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Tag: chibok girls

  • Why Chibok girls release is taking time – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said the remaining girls abducted by terrorists from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, four years ago were still in captivity because of some setbacks in the negotiation between the Federal Government and the Boko Haram sect.

    He attributed the setbacks to what he described as internal disagreement among the abductors.

    Buhari said this in a statement made available to journalists by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

    The President said, “We are concerned and aware that it is taking longer to bring the rest of our daughters back home, but be assured that this administration is doing its very best to free the girls from their captors.

    “Unfortunately, the negotiations between the government and Boko Haram suffered some unexpected setbacks, owing mainly to a lack of agreement among their abductors, whose internal differences have led to a divergence of voices regarding the outcome of the talks.

    “We know that this is not the news parents want to hear after four whole years of waiting, but we want to be as honest as possible with you.

    “However, this government is not relenting. We will continue to persist, and the parents should please not give up. Don’t give up hope of seeing our daughters back home again. Don’t lose faith in this government’s ability to fulfil our promise of reuniting you with your daughters.

    “Don’t imagine for a moment that we have forgotten about our daughters or that we consider their freedom a lost cause.”

    Buhari gave the assurance Nigerians that as long as he remained the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the Chibok girls would never be forgotten and everything would be done to reunite them with their families. He also assured the parents of the schoolgirls that “their daughters will never be forgotten or abandoned to their fate, despite four long years since they were taken away by terrorists.’’

    Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund has disclosed that more than 1,000 children have been abducted by Boko Haram in the North-East since 2013, including 276 Chibok schoolgirls taken from their school on April 14, 2014.

    The UN agency noted that four years on, more than 100 of the Chibok girls had yet to be returned to their families. It restated its calls for the release of all hostages in Boko Haram custody.

    The UNICEF in a statement on Thursday by its representative in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall, disclosed that 2,295 teachers had been killed and more than 1,400 schools destroyed in nine years by the insurgents, noting that most of the schools had not been re-opened.

    “The fourth anniversary of the Chibok abduction reminds us that children in northeastern Nigeria continue to come under attack on a shocking scale. They are consistently targeted and exposed to brutal violence in their homes, schools and public places,” it said.

    In a similar vein, ActionAid Nigeria has expressed solidarity with the families, friends and the Chibok community over the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in Boko Haram captivity.

    The Country Director of AAN, Ene Obi, said in a statement, “The FG and the military should adopt intelligence, power and negotiation as deployed for the release of the Dapchi girls, to bring back the remaining 113 missing Chibok girls and the remaining Dapchi girl, Leah Shuaibu.”

  • Why we are yet to rescue remaining Chibok girls – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari explained why the remaining school girls that were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State in Boko Haram’s captivity are yet to be released despite intensified efforts by his government to do so.

    The president however assured the parents of the remaining girls that “their daughters will never be forgotten or abandoned to their fate, despite four long years since they were taken away by terrorists.’’

    A statement by the Presidency Friday said President Buhari joined the Borno State government, parents of the children and Nigerians in commemorating the fourth anniversary of the sad incident, praying that the event at the daughters’ school today will go well.

    The President urged the parents to keep their hopes alive on the return of their daughters, noting that the recovery of more than a 100 of the girls that were kidnapped should give confidence that all “hope is not lost”.

    President Buhari re-affirmed that the government remains focused and determined to see the girls return to their homes, urging the parents to be expectant of more good news in due course.

    “We are concerned and aware that it is taking long to bring the rest of our daughters back home, but be assured that this administration is doing its very best to free the girls from their captors.

    “Unfortunately, the negotiations between the government and Boko Haram suffered some unexpected setbacks, owing mainly to a lack of agreement among their abductors, whose internal differences have led to a divergence of voices regarding the outcome of the talks. We know that this is not the news parents want to hear after four whole years of waiting, but we want to be as honest as possible with you.

    “However, this government is not relenting. We will continue to persist, and the parents should please not give up. Don’t give up hope of seeing our daughters back home again. Don’t lose faith in this government’s ability to fulfill our promise of reuniting you with our daughters.

    “Don’t imagine for a moment that we have forgotten about our daughters or that we consider their freedom a lost course,’’ the president said.

