Photos from the rememberance march for Chibok Girlsp

A march was held today in Abuja to commemorate the one year abduction of the Chibok school girls by Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Female students from other schools participated in the event. Garbed in red branded tshirts, the girls flaunted placards bearing the names of the missing girls

Opinion: In Memory Of The #ChibokGirls: Who Will #BringBackOurGirls? | By: Ogundana Michael Rotimi

Like a thief that cometh in the night to steal and to kill, the deadly terrorist group, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in English means, “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”, otherwise known as Boko Haram, on the night of 14–15 April 2014, stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok Community, Borno State, Nigeria.
Broke into the school, pretended to be guards, told the girls to get out and come with them. A large number of students, numbering about two hundred and seventy-nine (279) girls were taken away with them in trucks. Possibly into the Konduga area of the Sambisa Forest where they were known to have fortified camps.

Fifty-seven (57) of the girls managed to escape on their own on transits, left with about 219 in the hands of Boko Haram their abductor. Houses in Chibok community were also burnt down in the incident. 
The school had been closed for four weeks prior to the attack due to the deteriorating security situation in the region, but students from multiple schools had been called on to take their physics final exams. These girls were aged 13 to 18 and were in their final year of school.
Tuesday, 14th April 2015, makes it exactly a year since the abduction of these girls. Their singular offence was that they wanted to be educated and pursue their dreams.

One of the saddening part of the incident was; the president did not believe that the girls were abducted for almost 18 days after their abduction was made. Since the president got the information within 24 hours of the act, if he had reacted almost immediately, those girls would have been rescued before they got to their destination.
Rather for the president to spring into actions after receiving briefings about the abduction, he doubted it. He had rather preferred to go dancing in Kano in the name of a rally. That was the most unfortunate aspect of the whole scenario. After that, it took President Jonathan about 20 days before he publicly acknowledged that the abduction actually took place.
That was after both local and international individuals and groups, especially the #BringBackOurGirls group here in Nigeria mounted pressure on him ahead of the World Economic Forum for Africa.
The president first spoke about the abduction in a media chat held 4th May, 2015, where he blamed the parents of the school girls for not giving information about the victims and the incident.
On 17 October 2014, hopes were raised that the over 200 girls left in the hands of Boko Haram their abductor might soon be released after the Nigerian army announced a truce between Boko Haram and government forces.
The announcement coincided with the six-month anniversary of the girls’ abduction and followed a month of negotiations mediated in Saudi Arabia by Chadian president, Idriss Déby.
The announcement was met with doubts, as that was not the first time the Nigerian government had claimed a breakthrough in negotiations with the Islamic militant group – it had to backtrack on a previous announcement in September after saying the girls had been released and were being held in military barracks. This was later found out to be false.
It must be on record, that if not for the relentless efforts of groups like the #BringBackOurGirls group, that kept demanding for the rescue of these girls, the government would not have said anything about their abduction, nothing would have been done about rescuing them and they would have been totally forgotten.
Fortunately, this group has been consistent; they have been humane and have shown affection to the #ChibokGirls, their family and their friends. This group keeps the memory of these girls alive and continues to hold the government responsible for failing to rescue them.
For a year now, we have demanded, we have begged, we have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have pleaded; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored the Presidency to bring down Boko Haram under its feet and #BringBackOurGirls.
Rather, our petitions have been slighted, our remonstrances have produced humiliation and insult, our supplications have been ignored, and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. We have since indulged in the fond of hope and faith, while we keep demanding for the rescue of our girls.
One thing is clear; we have pledged ourselves never to abandon this glorious course until our demand is meant. We shall keep demanding, for the rescue of our girls until they are finally brought back home.
These girls need to regain their freedom, they need to come back home, they deserve to live their normal lives and they have the right to pursue their dreams. The government must not allow the lives of these girls to be wasted, something has to be done and has to be done fast.
We have hoped that President Goodluck Jonathan would do all within his reach to rescue our girls, but as I write this piece nothing tangible has been done and the Chibok girls are yet to be back home.
And it`s so painful, that even as his tenure is coming to end, the Chibok girls still remain missing worst of it is that we do not have any situation report about their whereabouts and safety. However as Nigeria swears in a new President come 29th May, 2015, who will #BringBackOurGirls? President Jonathan or General Buhari?
Credit: Information Nigeria

