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If I Am The Last One, Then I Am Humanity.

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If I Am The Last One Then I Am Humanity

If I Am The Last One, Then I Am Humanity

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did.” -Mark Twain

Imagine a scenario where a feared terrorist organization descends on your community, taking a large number of young girls, four of which are your own biological sisters. One hundred and twenty-five days after, you’ve not heard from them nor about them…what would you do as a brother, or sister? And if you are a mother or a father, what would you do? The things that make us human isn’t because we live and breath, but because we understand when our fellow brothers, our sisters, friends or even enemies are in pain, in need of our love and/or support. Empathy not sympathy, are the only instrument that guide our sanity towards the consolidation of our God given emotion to care, and to love not ourselves alone, but others as well.

On April 14th, Deborah Sanya, an 18 year-old girl from Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno State in North-East Nigeria, took a tremendous risk and bolted from the hands of her captors, the dreaded Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram. Through the night, she and two other friends who were also abducted by same group, from the same school in the same community, ran for their lives, eventually reaching safety in a village. On that fateful day, over 200 schoolgirls were abducted from their hostels by the Boko Haram group who after their raid, went away unchallenged. The police did nothing, the security agents did nothing, the military did nothing, THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA did nothing, even Nigerians, the very affected, did nothing nor said anything.

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Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”. In Nigeria today, there’s a fire whose wood has kept burning, one lit up by a small group of thoughtful, highly committed Nigerian women (and men) on the 30th of April, same month the Chibok schoolgirls were abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents. This small group of Nigerians, the Abuja Family of #BringBackOurGirls has inspired more hope and motivated more Nigerians than any group in the history of Nigeria, to fight for what they believe in based on self-conviction. Nigeria has successfully remained where she is, growing bad leaders in a geometrical manner simply because no one is ASKING and no one is DEMANDING. About 57 boys were slaughtered in their hostel rooms by members of Boko Haram, no one took it up and it died there; the government stated categorically that they know the identity of those sponsoring Boko Haram and their activities, no one took it up and it died there; over N3.3 trillion has been expended on security in the last three years yet there is little or no security at all in Nigeria, no one took it up and it died there; the mastermind of Nyanya bomb blast confessed and even exposed his fellow accomplices, no one took it up and it died there…but for the relentless efforts of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy group, by now, the abducted Chibok schoolgirls would have also been a thing of the past.

This group of less than three hundred people have continuously challenged the convention in Nigeria. They, despite the odds that faced them, have constantly stood their grounds, refusing to proceed with BUSINESS AS USUAL but bent on dealing in BUSINESS UNUSUAL. A business setting where Nigerians ask questions on topical, national issues and refuse to go until they get answers; a business setting where the government give what they promise and the people in return, carry out their fundamental civic responsibility in obedience to the law; a business setting where transparency, equity, good governance etc, becomes the lifelines of our democracy. This is the group that have brilliantly and non-violently engaged the Nigerian government for the past one hundred and ten (110) days on the issue of the over 200 abducted schoolgirls from Chibok Community.

Anxiety, Pain, Sadness, Depression, Agony, Confusion, Abandoned etc, are all what the Chibok Girls are probably feeling right now. Girls who are kept in a place where they cannot eat when they want to, sleep when they want to, partake in festivity at will or do anything without been permitted to…125 days since these girls were taken and the government have not been able to SHOW Nigerians, evidence or results of her rescue operation. 125 days, mothers have not felt the warm hug of their daughters and fathers have not smiled for the pride of seeing their daughter grow into womanhood; 125 days and the government have not been able to bring back these girls even after stating that they know where they are kept. If they are your children, your sisters, your nieces, would you STILL BE SILENT NIGERIANS?

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Truth is, a small group of Nigerians are setting the pace for a “new Nigeria”. A small group of Nigerians are redefining moments and re-creating positive chains of events in Nigeria. A small group of Nigerians are making history…the question is, what are you waiting for?

If I’m it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I’m going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if i am the last one, then i am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then i am the battlefield. Only that this time, i am battling for the #ChibokGirls and the betterment of Nigeria, for the Nigerians in it today, and the ones that will be born tomorrow.

Injustice to one should be injustice to all.

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God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria…God bless the #BringBackOurGirls Advocacy Group!

 

 

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Jeff Okoroafor is a leading member of a new generation of civic advocates for government accountability and democratic change in Nigeria. The Citizen Affairs Initiative is a citizen-driven governance initiative that enhances public awareness on critical issues of service quality in Nigeria. It encourages citizens to proactively seek higher standards from governments and service providers and further establishes new discussions in communities about the standards that citizens should expect and deserve from those they have given their mandates. Jeff is the Managing Director of SetFron Limited, a multimedia development company that is focused on creative and results-driven web, mobile app, and ERP software solutions. He is the co-founder of the African Youths Advancement and Support Initiative (AfriYasi), a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation that provides tertiary education scholarship for young people from low-income homes in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative and the United Nations World Summit Awards. A Strategic Team member of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, and a member of the National Technical Committee on the Establishment and Management of Missing Persons Database in Nigeria. Jeff holds a Bachelor and Postgraduate diploma degrees in Computer Science, and a Certificate in Public Administration from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA.

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