    President Buhari assured that as long as he remains the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces the Chibok girls will never be forgotten and all will be done to have them reunited with their families.

     

  • Dapchi vs Chibok girls’ abduction: ‘Stop comparing apple with orange,’ FG tells PDP

    The Federal Government on Thursday said comparing its response to the recently abducted Dapchi school girls to that of Chibok girls abducted in 2014 by the Boko Haram insurgents under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration was like ‘comparing apple with orange’.

    The Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed said this at the Foundation Laying Ceremony of the Editors’ Plaza by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Abuja. He said it was swift as against ex-President Goodluck Jonathan administration “slow” response to the kidnap of Chibok girls.

    He said the government had deployed over 200 hours of air search for the Dapchi girls, and stressed that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had been “able to limit Boko Haram insurgents to their cowardly act of bombing soft spot and kidnapping.

    Mohammed, however, urged the media to show understanding as the nation was undergoing trying times.

    The minister’s response was provoked by taunts by former Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio, who wondered why Mohammed had lost his voice on the abduction of Dapchi girls unlike in 2014 when he took swipes at the Jonathan administration on the Chibok girls.

    Mohammed said it was wrong for Akpabio to “compare apple with orange” on the Buhari administration’s approach to the abduction of the Dapchi girls.

    The minister said: “Now, don’t compare orange with apple. When Chibok girls were kidnapped, it took the PDP government 18 full days to admit that the girls were kidnapped. This time we swung into action within 24 hours. And as I speak today, I have been to Yobe State twice, the National Security Adviser (NSA), the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Air Staff and NSA have been there.

    “As of yesterday, we deployed over 200 hours of air search for the girls. Our appeal to the media today is to solicit for their support. We are now in trying times. It does not matter who is involved. We seek your support. We are not saying don’t criticise us, but be very fair and do it in context.

    “It is so easy to forget that less than three years ago, 20 out of 27 local governments in Borno State were under the control of Boko Haram. It easy to forget that in 2013 and 2014, Boko Haram insurgents were strolling into Abuja. They attacked United Nations office and the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja.

    “But today, we have been able to limit them to their cowardly act of bombing to soft spot and kidnapping. Achieving this feat is not a small thing.”

    Mohammed said the Federal Government had performed well in the last three years.

    He added: “We have achieved a lot in the last three years. We cannot do everything in two to three years, but we have tried.

    “We must appreciate that in 2016, we imported 644,000 metric tons of rice, but in 2017, we imported only 4,000 metric tons of rice. Our Anchor Borrowers Programme is working so well, we have 4.2 million farmers in the scheme.

    “We have just concluded a high level meeting of the International Conference on Lake Chad Basin. How many of us have availed our platform to tell the world that in 1963 Lake Chad occupies 25,000 square kilometers, but the same Lake Chad occupies over 2,500sq meters, meaning that we have lost over 90 per cent of the surface of the water.

    “This is the biggest water basin in the world and the implication is where the 1200 fishes in the Lake Chad are. The land for fishing and irrigation has been lost.

    “Our appeal to the media is that we need the media to tell our story rightly. These are trying times for the nation we need your understanding. It is because there is Nigeria that we have Nigerian Guild of Editors. If there is no Nigeria, there will be no guild. We must have a strong, united and peaceful Nigeria before anything can be achieved.”

    The minister praised NGE for “daring to dream” to build the Editors’ Plaza in Abuja.

    He said: “Let me congratulate the editors for this feat. This is not just an edifice but laying the foundation for journalism in the years ahead. I am sure, God will give everyone of you long life to see the fruit which you have planted today.”

    Senator Akpabio, who chaired of the occasion, said the minister’s appointment was merited.

    But he wondered why he was quiet on the abduction of the Dapchi girls, unlike in 2014 when as the spokesman for the opposition he was on hard on Jonathan’s administration when Chibok girls were kidnapped.

    He said: “”A man (Lai) who before 2015 would have had a fantastic caption for the Dapchi girls kidnap. But because of where he is now, all he could do was to shake his head on the television.

    “But in those days, he would just say ‘oh, look at what has happened to Chibok girls. I weep for Nigeria, I mourn for bad governance’. That was just then, but today, you would just shake your head and say, ‘well, there is insecurity all around the world’,

    “My brother Lai Mohammed, I must thank you for the way you used to criticise me when I was a governor because even when you were in Holland one time, I spoke with you. You remember that time I called you?