Chibok Girls: One year in captivity

Who would have thought the girls would still be in captivity by now? Members of the deadly sect, Boko Haram beseiged the hostel of the Government Day Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria pretending to be guards and at gunpoint abducted over 200 girls who were preparing to write their final Secondary School Certificate Examinations. It was on the night of April 14, 2014. Exactly a year ago.
Needless to say, The past one year has been very traumatic for the girls as well as their families/relatives. And unfortunately about 20 parents have died of heart attack and frustration.

“For nearly 365 nights I have knelt and prayed for their return. We are in one house with four families in a compound. We are almost refugees in our country. Anytime I hear a noise it feels as if Boko Haram is coming for us.” An agonized parent said.
The government’s endless promises have offered not a glimpse of hope. Several campaigns have been launched nationally, protests and meetings held in different parts of the country, the issue has sparked global outcry.
The campaign for the release of the girls has been tagged “The most iconic fight of a freedom struggle.” Till the girls are found, this according to Prof Wole Soyinka will remain an open sore in the conscience of our nation.
Please spare some prayers for the girls and their troubled families.

#BringBackOurGirls: Girls Brigade UK raise awareness on the kidnapped Chibok girls.

Members of Girls’ Brigade England and Wales recently took to Downing Street, UK to deliver 219 ‘Cards of Hope’ to the Prime Minister to raise awareness on the 219 Chibok girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria 11months ago by Islamic sect, Boko Haram. 6 of the kidnapped girls are reportedly members of the Girls Brigade.
Speaking on the move, Lily Emmett one of the girls told Minister of State at UK foreign office, Baroness Joyce Analey, who also got 219 cards that, “the most important thing is that we never give up because we need to continue to show how much we care for the missing girls.”

The Minister replied, “For me the 
important thing is that people care and haven’t forgotten about the Chibok girls, and girls getting education, and the evidence of this is the visit I had from the Girls’ Brigade.”

Chibok Girls NOT Yet Released.

Contrary to reports that some of the abducted Chibok Girls have been released, the missing school children have not. Director of defence information, Major-General Chris Olukolade, who earlier confirmed the news has retracted his statement.

“Yes, we found out that they are not the same girls. They are different,” he said.

The sighted girls who were 34 in number were heading to new schools secured for them in Kaduna with full military escort. They had earlier escaped from Boko haram militants in April.

Some Abducted Chibok Girls Have Reportedly Been Released!

  1. Cheery News! According to reports, some of the Chibok school girls kidnapped by terrorist group, Boko Haram 5months ago have been released. A military source said two Toyota Hiace buses conveying the girls were driven into the Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri this evening. Defence Spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, who confirmed the news said an appropriate statement would be made soon.

Opinion: #ChibokGirls- Nigerian women should be ashamed of themselves | By: Bayo Oluwasanmi

Political participation is a Human Right. One of the crippling problems facing Nigerian democracy is the elitist nature of its citizen participation.

Our democracy is not an all-inclusive project of a nation state. Majority of our mothers are illiterates and they reside in the rural areas and are excluded from being active players in “government of the people by the people for the people.”

Our democracy has failed to ensure the reliable use of civil and political rights guaranteed by the constitution. It has failed to address economic disparity and social injustice. Though these problems affect every Nigerian, the persistent marginalization of our women in politics and especially in Human Rights left our women swimming naked.

