AS the nation reminisce over the missing Chibok girls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents in 2014, the BringBackOurGirls campaigners on Sunday said the Federal Government has failed to uphold right to life of the abducted children.
The group in a statement titled, ‘The Shame of a Nation’ issued in Abuja, criticised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari for failing in his promise to secure the release of the missing Chibok girls.
According to the movement, repeated administrations of former President Goodluck Jonathan and the current government had failed parents of the abducted girls as well as the children in captive.
“Today, five years after, President Muhammadu Buhari administration has persisted in denying #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,” says the BBOG group in the joint statement signed on its behalf by Florence Ozor, Gapani Yanga and Nifemi Onifade.
“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,”
Describing the actions of the federal government as shameful, it stated that the, “leadership has failed the citizens, who have every right to the constitutional duties of government to guarantee their safety and security.”
From 276 Chibok school girls taken by the Boko Haram insurgents, the federal government was able to rescue 107 at different intervals while 57 of the girls reportedly escaped shortly after their abduction.
However, the delay in rescuing the remaining 112 missing school girls has become a thing of great concern to the parents, BBOG campaigners and the Chibok community.
The group further criticised the current administration for its inefficiency and lack of sincerity, despite the campaign promise made while in the opposition, to dignify the children and their parents by taking speedy actions for their rescue.
“For these parents, they feel that our country has 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.”
For the past five years of its advocacy on the girls and other abducted citizens, it strived to produce 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) .
All these, the group stated was to affirm its promise never to stop demanding justice for the Chibokgirls, Leah Sharibu, Alice and other abducted citizens of the country until they are all brought back.
The statement reads further, “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 failure to give them justice.”
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at [email protected]. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin