Ezekwesili ‘mad’ at how Jonathan, Buhari treated Chibok parents

Obiageli Ezekwesili, former minister of education and co-convener of BBOG, has expressed rage over the failure of current and preceding federal government in rescuing the Chibok girls after more than two years in captivity.

Reacting to Boko Haram’s new video, which featured some of the Chibok girls, Ezekwesili said the government is in a position to have sufficient information to carry out a rescue operation.

Speaking on Channels Television, Ezekwesili noted that every “event that proves that our girls are alive is a renewal of hope”.

She stressed that “there’s this sense of angst that 2 years and four months after, all we ever get to see are this undulating waves of commitment to rescuing them, which then ends as soon as the news concerning them goes off the screen. That is not acceptable.”

The former World Bank vice-president also alleged that Amina Nkeki, a rescued Chibok girl, gave enough information to the federal government regarding her captivity and that of her peers.

“On the 14th of April, there was a proof of life video from CNN. We said to the FG that the video is the closest to credible intelligence that could be used but nothing came out of it. On the 18th of May, we saw the retrieval of Amina Ali Nkeki, and we are aware that she provided a lot of information to the FG but all that followed was inertia,” she said.

“I read the statement that was released by the FG and I wonder how a government could release that kind of statement, after seeing these girls in that video. I can’t believe that two years and four months after young women who went to school were taken away, we are still navel-gazing. This is not Nigeria.

“The government, as we have consistently said, is the institution with the best set of information to be able to make credible decisions. The fact is that when you want to assess action, you have to look at derivative activities that may conceptualize the level of engagement.

“The previous government prevaricated on the matter of our girls… were so tentative that the matter festered and these girls were left to be tormented by savages.”

She further lamented that “inter-agency squabbling” had been preventing the existence of a clear approach in rescuing the abducted girls.

While urging the government to make a decision on how to go about the rescue, she enjoined the authorities not to make their abduction “less than a priority” simply because their parents are not among the nation’s elites.

“I think the government needs to be coherent in its response to these girls. There is an interagency squabbling that must be going on as to what direction to follow in respect to the rescue of Chibok girls.

“At the end of the day, people say ‘we are committed’. We don’t doubt the expression of commitmment but the real commitment shows up in the sustained focus oriented approach that also takes into consideration that Chibok parents are dignified Nigerians.

“Being poor should not rob you of your dignity. The way these parents have been treated by two successive governments really makes me mad. It should not be so in a country like Nigeria.

“Most of us came from poverty. The fact that the Chibok parents do not have the wherewithal to become political elites should not lead to their children being less than a priority.

“The government has to make a decision. We can’t have 218 young women still missing for two years and occasionally their news will jolt all of us into saying something and then we all go back to our lives.”