The Bring Back Our Girls Group, (BBOG)
Friday, expressed its disappointment with the way and manner President
Muhammadu Buhari was handling the issue of the Chibok girls who were
abducted in more than 816 days ago.
The group, in its One Year Engagement
with the President commemoration, urged the President to do away with
empty talks and match his words with actions.
Speaking to THISDAY exclusively on
behalf of the group, Aisha Yesufu, one of the leading members the group,
said, “Absolutely, as members of BBOG, we are very, very disappointed
with the fact that everything is coming out so sluggishly and so
slowly.”
Amina at the event to mark exactly one
year of BBOG engagement with President Muhammadu Buhari, held at the
Unity Fountain in Abuja, said, “Well, I wondered what is it that is
holding the President that after one year, he had not made any move for
the rescue of these girls. Because, he needs to make something decisive
because, the last time we heard the President, December 2015, coming out
to say that he doesn’t have the credible Intel about the whereabouts of
our Chibok girls.
“This is absurd because, Amina was
rescued, I mean found rather on May 17th, 2016 and as far as we are
concerned, she is the one that can give the most credible intelligence
that is available and she did mention that her sisters are there and
waiting to be rescued. So, it is disappointing for the fact that the
President has not been able to seize this and about to use this after
debriefing Amina.”
According to Aisha, “I heard today that
the President is talking about a committee and this committee is not all
about saying that, oh, we even have the names but, a committee that was
set up almost six months ago, January 14th, to be precise. From the
presidency, they can come out to say they want to set up a committee.
They might have all the time in the world but, our Chibok girls don’t
have all the time in the world. All those that are suffering out of the
act of the insurgency do not have all the time in the world and we need
the needful to be done immediately.
“Whatever intelligence they would have
been able to get from Amina to rescue her sisters who are waiting there
and today 816 days and they have been in captivity. So, I think the
President should not just say words but, his words need to match
actions”, she said.
If he says that the war with Boko Haram
is not won without the Chibok girls and all other abductees, then, he
should ensure that, that is the reality of it all and not just about
words that should be thrown about because, there are girls who are
waiting to be brought back home and a lot of abductees who we don’t even
know their numbers to be brought back home.
When asked on the issue of the
malnourished children at the Bama Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
camp, Aisha advised various agencies handling the humanitarian aid to
work together.
She said: “Well for me, what I need to
say basically is that all agencies should stop the blame games and get
to work and know that we have a humanitarian crisis and over a year, the
Bring Back our Girls (BBOG) has been calling on the government and
telling them that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) issue, indeed
if you don’t take care of it, it’s going to get blown over on our face,
it’s going to be a tragic thing if we don’t manage it properly.
Unfortunately, that is what we are seeing now. So, my own take on this
issue is that, the blame game should be stopped, the needful should be
done, they should sit down together and begin to look at it.
“A system should be out there and should
know what is going on. There should be co-ordinations amongst the
agencies that are responsible for the IDPs. Like I said earlier, a team
that came from Mr. President went out there, they were meeting with the
military and I think at that point, they were not the ones that were
supposed to have spoken to them because, the military is not directly
involved in the affairs of the IDPs. Theirs is to do rescue and hand
over and that is about it. There are other agencies that are supposed to
take over and that is the NEMA and SEMA. The Borno State Governor
should stand up and do the needful and take care of the citizens over
there”.
She however urged the parents of the missing Chibok girls to be hopeful and prayerful saying that they were not forgotten.
“My message to the Chibok girls first of
all is that, we are so sorry that we fail them, we are so sorry that we
didn’t do the needful. We are so sorry that we didn’t bring them back
home, 816 day’s but, they should remember that they are citizens of
Nigeria that, every day we are demanding for their rescue and we will
not stop.
“For the parents, yes; we tell them that
we will never give up. Though, we know that Nigeria is a country, where
when one is poor, one is faceless, nameless and voiceless. We will
continue to be their voices because we are all sisters and injustice to
one is injustice to all and the fact that we didn’t bare them from our
womb doesn’t mean they are not our daughters, they are our daughters and
we will continue to cry to them and for the government, we will like to
tell them on this day that, honestly, we should be ashamed of ours that
after, 218 days of ours in captivity, they are still out there waiting
to be brought back home and no Nigerian is more Nigerian than any
Nigeria and that our Chibok girls need to be brought back home. It’s not
a privilege but their right as enshrined in the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria,” said Aisha.
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