President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said Monday in Abuja that the notion
\nthat the Federal Government has not been doing enough to find and rescue
\nthe abducted Chibok girls, is very wrong and misplaced.<\/p>\n
Speaking at an audience with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Girl-Child
\nEducation Campaigner, President Jonathan said that the Federal Government
\nwas definitely doing everything possible to ensure that the girls were
\nrescued alive and safely returned to their parents.<\/p>\n
He however explained to Malala, who was accompanied by her father and
\nother members of her Foundation, that the Federal Government\u2019s efforts
\nwere constrained by the overriding imperative of ensuring that the girls\u2019
\nlives are not endangered in any rescue attempt.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerror is relatively new here and dealing with it has its challenges. The
\ngreat challenge in rescuing the Chibok girls is the need to ensure that
\nthey are rescued alive,\u201d President Jonathan said, stressing that the
\nFederal Government and its security agencies were very mindful of the need
\nto avoid the scenario in rescue attempts in other parts of the world where
\nlives of abductees were lost in the effort to rescue them.<\/p>\n
The President said that this challenge notwithstanding, the Federal
\nGovernment was very actively pursuing all feasible options to achieve the
\nsafe return of the abducted girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time it is taking to achieve that objective is not a question of the
\ncompetence of the Nigerian Government. We have had teams from the United
\nStates, Britain, France, Israel and other friendly nations working with us
\nhere on the rescue effort and they all appreciate the challenges and the
\nneed to thread carefully to achieve our purpose,” he said.<\/p>\n
The President told Malala who met yesterday with some parents of the
\nabducted girls that he fully empathized with their pain and anguish. He
\nsaid that he would meet with the parents himself before they left Abuja to
\npersonally comfort them and reassure them that the Federal Government was
\ndoing all within its powers to rescue their daughters.<\/p>\n
President Jonathan reiterated his Administration\u2019s commitment to ensuring
\nthe safe and proper education of all Nigerian children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally believe that since about 50 per cent of our population are
\nfemale, we will be depriving ourselves of half of our available human
\nresources if we fail to educate our girls adequately or suppress their
\nambitions in any way. We are therefore taking steps to curb all forms of
\ndiscrimination against girls and women, and have also undertaken many
\naffirmative actions on their behalf,\u201d President Jonathan said.<\/p>\n
The President said that the Federal Government was also proactively
\nevolving and implementing policies and measures that will benefit the
\nabducted Chibok girls when they are safely rescued, as well as others that
\nhave been adversely affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.<\/p>\n
These, President Jonathan said, included the establishment of a Victims\u2019
\nSupport Fund, the Safe Schools Initiative and the Presidential Initiative
\nfor the North East.<\/p>\n
He announced that he would inaugurate a National Committee to oversee
\nfundraising for the Victims\u2019 Support Fund, which will also cater for
\nfamilies of security men and women who have lost their lives in the war
\nagainst terrorism, on Wednesday, July 16, 2014.<\/p>\n
The President thanked Malala for coming to Nigeria to support ongoing
\nefforts to rescue the abducted Chibok girls and promote girl-child
\neducation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate your efforts to change the world positively through your
\npowerful advocacy for girl-child education,\u201d President Jonathan told her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said Monday in Abuja that the notion that the Federal Government has not been doing enough to find and rescue the abducted Chibok girls, is very…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n