    “Something happened in one of my local governments and you issued a statement immediately and condemned it. You condemned it in very strong terms, saying you were in opposition. And when I called and tried to explain to you, you said, ‘I am actually in Holland’. I shouted, I said then, ‘how did you manage to react to something that happened 20 minutes ago?’ That shows that your appointment is merited. I congratulate you. Yes, this is the truth.

    “You did a fantastic job in the opposition. Now, I am not the one to judge him where he is today. It is the President of Nigeria, his boss; he will be the one to give the score card at the end of the day. But, if you ask me, I think you are doing a very difficult job well. That is what I will say.”

    Akpabio said although Nigeria was passing through a difficult time, he was confident that the country would remain united.

    He added: ‘’No matter what, this country will not collapse. The media must engage in reportage that will promote good governance and democracy in the country by casting developmental headlines and shunning bias.

    ‘’Journalism is a serious business and should not be left in the hands of charlatans. Your headline can make or mar Nigeria and this is when the role of the gate keeper comes in. Your headline must bring about peace and development, Nigeria is passing through difficult time.

    Each time I see a journalist, I thank him/her for democracy in Nigeria, and I must charge you to do more. We must cast headlines that will unite us, engender patriotism in Nigeria, promote FDI and Nigeria and build Nigeria of our dream.

    “We must try to teach our children the right values, what is happening is an aberration, so we cannot completely blame the government.”

    NGE President Mrs. Funke Egbemode, said: “This property on which we are laying the foundation of The Editors Plaza became officially ours as a body on May 5, 2015 with conveyance of the Right of Occupancy signed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. It measures 5,603.28 sqm and we promptly swung into action to accept and occupy this property.

    “We held a fund-raising dinner to raise resources to realise the dream of our founders to find an abode suitable and fitting for the NGE, proceeds of which were deployed into securing this property.

    “We took a decision to buy a house in Ikeja, Lagos which we have since remoulded nicely to house the Nigerian Guild of Editors first secretariat in more than five decades of its existence. We commissioned it with fanfare in 2016.

    “But this one on which we stand solid is the real big deal for us. It is big. It is a dream come true. It is a massive project. Our consulting architect has put the project in the region of N350m to put the structure up alone. We are not fazed, not scared. We know we can do it.”

     

  • BREAKING: Troops rescue another Chibok Girl

    BREAKING: Troops rescue another Chibok Girl

    Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole deployed in Pulka , have liberated one of the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists earlier in 2014.

     

    According to a statement issued by the Deputy Director of Public Relations, Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, the girl was rescued on Thursday.

     

    “So far, preliminary investigations reveal that the young girl identified as Salomi Pagu is the same as the Chibok girl published on serial 86 of the online list of abducted Chibok girls.

     

    “Currently, the girl who was intercepted in the company of another young girl, Jamila Adams, about 14 years old with a child, are in the safe custody of troops and receiving medical attention,” the statement said.

    Recall that In November 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari had reiterated that his administration was toiling day and night to secure the release of the remaining girls and other captives in the hands of the terrorists.

    The President had made the statement during a book presentation entitled: ‘Making Steady, Sustainable Progressive for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity: A mid-term scorecard on the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration.’

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    More to follow…

     

  • ‘Buhari gave Boko Haram €3m for release of Chibok girls’

    Federal Government paid €3m for the release of some Chibok schoolgirls who were in Boko Haram custody, according to Wall Street Journal.

    In 2014, Boko Haram insurgents had kidnapped 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state.

    Of the 276, 163 are now free: 57 fled in the early days after their abduction, three escaped later, and a Swiss-coached mediation secured 103.

    Twenty-one of the 103 were freed on October 13, 2016, while the remaining 82 were freed on May 6 this year.

    In a detailed report on the incident, WSJ said while €1m was paid for the 21 first freed, additional €2m accompanied the five Boko Haram commanders that were exchanged with the next batch: the 82 girls.

    TheCable had earlier reported how the €2m were reportedly paid.

    Ahmad Salkida, a journalist known to have links with the sect, and Zannah Mustapha, a lawyer, were said to be key mediators involved in both deals.

