The co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls group, Aisha Yesufu says she wondered how President Muhammadu Buhari became an army general following the wave of insecurity that envelopes the country.
Yesufu while speaking to The Punch in an interview said this Buhari’s regime is incompetent considering the level of insecurity in Nigeria.
Also narrating about the group’s struggle in the last five years, the co-convener said “the government listened more during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s era than the present administration. “Those that are in Buhari’s government are angry at us because they think that we are louder now than we were during Jonathan’s time,” she added
She also spoke extensively on Leah Sharibu, one of the abducted Dapchi school girls, who had spent 449 days had her second birthday in Boko Haram captivity.
Yesufu said, “We really should be ashamed of ourselves. It is the shame of a nation. How would our government ‘negotiate’ and then leave a girl behind? How did that happen? Is it because she refused to become a Muslim? Must she be a Muslim? Now she has spent her second year in captivity and I saw as some people congratulated her for holding on to her faith. She is not looking for their congratulations; she wants to be back home with her family.
“There are some people making comparison and I ask them if it is a good thing for them to compare.
“This government should be ashamed of itself that the same thing that happened in Chibok happened again in Dapchi.
“How come all the security people were taken out of Dapchi hours before the abduction? Who gave the order? How come that when the girls were taken through all the security stops, there was no one available to stop the vehicle taking hundreds of girls away? Sadly, Nigeria is not a country that asks questions.
“People say that when the Dapchi incident happened, the President quickly brought the girls back, is that an achievement? Is that the reason why they were taken? There are so many questions that need to be answered by this administration. One of the most heinous things that happened under this administration is that these terrorists were given access to bring back the girls.
“At that moment, the Nigerian government ceded power to the terrorists and you could see in the video that surfaced the way young men were cheering the terrorists. Teenagers are easily impressionable and you have no idea how many of them may have been recruited.
“When I think about the situation, it makes me feel ashamed of being a Nigerian. It is very saddening and heartbreaking that these girls were abducted and 112 of them are still in captivity.
“Despite the fact that they are in captivity there seems to be some sort of negligence on the part of the government towards the issue of the girls and the parents of the girls that are still in captivity, and that for me is absolutely not acceptable because what it says is the fact that as Nigerians, we are not important to our government and they do not care about us.
“It is sad that when things happen to some people, others feel it is not their business because the victims are not from their demography, region or ethnic group. They forget that it can happen to anybody and as far as the Chibok girls are in captivity, we all are in captivity.
“Over the past five years, we have seen as things have deteriorated in our country as far as insecurity is concerned.
She, however, insisted that the BBOG movement will not stop its clamor for the freedom of Leah Sharibu and other girls in Boko Haram captive and ensure they are all return back to their respective families.
“Our movement is making a noise so that our girls can be brought back and whoever is in power must listen. I tell people that government is a continuum and it does not change because someone else has taken over power; the Nigerian government is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
“The BBOG movement has been coming out every day for over five years. April 30, 2019 marked five years that we started coming out to demand from the government the whereabouts of our daughters. We always converge at the Unity Fountain, Abuja. We have been arrested, sprayed with teargas and we have been faced with so much more.
“People sit back in their corner and begin to make various insinuations instead of them to hide their heads in shame because young girls were abducted and they never came out to raise their voice, instead they would come out and say that BBOG is politically motivated so that they would feel good that they have said something.
“You cannot feel good if you do not have empathy. They would look for any point to bring down the movement instead of focusing on the issue. Whether BBOG is politically motivated or not, that should not be your issue, instead, ask if those girls are still in captivity.
“As long as these girls are in captivity, we will keep coming out every day to make demands about their whereabouts.
“Nigeria is a nation filled with hypocrites and I remember I once tweeted that if we could export hypocrisy, Nigeria would be a major exporter. We have different biases.”