There can be no democracy without women’s equal right to protection against their specific gender vulnerabilities: rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence, abduction, and other barbaric acts targeted against women.
With the abduction of 300 school girls, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Nigerian women to forge a national women’s movement that will include ALL women to fight in their behalf.
Advanced democracies have rich tradition of Feminist Movements with enduring achievements. Nigeria’s tethering and dithering democracy cannot boast of such movements.
Though in the 40s there were sporadic women resistance dictated by occasional grievances. Such rebellion recedes as soon as the women’s demands were met.
What we have today in Nigeria in form of women’s movements are loose associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Even then, most of the women’s NGOs have been infiltrated and infected by the same native tyrants it seek to fight.
Extreme poverty, lack of interest in fighting for gender equality, and bureaucratic hurdles mitigate against women from participating actively and fully in the political process. Some of the hurdles preventing a strong and effective women’s movement in Nigeria include class, ethnicity, religion, culture, education, political beliefs and ideological differences.

When ordinary people joined together they can go far and great change is possible. The whole purpose of human rights is to right wrong. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti crusader and challenger of despotic leaders led Egba women on a protest against taxation.
Margaret Ekpo, a prominent civil rights activist fought for the economic and political rights of women. Gambo Sawaba championed the cause of the oppressed in northern Nigeria. Iyalode Tinubu of Lagos exemplifies the rich participation of women on the economic scene. Moremi offered herself as a woman who saved her people of Ile-Ife.
Nigerian women, where is your faith?
How painful is the unknown pain that your daughters are going through in the hands of the savages that abducted them over 146 days ago? Where do you stand in your social responsibility? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Instead of being repulsed you have closed your eyes and ears as if you’re immune to gender-based crimes. You’re empty, faithless, loveless, and with no zeal!
Today, Nigerian women are missing in action. Where are the Kutis, Ekpos, Sawabas, Tinubus, and the Moremis? Nigerian women have abandoned the Chibok Girls. They have walked away from their motherly duty. They cannot leave the burden and the fight to bring their daughters back to Oby Ezekwesili and few dedicated compatriots.

Nigerian women have failed to unite and present a joint front in fighting the indulgence of wrong desires and gratification of the animal passions of the deranged Boko Haramists. Where are the college and university women graduates? The Chibok tragedy calls for the activation of their feminist raw rage against women oppression and degradation.

Their deafening silence shows they are much more concerned as to the dress and adornment of their bodies. They prefer to spend precious time in ruffling and trimming their garments for the next “owa nbe” all night party than to pitch their tent with the sit-out #BringBackOurGirls group in Abuja.

Our educated women are supposed to be the vanguard leading the intellectual and political movement against all the evils visited upon the Chibok Girls by Boko Haramists. The women have violated every moral obligation towards fighting for the rescue of the girls – they have gone AWOL.

Where is their commitment to a cause? Where is their faith? Where is their rage?  Talking about crises of faith, Mother Teresa once queried: “Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness … How painful is the unknown pain?”
Nigerian women, where is your faith?
How painful is the unknown pain that your daughters are going through in the hands of the savages that abducted them over 146 days ago? Where do you stand in your social responsibility? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Instead of being repulsed you have closed your eyes and ears as if you’re immune to gender-based crimes. You’re empty, faithless, loveless, and with no zeal!

The United Nations now recognize violence against women as a basic human rights abuse. Atrocities such as rape committed against women during armed conflict are acknowledged as a “weapon of war” and a gender-based crime. I believe the abduction of the Chibok Girls falls into this category.

The abduction of Chibok Girls is a violence against women with serious health and development impacts and a gross violation of women’s rights. Violence unleashed on the girls by Boko Haramists means: health consequences, incapacity in reproductive age, physical and sexual abuse lie behind unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and complications of pregnancy.

The participation of our women in women’s human rights movement must acquire a new weight, a new vision, and a new visibility. Now is the time for Nigerian women to redeem their usually aloof and impersonal image on political and social responsibilities and use Chibok as their passport to dignity by the doing the following:

*Form an all-inclusive women’s movement that will organize women and advocate women’s rights.
*Educate and enlighten women about their rights and how to fight for them.
*Strengthen the capacity of women at all levels.
*Initiate advocacy campaign for policy reforms against gender-based oppression.
*Initiate and monitor program development and analytical frame work geared towards women’s rights.
*Facilitate strategic thinking among women.
*Demand for change from government and other institutions.
*Hold government and institutions accountable for women’s human rights.