    After months of talks involving Salkida and Mustapha, a breakthrough was finally reached when in late 2016, both parties agreed on a plan concerning the girls’ freedom.

    WSJ said: “The plan called for two exchanges. In the first one, Boko Haram would free 20 Chibok hostages in exchange for €1m.

    “If both sides were satisfied with the outcome, the rest of the girls who wanted to come home would be swapped in the second exchange in return for €2 and five imprisoned Boko Haram commanders.”

    “As Mustapha worked through the details and tried to maintain the confidence of both sides, the Nigerian government began the delicate process of finding prisoners Shekau would deem acceptable.

  • Chibok girls: Jonathan concealed fact finding committee report – Kubo

    Chibok girls: Jonathan concealed fact finding committee report – Kubo

    Borno State Commissioner for Education, Musa Inuwa Kubo has challenged ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to tell Nigerians why he concealed report of his own fact-finding committee on the abduction of Chibok girls.

    Kubo gave the call while faulting Jonathan’s allegations against the state Governor, Kashim Shettima.

    Jonathan, through his aide, Ikechukwu Eze, had challenged Governor Shettima to tell Nigerians whatever he knew regarding the April 14, 2014 abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram after attacks on Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State.
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    Reacting to Jonathan’s claim, Kubo said Jonathan “deliberately concealed report of a Presidential Fact-Finding Committee he constituted and inaugurated on Tuesday, 6th of May, 2014” on Chibok girls and which “submitted report of findings to him on Friday, 20th of June 2014.”

    Kubo, who was amongst those interrogated by the committee, also said there was never a time the Principal of Government Secondary School, Chibok was considered for any appointment not to mention being a Commissioner.

    He described the claim by Jonathan’s media team as an irresponsible ‎mischief.

    In a statement he personally signed and sent journalists Kubo said, “For the purpose of records, Eze and his colleagues are pointing the wrong direction, they should ask their principal, President Goodluck Jonathan, why he deliberately refused to make public, the report of a committee he constituted, inaugurated and received their findings on facts surrounding the Chibok abduction and who is to blame for it.

    ” To refresh their minds, on Tuesday, the 6th of May, 2014, President Jonathan had inaugurated multi-agency/stakeholder fact-finding committee under the chairmanship of Brig. General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd), a one-time Director of Military Intelligence and secretary of the Committee was from the Niger Delta.

    ” President Jonathan single handedly selected all members of that committee which included representatives of the UN, ECOWAS, ‎retired and security officers from the Army, DSS and Police; representatives of the Chibok community, local and international civil rights organisations, representatives of the National Council of Women Societies, the Nigeria Union of Journalists and some of his highly trusted associates.

    ” For nearly two months, the committee undertook thorough investigation that included forensic assessment of all documents on the entire issues, held meetings with parents of the schoolgirls, visited Chibok, met with the then Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, the Director General of the DSS and the Inspector General of Police, all of whom were appointees of President Jonathan.

    ” The committee also met with officials of Borno Government including myself and the school principal, the committee held meetings with heads of different security agencies in Borno State including security formations in charge of Chibok and after compiling their findings, the committee submitted it’s report directly to President Jonathan on Friday, the 20th of June, 2014 in Aso Rock.

    ” The question anyone should ask is why President Jonathan deliberately refused to make that report public. What was he hiding from Nigerians? Here is another question, if the findings had indicted Governor Shettima or the Borno State Government in anyway, does anyone really Jonathan would have concealed that report given his open hatred for Shettima and the fact that the Governor was in the opposition party?

    ” Also, the issue of saying the Principal of GSS Chibok was appointed a Commissioner is an irresponsible mischief because Governor Kashim Shettima is neither foolish nor is he a daft. “

  • Jonathan hits back at Shettima, says ‘You deliberately exposed Chibok girls to danger in 2014’

    Jonathan hits back at Shettima, says ‘You deliberately exposed Chibok girls to danger in 2014’

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State ignored the warnings of the Federal Government under his (Jonathan’s) leadership to relocate students writing the West African School Certificate Examinations to safe zones, therefore, exposing the innocent girls to avoidable danger.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the former president was responding to Shettima’s statement at the book launch of Bolaji Abdullahi, the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abuja on Thursday, that he (Jonathan) never believed that the Chibok girls were kidnapped.

