Why has the world forgotten about Nigeria’s missing girls?

Obiageli (Oby) Ezekwesili is a former vice-president of the World Bank, a co-founder of Transparency International and co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign Do you remember those 219 school girls of rural Chibok community in Northern Nigeria who were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists exactly two years ago, on April 14, 2014? Well, they are still not back. Not even one of them has been rescued since we all cried out for help. You may have occasionally read of the rescue of hundreds of women from former enclaves of terrorists in Nigeria, but they were not the #ChibokGirls. These were other girls and women who we were never told had been missing, and who may never have been rescued if not for the pressure mounted for the rescue of Chibok schoolgirls. It was ironic that children who were violently separated from their families ultimately helped create a massive global family on social media that demanded justice. Strangers across neighbourhoods, cities and countries suddenly became part of a large global community that called the missing school children “OUR girls.” It was not hyperbole: Most of them saw in the hastag #ChibokGirls images of their own daughters, sisters, cousins or friends. Such resonance is what moved many around the world to convey that they cared. Sadly, neither the government of Nigeria nor the rest of the world that loudly helped echo the agonizing chant, #BringBackOurGirls, has done what it called for in the spring of 2014. Two years ago, #BringBackOurGirls resounded through valleys and across seas to homes, offices, cities and nations as our world joined together to demand their rescue. Citizens and political leaders were riveted by the tragic story of young women who were kidnapped from their school compound just before writing their final high school exams. Some would by now be in their second year of university, technical or entrepreneurship education that would improve the opportunities for their extremely poor families. After all, education remains the best tool for increasing social and economic mobility for individuals and societies, an idea that has flourished since the age of Adam Smith. For the girls and people of Chibok, however, that dream has so far been cut short. Beyond the advocacy, getting the girls out of the grips of terrorists requires prioritized, sophisticated and sustained rescue operations of the kind that only governments can provide. And that is where we failed them, because despite that flurry of chants and protests, the reality is that the arduous work of actually locating and rescuing the girls has failed. How can a world which spends a substantial amount of money promoting childhood education for girls not be concerned about the signal that’s sent by this failure to rescue these models of courageous pursuit of knowledge? How can we all simply move on from this unresolved tragedy? Do we not see the contradiction and moral crisis that it creates for children when leaders with the duty to help are not persistent in focusing on issues that matter to the younger generation? How can we continue to ask more girls in Northern Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria or Afghanistan to go to school despite the odds of an attack on their lives by forces of ignorance? The previous government of Nigeria mismanaged the rescue plan for the schoolgirls from the start. Political considerations blinded it to the fact that the primary responsibility of any government is to secure the safety of its citizens. In the early days after the abduction, it chose to ignore, deny, doubt and be cynical about the abduction. Weeks after the abduction, it was finally compelled to act by the strident, universal echoes of #BringBackOurGirls. Even then, its response was extremely slow and tentative. Realizing the challenge ahead, countries with good anti-terrorism capabilities such as Canada, United States, Britain and France offered help and sent military, security and intelligence teams to help locate and rescue the girls. But the Nigerian government and its military were visibly unco-operative hosts at that time. In hindsight, I suppose we shouldn’t have been so surprised, since a senior minister in a Western government later stated that “dealing with your government on the rescue of the girls was the single most frustrating, unsatisfactory and disappointing thing I have ever done in my life.” However, our hopes were raised last May when the government that had failed our girls was voted out of office. Two months after President Muhammadu Buhari took office, the girls’ parents left a meeting with him brimming with optimism. The president convincingly assured them that he would rescue their daughters. They felt comforted by his words, which were more about actions that his government would take than on the failures of the previous one. But on Dec. 29, Mr. Buhari announced that the government “lacks credible intelligence on the whereabouts of the girls.” For parents, the community and their sympathizers, those words were a terrible blow to the absolute confidence and great expectation that they had placed on the assurances given by the president barely seven months before. Despite this terrible setback, the parents and our movement pressed on, remembering that ChibokGirls do not only belong to Nigeria. OUR girls are global citizens. Even if their government fails them, the world ought not to do the same. There is no way, we can accept the excuse of “lack of credible intelligence” in a profoundly integrated world that recognizes the victory of terrorists in one region as a potential victory in several others. The intelligence assets of the world must now be reactivated for our ChibokGirls. Our ChibokGirls chose knowledge, believing in the benefits that learning promised for them and their families. They must not be abandoned by a world that seems to have quickly moved on after raising a sign of sympathy and hope for them. It would be a terrible way to encourage the tens of millions of other girls who we must get into schools all over the world in order to maximize the productivity of the world’s population through gender equality. Those brave 219 girls are models in courage who ignored the dangers of going to school in a terrorist-occupied region. How could such bravery not stir and sustain a stronger depth of commitment by all the powerful leaders and countries of the world with both the power and capacity to gather intelligence and secure their rescue? Our belief that ChibokGirls can still be rescued is anchored on unfailing hope. We cannot allow them to continue to be in captivity. We must now do everything it takes to secure their freedom and bring them home. That responsibility to act belongs to our country, Nigeria, but also to countries such as Canada, the U.S., Britain and France which once showed up to help rescue our girls. It is time to return, and to bring back our girls. Our girls are our collective future.

