The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement has once more expressed extreme
disappointment in President Muhammadu Buhari over his handling of the
Chibok girls issue.
BBOG in a statement issued during a special sit-out in Abuja on Friday,
8th July, insisted that the Buhari administration has not met any of its
demands, one year after they met with him to discuss the way forward.
The statement signed by Dr Oby Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu, painfully
recalled that “on 8th July 2015, the#BringBackOurGirls movement, parents
of our abducted #ChibokGirls and representatives of the Chibok community
had an engagement with the President as a matter of necessity to establish
facts, the urgency of their cause and dispel misconceptions about the
movement, especially considering the treatment it allegedly received from
the preceding administration”.
Pointblanknews.com recalls that part of the submissions to the President,
were proposed solutions to end terrorism, Verification, Authentication and
Reunification System (VARS).
In their words, BBOG said: “We proposed that a team be tasked with the
credible implementation of VARS. The primary task of the team was to work
with every abducted victim’s family and community to accurately ascertain
the true identity of such individuals.
“Following their accurate identification, the comprehensive program for
Recovery, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reintegration was to be made
available to them. It was also supposed to entail the setting up of a
Missing Persons’ Register.
“We requested that the President direct relevant Government
representatives to work with the BBOG Family to commence work immediately
on an Accountability Matrix, which will define the protocol for obtaining
and sharing information with citizens.
“We also suggested a monthly meeting between security operatives and
community stakeholders in communities most affected by these acts of
violence e.g. Chibok, Gwoza and Bama. We believed at that time that it
would encourage much needed collaboration and information sharing to
bridge the identified communication gap.
“We requested that the President direct the establishment of a Commission
charged with the task of transparently investigating and reporting on the
security lapses that caused their successful abduction and the operational
leadership failures that led to their long captivity in terrorist
enclave”, BBOG maintained.
Equally, the group at that moment demanded for a Commissison that would
review the allegations of corruption within the security services that has
hindered its capacity to perform effectively just as it requested that the
President direct that the Report of the Presidential Fact Finding
Committee of the Chibok Girls and the Presidential Committee on Security
Challenges in the North East be made public immediately.
Moreso, BBOG suggested that the Government begin, in earnest, a holistic
process of proper sensitization and enlightenment to curb this trend of
youth radicalization and extremism. The BBOG Family indicated willingness
to work with the Government to design the programme.
The rest of the statement reads: “We departed with the hope of re-engaging
the administration towards setting clear timelines and deliverables for
the five requests. A year later, it is extremely disappointing that none
of the five demands has been completed. Specifically, a failure to
implement VARS means we still do not have a cohesive system of identifying
liberated citizens or even a database of those affected.
“Thanks to an initial partnership between the#BringBackOurGirls movement
and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a coalition of Government
Agencies led by the NHRC has begun the initial processes towards the
establishment of a National Missing Persons’ Register. We acknowledge
this, but ask that the work is fast-tracked and completed for the benefit
of displaced Nigerians.
“A year after our engagement and close to six months since the President
directed the setting up of a committee to carry out investigation into the
abduction of our girls, we read of an approval of the members of the
committee. Again the lack of urgency in the dispatch of responsibilities
towards the rescue of our girls is alarming.
“At this rate, it begs the questions – when will the committee be
constituted? When will they be mobilized to start work? What time line
will they work with and the reports submitted? Under what timeline will
the government study and act on the report? What does this mean for our
Chibok Girls who do not have the luxury of time and whose plight worsens
with every passing hour, minute and second?
“The non-release of the Report of the Presidential Fact Finding Committee
of the Chibok Girls and the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges
in the North East is also unacceptable. We demand an immediate release of
these reports as their importance for lessons learned about the abductions
and insurgency in general cannot be overemphasized.
“We reiterate our position that sensitive areas with implications for
national security as repeatedly mentioned can be blotted out of the public
document. Global best practice supports this. These lessons learned while
providing information to the public will justify the need for expenditure
of public resources, provide metrics for scrutiny and acceptance of the
new report and factual evidence for the prosecution of all benefactors of
the diversion of funds for arms procurement”.