    In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, on Friday, Jonathan said Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State’s claims that his administration was dogged by poor choices and bad governance were “parochial and jaundiced.”

    Jonathan, in his statement, explained that Abdullahi, who was his former Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs was still on a vendetta mission against him (Jonathan) after he (Abdullahi) was unceremoniously removed from office.

     

    Read full statement below:

    Our attention has been drawn to the claims made by the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima on Thursday at a book launch to the effect that former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan wasted the goodwill he commanded because of bad governance and poor choices in office. He was also said to have accused Jonathan of believing that he was behind the kidnap of the Chibok girls.

    As a man who had never seen anything good in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan on account of party and other differences, it has remained our considered view that in a democracy, Governor Kashim Shettima and others like him are entitled to their opinion, no matter how jaundiced.

    However, it is a sad commentary on the character of some of our politicians that they go to any length to make spurious statements, in pursuit of the sad narrative to remain politically correct. We cannot be deceived by his crocodile tears and patronizing claim that “Jonathan is essentially a decent man”, which is a ploy he deployed to justify his false allegation of a lost glory.

    The man who today speaks of squandered goodwill should be able to tell Nigerians what percentage of the votes Jonathan got in 2011 from Borno State at the height of that his envisaged glory according to Shettima, and what it became in subsequent elections. What was obvious yesterday and has remained so today is that Governor Shettima and those who think like him never liked Jonathan based on some parochial and paternalistic sentiments.

    We didn’t expect anything less from Governor Shettima, knowing the ignoble roles he played in frustrating the war waged by the past administration against Boko Haram, even in his own Borno State.

    He should be able to tell us if it was Jonathan’s poor choices that led the Governor to expose students of Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok to avoidable danger, in total disregard of a Federal Government directive to the Governors in the three states most affected by Boko Haram to relocate their students writing the West African School Certificate Examinations to safe zones.

    The governor is now denying that he had no hand in the kidnap of the Chibok girls even before anybody accused him of culpability. However, we share the view of those who insist that the governor had other things up his sleeve when he promised the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that he would secure the girls, and ended up doing the very opposite, by deliberately abandoning them to their fate, without any security presence in their school.

    It is instructive that while other governors in the zone heeded the security advice, Shettima remained the only one that flagrantly flouted it. Should we also fail to point out that his decision to reward the principal of Chibok Secondary School, who was uncharacteristically absent on the night terrorists stormed the school, with the post of a commissioner, did throw up more questions than answers?

    Talking about accountability, perhaps, Shettima should also do well to explain to the good people of Borno State and Nigerians what he did with the over N60 billion Local Governments fund, left by his predecessor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

    We understand Governor Shettima and those who spoke like him accused Jonathan of bad governance and poor choices, and we would like to know if it was bad governance that led Jonathan to assemble a-yet-to be matched crop of dynamic cabinet and economic management team made up of tested technocrats like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Finance ministry, Shamsuddeen Usman in Planning, Olusegun Aganga in Trade and Investments as well as Akinwumi Adesina leading the charge in Agriculture. The efforts of the Jonathan administration in repositioning Nigeria’s economy remain self-evident and it must have indeed been poor choices at their best for Jonathan and his team to have recorded the following key achievements:

    * Nigeria’s Gross domestic Product rose to $503 billion in 2013 and became Africa’s largest economy and 26th in the world; from 3rd and 4th respectively.

    * Nigeria became the number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa under former President Jonathan, with the numbers rising from $24.9 million as at 2007 to over $35 billion in 2014.

    * Jonathan Government delivered over 25,000 kilometres of motor able federal roads from just a quarter of that number in 2011.

    * The Jonathan Administration resuscitated the railways in the country after about 30-years of hiatus

    *Jonathan’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda ended fertilizer racketeering, encouraged more young Nigerians to take to farming, boosted local food production and took the country closer to self-sufficiency in food production by recording more than 50% reduction in food imports. It was as a result of this that the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, for the first time, voted Nigeria the largest producer of Cassava in the world.

    * Power generation under Jonathan was boosted to about 5,000 megawatts in 2014 up from 2,000 megawatts in 2011.

    * Prices of food and other household items remained stable and inflationary pressure was down to a single digit.