We Spend U.S.$1.8 Billion to Import Fuel Every Quarter - NNPC

Abuja — Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation, NNPC, has revealed that an average of $1.8 billion is spent on quarterly basis on the importation of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as fuel, into the country. This was as the corporation also apologized to Nigerians for the lingering scarcity of the product across the country. In a joint briefing at the presidential villa, Abuja, yesterday, four officials of NNPC in the persons of the Group General Managing, GGM, Public Affairs, Mr. Garba Deen Mohammed, and the Group Executive Directors, GED, Mr Bello Rabiu, (Upstream) Henry Obih (Downstream) and Anibor Kragha (Refineries), assured that long queues at the gas stations would disappear in days. Speaking through Rabiu, amid intermittent contributions from them, the GEDs said that already, several trucks loaded with fuel had been dispatched to Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. Fuel now available in Abuja According to him, Abuja is now wet with fuel and other areas will soon receive supplies. He said: "The objective is to brief you on the current situation of the petroleum products scarcity and queues all over the country. Let us start by tendering our apology and telling the people that we are really doing the right thing. "We have been working very hard. It is supply issues that have been causing this problem but we are doing everything possible to end it. What we are doing now is to ensure that we get necessary supplies into the country through imports as well as through our refineries. "As we speak today, we have 5 vessels serving products all over the country. And not only in Lagos, but also Port Harcout, Warri and Calabar. Apart from these vessels discharging, we also have private sector people that imported over 120 million and are discharging currently. In moving the product out into the hinterlands, we have a little option because most of the pipelines are still not working. "Because pipelines are not working, we are relying on about 100 percent trucking to the hinterlands. The plan is that going forward, from today, we will ensure that we give what is more than required in this country. The total requirement for the whole country is about 1300 trucks. But our plan is to make at least 1500 trucks available everyday. We want to make sure that we sustain the market in a very short time. You can see that Lagos is almost cleared. Abuja is getting better. Other places will follow. Apology to Nigerians "On behalf of the Minister, who is also NNPC GMD, we are very sorry for what has happened. And we are working very hard to ensure that this does not happen again. We are doing everything possible to have storage that will not allow us to experience this again. Once our depots are wet, it will not take anybody more than 4 hours to take the products from NNPC to any part of the country. "We are trying to ensure sustainable import, making sure that the refineries work and the pipelines also works. That will reduce all these incidences. Once we achieve that, queues will become things of the past in the country." By Levinus Nwabughiogu

Low key Chibok coverage in Nigeria

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/704/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2016/4/14/52d3e1c3-2752-4b9f-9f7f-ecea08e32438.jpg The two-year anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls has not been given prominence on the front pages of the country's newspaper websites this morning. Comments in the Nigerian media have carried much scepticism about the whether they will ever be found. An editorial in the Vanguard newspaper reads: "Two years on, and with the military on the verge of winning the war on terror, hope appears to have dimmed for the rescue of the girls." A commentary in the same daily paper says there are doubts about the prospects of finding them: “Stakeholders in education sector are asking if the Chibok girls will ever return to their parents.“ The Guardian newspaper criticises those who may be taking advantage of the situation. It says while some of the girls may have been married off or perhaps “drugged and used as suicide bombers against their will, some Nigerians with a mercantile streak have found voice in advocacy to make money from international donors by shouting for their release but never for the sake of those poor girls. “While they hurt, we conduct our lives as normal but we cannot wish them away however hard we try." Analysis: Chibok girls video will give hope to parents This new footage which appears to show some of the kidnapped Chibok girls is reportedly a proof of life video filmed last December, which was provided to negotiators seeking the girls' release. Nigerian officials say they are studying the footage but believe it is genuine. The video will provide renewed hope to the girls' families that some of their daughters are still alive. The last footage to emerge of the girls was a month after their kidnapping. The mass abduction two years by Boko Haram militants ago sparked worldwide condemnation. But despite international assistance not one of the girls has been rescued. Their parents are furious, blaming the previous government for doing nothing when the kidnapping took place and now the current administration for failing to devote enough resources to the search. But in the last year, the Nigerian army has made progress in its fight against the militants. It has retaken towns and villages controlled by Boko Haram. And it has also freed hundreds of women and children held captive by the insurgents.

Video showing kidnapped Chibok girls raises hopes they are alive

Johannesburg (dpa) - A video allegedly sent by Boko Haram to Nigerian negotiators shows some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped from a school in Chibok in the north-east of the country two years ago, CNN reported Thursday. Released by CNN on the second anniversary of the kidnapping, the video shows 15 girls dressed in black robes, giving their names and saying they come from the school in Chibok. One of the girls says all the Chibok girls are well and appeals to the Nigerian authorities to help reunite them with their families. The video is believed to have been made in December as part of negotiations between the government and the Islamist group, CNN reported. It was released by someone keen to give the girls' parents hope that their daughters are still alive, and to motivate the government to help release them, the broadcaster said. The parents recognized some of the girls as their daughters in the video. But there were some doubts about how old the video really was, as the girls appeared to have changed little in two years, Information Minister Lai Mohammed told CNN. Hundreds of campaigners asking the government to find the girls were due to stage a march in the capital Abuja to mark the anniversary on Thursday.