It has been over 146 days since the girls were cart off like cows without shepherds. The girls are paying too much price for their prolonged captivity. Their captivity is a deadly dagger aimed at the very heart of womanhood. It was the most devastating assault on a group of innocent young schools girls the world has ever witnessed. It is a case of immense tragedy and trauma.

All pleas to the Jonathan administration to act decisively, desperately, and swiftly to bring our girls home have fallen on deaf ears. The constitutional political structures have failed to rescue the girls. Nigerian women should come together and present any form of resistance or agitation – sit-out or sit-in. Just do something by putting political pressure and persuasion on the government to honor its legal and moral duties to bring home the Chibok Girls

Credit: Y!Naija

#BringBackOurGirls: Chibok girls family issue statement on aborted meeting with President Goodluck

We the members of the Kibaku (Chibok) Community and representatives of the 12 fathers and 5 escaped girls who were hosted by Malala during her visit to Nigeria hereby speak on their behalf to offer to Nigerians the facts as they are and to put the records straight and correct the erroneous impression making rounds in the media on the botched meeting with the President:

1. The logistics and meeting between the twelve (12) fathers and five (5) girls and Malala was facilitated by the Abuja Chibok Community and the Citizens platform of BringBackOurGirls with our consent and on TRUST considering their sustained and focused advocacy to Bring Back our daughters.

2. These parents and escaped girls did not come to Abuja at the instance of government or its representatives for a meeting with Mr. President but on the full understanding that they were coming to meet with Malala; an advocate of girl child education and most importantly one who has suffered a similar fate as their daughters’.

3. That in the course of the interactions with Malala, NEITHER the parents nor the escaped girls asked for a meeting with the President or any government functionary, rather the narrative back home was to persistently ask why the President has not visited them in Chibok since the abduction.

4. It is obvious that their numbers of 12 fathers and 5 girls is about 2% of the parents of the 219 abducted girls still with their abductors and the 57 girls that escaped. Therefore, these parents DECIDED on their own accord to review the announced visit, which they FIRST heard of like every other person during Malala speech in Hilton.

5. That consequent to their decision to revert to other family members in order to incorporate every stakeholder on the matter as well as avoid discord and suspicion on a change of plans from the original mission to Abuja, they reached out to the Malala team and through them to the Presidency; to request for a new date for an expanded and more representative meeting that has a legitimate mandate to meet with the President.

6. That their request is also in recognition of the huge opportunity of a meeting with the President for the first time and after over 90 days of the tragic abduction of their daughters, and therefore required better consultations, structure and formality as against an instant advocacy request.

7. That it is totally misleading, unjust and without foundation to hold the Citizens’ platform BringBackOurGirls responsible for the decision made by the 12 parents and our community. We therefore take full responsibility for our decision and welcome the formal invitation by the Presidency as a follow up to Malala’s visit which we received this morning.

Thank You.
For Further Inquiries, contact the PRO on 08055606677.
Press statement from #bringbackourgirls conveners…
Response to Malicious Falsehood on Chibok Parents Visit to President Goodluck Jonathan
In the last 24hours, the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja family has observed with consternation the escalation of the pattern of the campaign of calumny by Government officials on our Citizens movement advocating for the rescue of the 219 school girls of abducted from Chibok Girls Secondary School, 93 days ago. The latest in this trend is emanating from the visit facilitated for the 11 parents and five escaped girls who were visiting Abuja to interact with girl-child education advocate Malala Yousafzai.

During the public speech by Ms. Malala she declared that she had received a promise by President Jonathan to meet with the 11 parents and five girls. The movement was not aware and neither was it part of the discussion of the said visit to our President.
However, at the BBOG daily sit out, our movement was informed by the Chairman, Abuja Chibok community of the outcome of a meeting held with officials of the Presidency in Malala’s suite (immediately after her speech). He conveyed that they were informed at that meeting of a the scheduling of the visit to the President for the eleven parents and five girls at 4.00pm on Tuesday 15th July 2014.

Although some members of the movement were surprised at the sudden invitation to meet with the President, our leadership concluded that session by emphasizing that it was the absolute right of the Chibok community to decide on the matter. It is instructive to note that majority of those at the Unity Fountain on that day were visiting from the Chibok community and were mostly the ones who vehemently expressed dismay at the information from the Chairman. He then clarified on the manner the invitation was conveyed to him and the parents at that meeting and reassured his community that he would schedule an emergency meeting to discuss the matter further.

On Tuesday 15th July 2014, the leadership of our movement were invited to a meeting by the Chibok Chairman and the leadership of their development association with the eleven parents in attendance. At the meeting they conveyed to us their unanimous decision to request for a rescheduling of the Malala facilitated meeting with the President. They further informed us of their intention to reach out to the Malala team and officials of the Presidency to request for an expanded meeting within a sufficient time frame for necessary planning with the rest of their community in Chibok.

We want to repeat for the avoidance of doubt that we are not responsbile for the cancellation of the meeting with the President by the 11 Parents and 5 escaped girls from Chibok as been insinuated by some Government officials

As a movement, we wish to seize this opportunity to express our gratitude to Malala who helped amplify the advocacy for concerted efforts towards the rescue of our girls. Meanwhile, it is pertinent to firmly state that since the inception of our movement in April 2014, we have remained steadfast and adopted all means and channels of civil engagement in the advocacy of our singular issue, which is #BringBackOurGirls NOW and ALIVE

Signed
Hadiza Bala Usman & Obiageli Ezekwesili

Find out what Nigerians were searching for on Google in May 2014

From the kidnap of over 200 Nigerian school girls in Borno, Mavin Records riveting hit song ‘Dorobucci’ to the death of an accomplished filmmaker in the Nigerian movie industry (Amaka Igwe). Below is Google Top Search Trends in Nigeria for May 2014.

Top Searches

-Dorobucci

-Chibokgirls #bringbackourgirls

-Patience Jonathan

-Jos bomb blast

-Maya Angelou

-solange, solange knowles

-Davido ft Mafikizolo

-champions league final

-Nigeria vs Scotland

-Dora Akunyili health

-Amaka Igwe

Top trending Musicians

-P Square

-Olamide

-Jesse Jagz

-DjXclusive

-J Martins

-Tuface

-Naeto C

-Skuki

-Sound Sultan

-Omawunmi

Top searched “How to…”

-how to kiss

-how to hack

-how to meditate

-how to pray

-how to swim

-how to love

-how to study

-how to makeup

-how to sing

-how to download

Top Searched “What is…”

-what is love

-what is computer

-what is sex

-what is education

-what is communication

-what is biology

-what is government

-what is marketing

-what is internet

-what is economics

Photos: Patience Ozokwor breaks down in tears as Nollywood stars protest for the release of abducted Chibok girls

Albeit she sheds real tears in movies, these particular tears are for a cause. 2014 AMAA best supporting actress, Patience Ozokwor led other Nollywood thespians like Mercy Aigbe, Chinedu Ikedieze, Thelma Okhaz, Femi Ogedengbe from Allen Avenue, Ikeja to The Lagos State Secretariat in Alausa to protest the release of the over 200 girls kidnapped a month ago by Boko Haram.
Ozokwo fought back tears as she knelt down to speak about the missing girls and the urgent need for the government to bring them to back. They were later addressed by The State House of Assembly Speaker, Honorable Adeyemi Ikuforiji, who appreciated them for lending their voices to the campaign and assured them that all hands are on deck to rescue the girls.
Photo Credit: AFP
Open chat