Thursday 14th, January 2016 marked the 600th days the Chibok girls were kidnapped from their School in preparation for WAEC.
There has been global outburst and protest in support of the BRING BACK OUR GIRLS campaign. From Michelle Obama at the White House to celebrities in US, France, London, Germany Brazil and other parts of the world, the slogan with hash tag #BringBackOurGirls has been a force and a united front that has kept pressures on the Federal government of Nigeria to expedite actions on the release of the Chibok Girls.
The organizers of the #BBOG group together with the parents of the missing girls met with President Muhammad Buhari in at the Presidential Villa.
This is an excerpt of President Buhari address to both parents and officials of the #BBOG group:
"Ladies and gentlemen";
“I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind. The unfortunate incident happened before this government came into being.“What have we done since we assumed office? We re-organized the military, removed all the service chiefs and ordered the succeeding service chiefs to deal decisively with the Boko Haram insurgency.“
In spite of the terrible economic condition we found ourselves in, we tried to get some resources to give to the military to reorganize and equip, retrain, deploy more troops and move more forcefully against Boko Haram.“
And you all know the progress we have made. When we came in Boko Haram was in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. Boko Haram has now been reduced to areas around Lake Chad.“
Securing the Chibok girls is my responsibility. The service chiefs and heads of our security agencies will tell you that in spite of the dire financial constraints that we found the country in, I continue to do my best to support their efforts in that regard.“
This is a Nigeria where we were exporting average of two million barrels per day at over 140 dollars per barrel. Now it is down to about 27 to 30 dollars.“You have been reading in the press how they took public funds, our funds, your funds and shared it, instead of buying weapons. That was the kind of leadership I succeeded. That was the kind of economy I inherited.
President Buhari who was accompanied to the meeting by the Minister of Defence, Mansur Mohammed Dan Ali, Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan, Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Gabriel Olonisakin, Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai and the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd) however stated he had tried his best to secure the release of the girls.“God knows I have done my best and I will continue to do my best,” President Buhari said.
After the meeting with the president, one of the leaders of the #BBOG, Hajiya Aisha Yesufu posted on her twitter handle how President Buhari addressed them as Ladies and gentlemen instead of Bring Back Our Girls Group.
Nigerians responded to her twits.
Below are screen shots of her twit and responses from Nigerians.
Kindly drop your comments on this issue here on this blog
Okanlawon Tijjani
@eupdateng
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