The Shame Of A Nation

#BringBackOurGirls Statement

14th of April 2019

Today marks 5 years since the tragic abduction of 276 #ChibokGirls from the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Nigeria. Nothing prepared our Movement for the shameful reality that 112 of our #ChibokGirls would have their freedom, dignity and dreams taken away for 5 agonising years, because their government has failed to do everything necessary to give them justice of rescue.

None of us, who are not biological parents of the 112 remaining girls, can accurately imagine what their parents and families must feel on a day like this. We however know that one thing they have uniformly expressed is the deepest level of disappointment at the way that the tragedy – the abduction of their daughters and the grief of parents – have been badly managed by two successive governments.

For these parents, they feel that our country let down their daughters by failing to uphold their right to freedom and life. For these parents, the worse is that the current administration, which while in opposition,

promised to dignify them and their daughters by taking speedy actions of rescue and keeping them abreast of developments. This is indeed the shame of a nation. The shame of leadership that has failed the citizens who have every right to the constitutional duties of government to guarantee their safety and security.

Today, five years after, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has persisted to deny #Chibokgirls and their parents the speedy action of rescue promised. Even worse, it has denied them the simple and basic respect of providing updates on the status of the federal government effort, if any at all to rescue them. It is condemnable that the same President, who made the abduction of #ChibokGirls the epicenter of his campaign in the 2015 Presidential elections, no longer remembers that 112 children of his poor citizens are still languishing in the den of terrorists despite his many pledges to rescue them.

The world which cried out in unison for justice on behalf of #Chibokgirls are not at all fooled by any statement that may be made today by the government of President Buhari. They can see that the parents of our remaining school girls have wickedly been forgotten and abandoned to their fate, and left to grieve the loss of their children without any form of closure being declared by the Federal Government. No serious government handles a matter like the still missing 113 school girls of Chibok and Dapchi with the levity of an unending saga. The same manner of gross neglect and abandonment has also been extended to the parents of #LeahSharibu. We question the Government’s silence on #LeahSharibu. We question Government’s silence on the state of Alice Nggadah of UNICEF.

We were tempted to not direct any further statements to the President and his government on this fifth year since abduction of our #Chibokgirls. We contemplated allowing our silence make the loudest statement considering that a word count would record that our movement has already spoken and written in excess of 1 million words in our effort to get the government of President M Buhari to give the justice due to the remaining 112 girls to them and their families. However, our voice shall continue to make the same demands no matter how impervious to its duty to our #Chibokgirls the President and his administration may act.

Since our first march on the streets of Abuja, Lagos, New York, Washington DC, London and other cities of the world from April 30, 2014, we have never ceased to advocate for our #Chibokgirls and other abducted citizens. What have we not said or done in the past to get the President and his government to treat the victims of the Chibok and Dapchi tragedies with the humanness and dignity that serious nations accord their citizens? Our Movement has written, spoken, held meetings at local and global levels and marched to mount pressure on the Nigerian government, leading countries and the United Nations to give justice to #Chibokgirls and other abducted persons like Leah Sharibu.

Our movement has already done everything within the power of a citizens group to keep the government alert to its primary responsibilities of securing the lives of the Nigerian people since 2014. Our persistent advocacy was to forewarn government of the consequences of sending the wrong signals on the value Nigeria places on the lives of our citizens.

Unfortunately, the federal government chose to rather behave in ways that further emboldened those who abduct, kill and maim our citizens and destabilize our country. It does not surprise observant followers of the destabilization of most of the Northern states of Nigeria that the inept and lackadaisical handling of the #Chibokgirls saga laid the grounds for terrorists and their groups to capitalize the failures of governance. Today, abductions and kidnapping are rife, gruesome killings take place on repeat basis across the country and internally displaced persons are unable to rebuild their lives. That Nigeria has, since it failed our #Chibokgirls in 2014, degenerated to become a poster country for terrorist mayhem is the grandest shame of a nation.

The degenerate state of security in our country today can be surmised to be the result of the failure of our government to embrace the fundamental values of shared humanity, dignity of life of Nigerians and the erosion of social contract with citizens. In our role as active citizens that have taken a firm stand for humanity and against injustice, we have in the five years not merely advocated but also also produced diverse tools tackle the insecurity problems.

Over the five years of our advocacy for #Chibokgirls and other abducted citizens, we produced a crowd-sourced Citizens Solution To End Terrorism, initiated the National Missing Persons Register and designed a rescued persons authentication tool— the Verification, Authentication and Reunification System (VARS) . For a self-funded citizens movement, we have done everything feasible to keep our promise that we shall never stop demanding justice for #Chibokgirls, Leah Sharibu, Alice and other abducted citizens of Nigeria until they are all brought back.

The Federal Government blatantly refused to publish or act on the reports of the June 2014 General M Sabo Presidential Committee on Abduction of #ChibokGirls?  What is the Buhari administration hiding?

What happened to the committee announced on the 14 January 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari to again look  into the abduction of our #ChibokGirls? Has that Committee ever met? What were its findings?
This administration must know that Nigerian citizens view this evident unwillingness to publish these reports as indicative of an attempt to cover up the truth on the #Chibokgirls saga and the failures to give them justice.

Today, our core demand remains the same, relevant today as it has been on each of the 1811 days that we have daily turned up at the Unity Fountain pressuring two consecutive Presidents of Nigeria to rescue the remaining 112 #ChibokGirls , Leah Sharibu, Alice and others. For as long as they remain in captivity, we BBOG shall continue to carry them in our hearts and make our voices resound and reecho our cries of five years: “Mr President #BringBackOurGirls now and alive!” Mr President, This is a shameful legacy. No More Excuses”. Bring Back Our Girls, Now and Alive!

Signed: For and on behalf of #BringBackOurGirls

Florence Ozor
Gapani Yanga
Nifemi Onifade