In Nigeria and around the world, families are crying, people are tired, people are scared, fed up with government, politicians and Ogas (bosses) at the top. By now you might’ve heard about the story of the 200 plus girls that were abducted from a school in the Northern part of Nigeria. The fundamentalist group Boko Haram (meaning “Western education is forbidden” in Hausa language) has been blamed for abducting the girls from their school in Chibok, Borno state.
Boko Haram has been terrorising parts of Nigeria over the last few years. Last month there was a bomb blast at a bus stop in Abuja, killing 75 people. It’s estimated that 1,500 people have been killed by them this year alone.
A lot of blame is being directed at President Jonathan Goodluck and his security chiefs, as their initial silence over this matter has been deafening and there appears to be no real sense of urgency or importance on the matter. Where is the intelligence, where was the security? Apparently (this is not official) over the last few years, a guestimated 76bn Naira was allocated to CCTV budget in that area of Nigeria. Where is the evidence of this money being spent? Nigeria recently celebrated the fact that the nation had the highest GDP in Africa, which to me sounds like a comedian’s joke that got no laughs, no claps, just tumbleweed. Poverty is rife but the wealth of the wealthy is unbelievable. The sleeping giant of Africa is being watched by the world, I pray it wakes up.
This is truly a sad story that hasn’t really garnered the global media attention that say a Madeleine McCann story has. Maybe it’s easier to focus and report one girl missing because 234 isn’t computable in our brains. That’s over 200 parents going crazy with frustration and fear. Over 200 families crying for help. Fathers leaving crying mothers to search for their girls in the forest where they were taken to and returning with nothing. Rumours are flying about that the young women have now been sold to militants as brides. There’s not much we can do but hope and pray, but the least we can do is raise awareness and force change via social media, which is slowly beginning to happen. Marches are taken place across Nigeria in Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan. Below is a link to a petition I recently signed. Thanks for reading and sharing.
LONDON: Please join us outside the Nigerian Embassy to show our support for the girls and their families. 1pm Saturday. NigerianEmbassy, 9 Northumberland Ave, London WC2N 5BX
#bringbackourgirls Wear red if you can.
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Thanks!
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