Nigeria: Buhari Pledges to Honour Agreements Jonathan Administration Signed With China

Abuja — President Muhammadu Buhari pledged on Wednesday in Beijing, China, to honour all agreements concluded between Nigeria and China under previous administrations to ensure the speedy completion of outstanding joint projects, including the 4,000 megawatts Mambilla Hydro-Electric Power Project. A statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said Buhari made the pledge at a meeting with Mr Li Keqiang, the Premier of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China. Shehu said Buhari regretted the failure of past governments to meet Nigeria's obligations in joint projects with China. According to him, the president told the Chinese Premier that his administration was committed to the completion, in the shortest possible time, of all joint power, rail, road and aviation projects that would directly and quickly improve the lives of Nigerians. Buhari said that he was particularly keen on actualizing the Mambilla Power Project because of its huge potential to boost employment and national economic growth. The Chinese Premier commended ongoing efforts by the Buhari Administration to improve Nigeria's infrastructure.

Nigeria: Buhari Pledges to Honour Agreements Jonathan Administration Signed With China

Abuja — President Muhammadu Buhari pledged on Wednesday in Beijing, China, to honour all agreements concluded between Nigeria and China under previous administrations to ensure the speedy completion of outstanding joint projects, including the 4,000 megawatts Mambilla Hydro-Electric Power Project. A statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said Buhari made the pledge at a meeting with Mr Li Keqiang, the Premier of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China. Shehu said Buhari regretted the failure of past governments to meet Nigeria's obligations in joint projects with China. According to him, the president told the Chinese Premier that his administration was committed to the completion, in the shortest possible time, of all joint power, rail, road and aviation projects that would directly and quickly improve the lives of Nigerians. Buhari said that he was particularly keen on actualizing the Mambilla Power Project because of its huge potential to boost employment and national economic growth. The Chinese Premier commended ongoing efforts by the Buhari Administration to improve Nigeria's infrastructure.

Nigeria: Don't Blame Buhari for Jonathan's 'Errors' - Nkire

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Sam Nkire, has condemned those who blame President Muhammadu Buhari for the current hardship in the country, saying that former president Goodluck Jonathan should, instead, take the right blames for leading Nigeria to its present bad state. Nkire was reacting to the comments made by some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling on Buhari to face governance and stop blaming the PDP. He said Nigerians, including Buhari, could not forget in a hurry, the economic atrocities the PDP committed against the nation during its 16-year rule. The APC chieftain said it was his view that the president was not even telling the world the extent to which the PDP plundered Nigeria's economy. He said although the APC was in government to right the wrongs of the last administration, "it is difficult for anyone to see a scar without remembering the wound." He said the reason why PDP members were able to find their voices so soon after being voted out of office for corruption and mismanagement was due to the fact that Buhari was a man of few words.

Abduction of six Turkish seamen emphasises rising kidnap and ransom risk by Nigerian pirates in Gulf of Guinea

EVENT Owners of the chemical tanker MT Puli have confirmed that six Turkish seamen, including the captain, chief officer and chief engineer, were kidnapped by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea in the early hours of 11 April. The vessel was sailing from Gabon to Côte d'Ivoire when it was boarded around 90 nautical miles off Nigeria's oil capital, Port Harcourt. The incident is the sixth successful kidnapping recorded by IHS in the Gulf of Guinea since the start of 2016, involving 22 crew members in total. This does not include the unspecified number of crew aboard the chemical tanker MT Maximus , hijacked off Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, on 11 February, and successfully stormed by Nigerian naval special forces in Nigerian waters nine days later, freeing the crew.

Had I Known!!! Obama Regrets Killing Gaddafi, Confesses It Was’ Worst Mistake Of My Administration’

US President Barack Obama has said failing to prepare for the aftermath of the ousting of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi was the worst mistake of his presidency. Mr Obama was answering a series of questions on the highs and lows of his time in office on Fox News. He said, however, that intervening in Libya had been “the right thing to do”. The US and other countries carried out strikes designed to protect civilians during the 2011 uprising. But after the former Libyan president was killed, Libya plunged into chaos with militias taking over and two rival parliaments and governments forming. So-called Islamic State (IS) gained a foothold, and Libya became a major departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe. A UN-backed national unity government arrived in the capital Tripoli earlier this month but is waiting to take charge. Sandy Hook ‘worst day’ It is not the first time President Obama has expressed regret over Libya. He told the Atlantic magazine last month the operation went as well as he had hoped, but Libya was now “a mess”. In that interview, he also criticised France and the UK, in particular saying British Prime Minister David Cameron became “distracted” after the intervention. President Obama told Fox that his biggest accomplishment in office was “saving the economy from the great depression”. He said the best day of his presidency was when he passed the healthcare reforms. The worst, he said, was responding to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school. Mr Obama discussed his legacy in a BBC interview last year, saying his failure to pass tighter gun control laws was the biggest frustration of his presidency. This is sadden news...