    * Under Jonathan, Nigeria controlled clinically Ebola outbreak to the admiration of the whole world, became Guinea-worm-free and also eradicated polio, with United States billionaire and renowned

    philanthropist Bill Gates, praising Nigeria’s successes against polio as one of the great world achievements of 2014. Sadly polio has returned to the country with the likes of Shettima in charge of the endemic states.

    * Under Jonathan Life expectancy in Nigeria rose from 47 years in 2010 to 54 years in 2015.

    *Just before Jonathan left office, CNN Money projected that Nigeria’s economy in 2015 would become the third fastest growing economy in the world at 7 per cent behind China at 7.3 per cent and Qatar at 7.1 per cent.

    Was it bad governance and poor choices that reformed the political and electoral processes to the extent that the United Nations is now pleading with the government of the day to strive to maintain the standards established by Jonathan?

    Fortunately, Nigerians know where they stand with all of their leaders. All those who are calling Jonathan names today, and accusing him of having become quite unpopular, should simply take a walk on the streets of any Nigerian city as real leaders do. That way, they will accurately gauge their own approval and test their popularity with the Nigerian people.

    On the book entitled “On a Platter of Gold- How Jonathan won and lost Nigeria” written by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, we have watched for some

    time as some outrageous fabrications are extracted from its pages day after day by the media. When the publication of the book, with an ominous title was first mooted, we knew it will be full of bile and

    sour grapes. We didn’t expect truth, sincerity and accuracy of narration, given that the author who was sacked from his ministerial position by the subject of the book, is now the spokesman for the ruling APC.

    We will therefore like to dissociate former President Jonathan from the book’s salacious contents, with all the obvious distortions, lies and exaggerations. Its pages are populated with gossip, politically influenced newspaper articles, uncoordinated raw data and unproven claims. Sadly, the author did not help matters, as there was no rigour or in-depth investigations towards establishing the veracity of the allegations the book contained. For instance, it is ridiculous for the author to have claimed that the President was forced to sack a certain minister by another cabinet member when the obvious truth known to all key members of the administration was that the President acted based on the recommendation of an internal committee that investigated the matter. This, unfortunately, is the kind of baseless claims and narrative that run through the entire book, and it would be pointless devoting our time towards making a case by case response to all its ridiculous allegations.

    We will like to remind Nigerians of what former President Jonathan said earlier in the year when a similar book was published, that only the key actors in his government and in the 2015 presidential elections could give an exact account of what transpired, not speculations and conjectures by third party spectators. That time will come someday.

  • Chibok Girls mark third anniversary at American University of Nigeria

    The Chibok Girls Education Initiative at the American University of Nigeria (AUN) celebrated its third anniversary on August 25 with an award ceremony. The occasion recognized outstanding achievements among the first group of 24 who arrived at AUN in 2014 and have been on automatic scholarship.

    AUN President Dr. Dawn Dekle and the Special Adviser to the Nigerian President, Ms. Maryam Uwais, were among the special guests of honor.

    Also called New Foundation School (NFS), the initiative started in 2014 to cater specially for the kidnapped Chibok girls who braved an escape from the captivity of Boko Haram. Eight of the initial intake have graduated from the NFS and are enrolled in AUN to pursue their university education. Among them are three in the University’s pre-med program, Natural and Environmental Sciences, and two in Accounting. The rest are studying Law, Computer Science and Journalism.

    There were awards for the most punctual, best behaved, the most outgoing, and the best public speaking student. For athletics, there were awards for students in specific skills, as well as the overall best athletic participant. In the academics category, there was an award for the best student in every subject in both the intermediate and the advanced classes.

    “I took special care looking at everything you have done, and I couldn’t be more proud,” said AUN President Dekle in her opening remarks. “You really do live out our virtues of excellence, integrity, and service.”

    The President said also that she would continue to work with the girls and to make the word “Chibok” become synonymous with positive virtues, with courage, integrity and knowledge. “This year, I want you to work with me and everyone in this room to make Chibok the latest word in the Oxford English Dictionary. Do you remember when I said we are going to make it something else besides a village? C-Character, H-Honesty, I-Intelligence, B-Bravery, O-Openness, and K-Kindness.”

