum, is dead

One of the male campaigners of the Bring Back Our Girls advocacy group, Elvis Iyorngurum is dead.

 

According to his friends, Elvis died Wednesday afternoon at a hospital in his Benue hometown after a brief illness.

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Until his death, Elvis was a very passionate advocate for the rescue of the kidnapped Chibok girls and was looking forward to seeing them rescued.

 

May his soul rest in peace, Amen.

 

#KakandaTemple ~ Finally, Our Deaths Will Be Televised!

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There’s no indignity as having the news of a people’s misery and deaths denied, played down or unsympathetically politicised. The only tragedy worse than this may be the lack of strategy or, as some have said of the ongoing counter-terrorism, of the “will” to end these many killings.

The past few weeks have been peculiarly Nigerian – a condition I liken to a nightmare. The most frightening, especially to the ruling class, was the ease with which Abuja was threatened, its security arrangement openly undermined, not once, nor twice, in a short time: the attack of the headquarters of our biggest intelligence-gathering agency in broad daylight and the bombing, twice, of Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja. Outside the marble corridors of Abuja, it was actually the abduction of almost 300 schoolgirls that has sparked a fashionably viral hashtag campaign – #BringBackOurGirls.

The online campaign turned into physical protests, attracting the attention of the international community and the active participation of conscientious people all over the world. In Abuja, the nation’s second largest hub of internet users after Lagos, the campaign has become a daily convergence for a series of meetings – and so far two marches to offices of concerned security chiefs have taken place – where deliberations on the fate and freedom of the abducted girls were made. The success of Abuja’s #BringBackOurChild campaign is attributed to various factors of which the social class of the campaigners is the top. A friend of mine playfully dubbed the campaign “The Ajebota Awakening”; but in all fairness, these are the only people, largely members of the (comfortable) middle-class, worthy of being listened to by the government of which they’re either beneficiaries, previously involved or with whose functionaries they’re friends or relatives.

All the revolts against the establishment ever initiated by the masses were discriminately crushed by the security personnel, their bodies and rights trodden underfoot. The only revolution a hungry people know is called riot. It’s destructive, and costly. Because they’re immediately possessed by anger the moment they take to the street to protest an injustice. So, statistically, a successful revolt of the masses is impossible, in fact unthinkable, in Nigeria. This is why it’s advisable to applaud the efforts of the “middle-class”, the similarly oppressed people, now strutting to challenge the authorities to #BringBackOurGirls.

This is also why I do not understand those who have condemned the participation of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s wife and daughter in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. What we call activism is actually a campaign against, or reaction to, perceived injustice, social and political. It’s the responsibility of everyone of us; even those unaffected are indirect victims.

I really do not understand the “I wish I were an activist” armchair critics to whom a rise against national threat is a responsibility of a few, of “activists.” See, activism is not a profession, it’s an instinctual response to a failed system. And if you’ve not been really rattled by the happenings in Nigeria, that’s because you’ve run out of compassion!

The participating Atikus are, in my understanding of ethics, more responsible and relevant than their critics tweeting from bedroom and offices in this dangerous time. You may call their involvement a publicity stunt, but publicity, attracting the eyes of the world to our wounds, is what we need in this search for healing, this agitation for purpose, for the meaning of being (a Nigerian). Thankfully, our misery has been noticed, and promises to intervene already pledged by the real countries of which the involvement of one, the United States of America, known for marked double-standards, has further polarised the citizens.

There’s something painfully hypocritical about the Nigerians now condemning the United States of America’s offer to support us in curbing this escalating terrorism, having all understood that our indigenous counter-terrorism measures have failed.

At least, with foreigners involved in this fight, there may be less ranting over our government’s complicity in fueling terrorism in the north, over cheap and unverifiable propaganda and conspiracy theories. I welcome the Americans because, for a start, there’s no hope of a triumph over the terrorist cult in locally politicised security arrangements.

I don’t understand this: you’ve accused Goodluck Jonathan of being an Abubakar Shekau masked, and even ridiculed the efforts of the understandably unmotivated Nigerian soldiers dying to protect you in the northeast. In a bid to end this mischievous conspiracy, the accused accepted the offer of “neutral” forces – and by this I mean neutrality in the politics of our ethno-religious rivalries, for Uncle Sam’s interests aren’t that petty – to intervene. Suddenly you feel the President has been innocent, and that it’s actually the expected Americans, through their compliantly evil CIA, who have been messing up this polity all along. I wrote against our hypocrisy on the Boko Haram when some of us became uncritical disciples of Governor Nyako-promoted conspiracy theory.

I do not, and may never, believe in conspiracy theory. At least not when and where there are many unexplored clues. I think doing so is a misuse of our intellect, an absolute abuse of human wisdom and the power of reasoning. Conspiracy theory ought to be the last deduction, and final intellectual resort, of any thinking person. That we do not understand doesn’t mean we must embrace cheap escapism or accuse an easy target of perpetrating an only partially investigated crime.

So spare me the history lecture, I don’t mind having this godforsaken country colonised again, with every damned institution under a racist Conrad, every school under an erudite missionary – a bumpy reverse into a century past.

Are we the only race ever possessed by these crises of spiritual, ethnic and national identities? Have we no wisdom to manage diversity? Why are we so innately savage? As long as we’re incapable of running an institution, there’s no shame in “stepping aside” for the actually sympathetic savages to assist us. Of course, this too is a conspiracy theory – a script of the American “occupiers!”

The hypocrisy of expecting a government you accuse of being complicit in sponsoring terrorism to stop the trend is a disturbing misuse of intellect. While the foreigners have already offered to assist us, our government, from all I’ve gathered so far, has no tangible clues about the whereabouts of the missing girls, so they chose to inaugurate a committee, a needless fanfare to waste national resources and time.

With the rate at which insanity consumes our leaders, especially the occupants of Aso Rock who seem to have run out of conscience, there’s a need to have Henry Ross Perot’s wisdom permanently engraved on a wall in the offices of high-ranking public servants and politicians in Nigeria. Even in Mr. President’s “Oval Office” or whatever he calls that relaxation chamber that is his office. Perot has said, and we have acknowledged without heeding:

“If you see a snake, just kill it. Don’t appoint a committee on snakes.”

Our girls have been abducted by the most dangerous of snakes ever witnessed in the history of this country for destruction, both medically and psychologically, yet you set up a committee to gather and drink champagne and laugh over the delusion of rescuing them? Because they’re children of nobodies? Just look at the way FEC meeting was cancelled some days ago in honour of VP Sambo’s deceased brother by a president who could not cancel a political rally in honour of Nyanya blast victims. Because they’re nobodies. They’re just statistics. Worthless. Like our rebased GDP!

As for those who have already prophesied a catastrophe as the aftermath of foreign interventions, what would be more catastrophic than having minors continuously abducted by the terrorists, and savagely raped, without a means or will of rescuing them? Nigeria is already a catastrophe for those who have stopped living in denial; and with the coming of foreigners, I guarantee that our deaths are now going to be televised, documented and no longer seen as lies and propaganda by mischievously insular politicians and their polarized supporters. We must now begin to seek for ways to end the hashtags, for every day is an unbearable torture for our sisters and daughters in captivity. Hashtags don’t cure; they don’t even prevent. They only inform. And that has already been achieved.

May God save us from us!

Gimba Kakanda
@gimbakakanda (On Twitter)