By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief & Laide Akinboade
The comment of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Audu Ogbe, that the Bring Back Our girls, #BBOG# campaign was being led by members of the main opposition party reverberated yesterday, with the Convener of the BBOG, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman admitting that she was a member of the APC.
#BBOG campaigners have been heavily criticized by the ruling people’s Democratic Party, PDP chieftains of working for the opposition party. An allegation the campaigners strongly denied.
The campaign came into being following the kidnap of no fewer than 219 students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State by members of the Boko Haram insurgency group more than six months ago.
Hadiza Bala Usman speaking during a campaign
She said on Twitter: “I take very strong exception to what is being credited to Mr. Audu Ogbe of APC. Another tragic low in making #ChibokGirls political pawns.
“I am neither covertly or overtly a member of the APC, PDP or any other party. It is false and wrong to say @BBOG Nigeria is led by members of APC.
“If Mr. Ogbe is being correctly quoted, he can only be referring to those of their members who are part of @BBOG Nigeria. Never has there been any speck of political party consideration in anything that the strategic team of the group that I chair does”.
Ostensibly to put the records straight, the BBOG Convener, issued a statement in Abuja, admitting her membership of the APC but said that fact had nothing to do with the validity of the struggle to return the girls back to their parents.
I’m APC member – Hadiza
Below is Hadiza’s full statement, “I have watched, with keen interest, recent attempts by some principal officers of the Federal Government of Nigeria to discredit me and the #BringBackOurGirls group. This is not new. It has been the case since we commenced our citizens-driven advocacy movement, which explains why my initial reaction was to ignore the chatter and concentrate on the noble work of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. Unfortunately, my humble silence is being taken as license to further dissuade and divide the populace by spreading inaccurate information, through advertorials, thereby tagging the #BringBackOurGirls group as an affiliate of the APC.
“I, Hadiza Bala Usman, the Convener/Initiator of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, is a member of the APC, and there has been no time I have hidden this fact or tried to mask it. But let’s be clear, when I worked to mobilize women, men, and Nigerians at large to come out on April 30th to protest that the Government should intensify efforts to #BringBackOurGirls, I did so not as an APC member, but first as a HUMAN BEING, as a WOMAN, a MOTHER, a NIGERIAN and an AFRICAN. It was never about politics and/or my political affiliations; it was rather about our shared humanity as human beings. As a mother, I have experienced the trauma of not knowing where my child is for few minutes; does it then surprise many why I would be moved to act on behalf of mothers who are yet to see their daughters for 2 weeks (at the first instance) and now over 189 days after?
“I came out as a concerned citizen of Nigeria, one that is very interested in the unity, growth, and development of this nation; one that knows the important role an educated girl-child would play in contributing to the success we all anticipate for our dear country. That these girls dared education in the face of terrorism, intimidation, insecurity, and other life-threatening circumstances, is a rare display of courage, doggedness, and hope. This is why I, alongside other #BringBackOurGirls campaigners, daily advocate to make sure these girls are not forgotten, but that they come home to contribute their quota to national development.
“This moment therefore offers for us a unique chance to stand united as a nation, whether you are in PDP, APGA, APC, or any political party; Christian or Muslim; from the North or the South. The issue of the abducted Chibok girls is an opportunity to UNITE and not DIVIDE – to unite against insurgency, terrorism, and every common enemy that seeks to divide us as a people. We must unite to ensure that every girl and boy in Nigeria has equal access to education. We must unite to change the narrative that no matter one’s tribe, gender, religion, social strata, interests, and political affiliations, we can all come together as one to transform our beloved nation for the best.
“I, Hadiza Bala Usman, choose to tow the path of UNITY. I will not be intimidated by anyone, and I will continue to stand for the Chibok girls regardless of my tribe, religion and political affiliation”.
Hadiza’s admission co-incided with a letter of apology by Chief Ogbe in which he told the BBOG that he did not intend to make them uncomfortable, but rather was out to show solidarity with their good works and insisted that the demand of the group must be acceded to by the federal government by taking every necessary step to bring back the girls.
In a separate statement, in Abuja, yesterday, Chief Ogbe lamented that the greatest tragedy of the Chibok girls abduction was that the federal government was in denial and did nothing after it became too late to immediately rescue the innocent students.
His words, “the tragedy of the Nigerian situation with regards to these Chibok girls is that from the very beginning, Government and some leading members of the POP were in complete denial.
“Sarcastic comments were even attributed to a woman leader of the ruling party. In one part of this country, a group of governors at their gathering, in unmistakable mockery and callous indifference, said that if girls were missing, their names should be sent to them so they could help find them.
“Since then, nothing concrete has been offered the Nigerian public by way of regular briefings about what the government is doing about these girls. It would seem therefore that the matter should be treated as another football match lost which should be forgotten. It took a 17 year old Pakistani girl called Malala within the age bracket of these girls to come to Nigeria to wake up our conscience.
“But for the BBOG, Nigeria would have portrayed herself to the world as a strange society that cares nothing for human -life, especially those of the children. While the rest of the world from Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific rose up in shocked reaction to this tragedy, we at home here have succumbed to petty politics and ethnic chauvinism”.
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