    Ms. Maryam Uwais, Special Advisor to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser, Ms. Uwais noted that her invitation was an opportunity to really get to know how AUN is transforming the girls. “I am delighted to be here. Moreover, I am very inspired by what I have seen….This is just an awesome experience for me….This is really a worthwhile endeavor and I am very hopeful that this is just the beginning for all of you….You have come this far and you are going to go much farther because you all have some steel in you.”

    Ms. Uwais said through the empowerment that they receive at AUN the students would go on to do great things in life. She charged the young women to remain focused in their studies.

    “Even though what happened to you should not have happened to anybody, I am a firm believer in ‘everything-happens-for-a-purpose’… What has happened is that a vast opportunity has been created for you all here. I expect that you will take advantage of it and be true to yourself and your faith. And just reach out for the stars.”

    Assistant VP of Community Engagement Reginald Braggs, who coordinates NFS, told those assembled: “This is always the special evening for us. We highlight our students and all of the things that they have done in the last year academically, socially, and athletically.”

    Mr. Braggs noted that AUN, being a Development University, felt obligated to do something about the tragedy that had befallen the kidnapped girls. “…We offered these students the opportunity to turn tragedy into triumph.”

    NFS grouped the students on different scholastic levels–basic, intermediate, and advanced– starting with English Language, Mathematics, General Knowledge, and Spelling. “[Five] more courses were then added and it became an eight-subject program. They needed to get into a pipeline towards their dream,” Mr. Braggs said.

    Mr. Braggs said that the students also participated in a variety of social activities, “Because we really want them to have an overall general type of education, not only focused on academics but also on activities such as basketball, bike riding, art class, game night, movie night, karaoke night, spelling bee contest, and music class.”

    NFS Administrator, Jimoh Abubakar, said the program is transforming the young women. “The NFS is a highly organized group of intellectuals, saddled with the responsibility of teaching, nurturing, loving, mentoring, and perfecting the young ladies into a set of confident, academically sound, behaviorally upright, athletically fit, and active women capable of developing themselves and the society at large.”

    There was also an NFS Supporters’ Award for the various contributions made by US billionaire investor, Robert Smith, former AUN President and initiator of the program, Dr. Margee Ensign, and others. AUN Founder, HE Atiku Abubakar GCON, was acknowledged for his generosity and commitment to providing quality education to the Chibok girls as well as thousands of other vulnerable out-of-school boys and girls in the Northeast region.

  • ‘We were kidnapped accidentally by Boko Haram in 2014’ – Chibok girls

    ‘We were kidnapped accidentally by Boko Haram in 2014’ – Chibok girls

    The over 200 school girls abducted from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State by the Boko Haram insurgents in 2014 have said their abduction was the accidental outcome of a botched robbery.

    The Chibok girls made the surprise revelation in secret diaries they kept while held prisoner and a copy of which has been exclusively obtained by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    Recalling the night of their kidnapping in April 2014, Naomi Adamu described in the diaries how Boko Haram had not come to the school in Chibok to abduct the girls, but rather to steal machinery for house building.

    Unable to find what they were looking for, the militants were unsure what to do with the girls.

    “One boy said they should burn us all, and they (some of the other fighters) said, ‘No, let us take them with us to Sambisa (Boko Haram’s remote forest base) … if we take them to Shekau (the group’s leader), he will know what to do,’” Adamu wrote.

    She was one of about 220 girls who were stolen from their school in Chibok one night April 14, 2014 – a raid that sparked an international outcry and a viral campaign on social media with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.

    Championed by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and the U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama – along with a diverse cast of media celebrities – the campaign won international infamy for Boko Haram and helped galvanise the Nigerian government into negotiating for the girls’ release.

    Adamu was among 82 of the Chibok girls released by Boko Haram in May – part of a second wave after 21 of them were freed in October. They are being held in a secret location in Abuja for what the government has called a “restoration process.”

    A few others have escaped or been rescued, but about 113 of the girls are believed to be still held by the militant group.

    The authenticity of the diaries, written by Adamu and her friend, Sarah Samuel, cannot be verified, nor their intended role as the government negotiates with Boko Haram for more releases.

    The diaries shed light not only on the horrors the girls endured under Boko Haram, but their acts of resistance, and their staunch belief that they would one day go home.

