Chibok Girls: Obiageli Ezekwesili Says New B/Haram Video Raises Fresh Hopes Pt 1

 

Speaking exclusively on Channels Television, former minister of education and co-convener of Big Back Our Girl, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has expressed rage over the failure of current and preceding federal government in rescuing the Chibok girls after more than two years in captivity.

 

While reacting to Boko Haram’s new video, which featured some of the Chibok girls, the former minister said the government is in a position to have sufficient information to carry out a rescue operation, adding that every “event that proves that our girls are alive is a renewal of hope”.

 

Ezekwesili stressed that “there’s this sense of angst that 2 years and four months after, all we ever get to see are this undulating waves of commitment to rescuing them, which then ends as soon as the news concerning them goes off the screen. That is not acceptable.”

 

The former World Bank vice-president also alleged that Amina Nkeki, a rescued Chibok girl, gave enough information to the federal government regarding her captivity and that of her peers.

 

“On the 14th of April, there was a proof of life video from CNN. We said to the FG that the video is the closest to credible intelligence that could be used but nothing came out of it. On the 18th of May, we saw the retrieval of Amina Ali Nkeki, and we are aware that she provided a lot of information to the FG but all that followed was inertia.

“I read the statement that was released by the FG and I wonder how a government could release that kind of statement, after seeing these girls in that video. I can’t believe that two years and four months after young women who went to school were taken away, we are still navel-gazing. This is not Nigeria.

“The government, as we have consistently said, is the institution with the best set of information to be able to make credible decisions. The fact is that when you want to assess action, you have to look at derivative activities that may conceptualize the level of engagement.

“The previous government prevaricated on the matter of our girls… were so tentative that the matter festered and these girls were left to be tormented by savages,” she said.

 

She further lamented that “inter-agency squabbling” had been preventing the existence of a clear approach in rescuing the abducted girls.

 

While urging the government to make a decision on how to go about the rescue, she enjoined the authorities not to make their abduction “less than a priority” simply because their parents are not among the nation’s elites.

 

Watch the video interview below;