    The girls said they started documenting their ordeal a few months after the abduction, when Boko Haram gave them exercise books to use during Koranic lessons.

    To hide the diaries from their captors, the girls would bury the notebooks in the ground, or carry them in their underwear.

    Three of the other Chibok girls also contributed to the undated chronicles, which were written mainly in passable English, with some parts scribbled in less coherent Hausa.

    “We wrote it together. When one person got tired, she would give it to another person to continue,” Adamu, 24, said from the state safe house in the capital, where the girls are being kept for assessment, rehabilitation and debriefing by the government.

    Life in the Sambisa involved regular beatings, Koranic lessons, domestic drudgery and pressure to marry and convert.

    The girls’ spirits remained intact, as they devised amusing and mocking nicknames for the fighters, the diaries show.

    Yet cruelty and brutality were ever present.

    When five girls tried to escape, the militants tied them up, dug a hole in the ground, and turned to one of their classmates.

    The jihadists handed her a blade and issued a chilling ultimatum: ‘cut off the girls’ heads, or lose your own’.

    “We are begging them. We are crying. They said if next we ran away, they are going to cut off our necks,” Adamu wrote.

    On another occasion, the militants gathered those girls who had refused to embrace Islam, brought out jerry cans and threatened to douse them in petrol then burn them alive.

    “They said, ‘You want to die. You don’t want to be Muslim,(so) we are going to burn you,” read the diary entry.

    As fear set in, the militants cracked into laughter – the cans contained nothing but water, the girls wrote.

    One of the most striking excerpts illustrates the pervasive fear spread by Boko Haram in the North-East, where the group has killed 20,000 people and uprooted at least two million in a brutal campaign that shows no signs of ending soon.

    During their captivity in the Sambisa Forest, some of the Chibok girls escaped, and ended up in a nearby shop where they asked the owners for help, as well as food and water.

    “The girls said, ‘We are those that Boko Haram kidnapped from (the school) in Chibok,’” Adamu wrote. “One of the people (in the shop) said: ‘Are these not Shekau’s children?’”

    The shop owners let the girls stay the night.

    But the next day they took them back to Boko Haram’s base, where the girls were whipped and threatened with decapitation.

    Despite being flushed with relief at her own freedom, Adamu worries about her closest friend and co-author, Samuel, who is still with the group, having married one of its militants.

    “She got married because of no food, no water,” Adamu said from the government safe house in Abuja.

    “Not everybody can survive that kind of thing,” she added. “I feel pained … so pained. I’m still thinking about her.”

  • Osinbajo meets BBOG Group, says ‘more Chibok girls will return soon’

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has assured members of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy that more or all of the abducted Chibok school girls will be rescued soon.

    The Acting President also informed the group that he had been meeting with security chiefs daily and making contacts with hostage negotiators across the world.

    Osinbajo, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, spoke yesterday in Abuja. He was addressing members of the #BBOG.

    He said the public was kept in the dark about the negotiations for security reasons.

    Said Ojudu: “I have been asked by the Acting President to welcome the group. The Acting President would have received the group personally but he had to receive the President of Ghana.

    “I’ve been asked to assure you of the suppprt of the government in your agitation for the return of all the girls that are still being held by terrorists in the Northeast.

    “On the issue of the police women being held and the girls, the Acting President has been meeting on a daily basis with the security chiefs, making contacts with negotiators across the world who have helped in the past to help in the negotiation for the release of others. We have not for any moment fogotten the girls who could be any of our children.

    “In the last two weeks, the acting President has helped coordinate the efforts at freeing the kidnapped boys in Lagos. He called on the deputy governors of Ondo and Delta states and security operatives to leave their jobs and go and search for the pupils and when they were rescued, he was the first person to be called.

    “He said that the fact that we are not coming out to say what is being done is strategic and for security reasons negotiations are going on, efforts are being made and intelligence being gathered. Very soon, more of the girls, if not all, will be brought back to their parents safely.”

    The leader of the #BBOG and former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili urged the Federal Government to send a delegation to the parents of the remaining Chibok girls to assure them that the Federal Government is not sleeping.

    She said: “We want our government to spare no effort in immediately securing the release of the remaining Chibok girls; we want all the 113 girls to be brought back.”