(Abuja April 15, 2020) The Citizens Against Fake Activists(CAFA) has urged one of the conveners of the BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group, Oby Ezekwesili, and other leaders of the group to accept responsibility for the continued languishing in captivity of the Chibok School Girls six years after they were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists. Ezekwesili and her people must stop teaching Boko Haram to see the Girls as high-profile targets.
CAFA has noted that Ezekwesili is now attempting to re-write history by projecting herself as a heroine in the story of the girls’ ordeal when in reality her greed and that of her colleagues elevated the abducted girls into celebrity status, which gave the terrorists the incentives to keep holding onto them because they suddenly realized that they have willing partners in BBOG to organize propaganda and publicity for them.
It should be noted that while the circumvention of anyone’s freedom is unacceptable at any point in time, the Chibok Girls were taken at a time when the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was in power. She and her co-travelers would have done well not to have delayed their activism until another government stepped in by using the concept of fight to the finish. What they rather did was to run a tepid campaign that was used to extort the government in power at the time.
We find it most unfortunate that Ezekwesili took her insensitivity to a new nauseating level by attempting her latest stunt of fake activism by trying to resume exploiting the Chibok Girls for making money from donor agencies. It is scandalous that Ezekwesili is insensitive enough to be reviving her fledging business at a time that Nigeria, like other countries of the world, are battling the killer COVID-19 pandemic.
It is on record that Ezekwesili had made several desperate attempts, including trolling the Federal Government of Nigeria and President Muhammadu Buhari, in order to gain attention and relevance at a time the world’s attention is focused on COVID-19. Her intention, as usual, is to position herself to be noticed with possibility of being given an assignment that will again place public funds within her reach.
The Federal Government did well by ignoring her because caving into her blackmail will open the floodgates for her other associates staging other blackmail attempts. The persistent with which she and others have attacked the government, with the reviving of the Chibok Girls matter being the latest, is meant to wear the government down and force the incumbent administration into a situation where it will have to start paying grants to Ezekwesili and her likes.
Going by her antecedents, what Ezekwesili is trying to do is to again mislead Nigerians to ignore the fact that the rescue and release of every person in the hands of fleeing elements of Boko Haram terrorists is a must for the military and the Federal Government. By raising this matter, she has reactivated her endangerment of the Girls by reminding the terrorists that they are high profile for the country.
CAFA hereby categorically warns Ezekwesili that Nigerians will not tolerate the inglorious activities of crisis merchants and fake activists at this period that efforts are on to protect the country from being overrun by COVID-19. The current focus on preventing the spread of the virus must not be derailed irrespective of whether fake activists are hungry or not. If they are sorely in need of feed money, they should register with the vulnerable population so that they can receive COVID-19 palliatives.
It is on this note that we call on Oby Ezekwesili and her pose of unprincipled associates to forthwith suspend their paid activism and gangsterism to allow the world defeat COVID-19 and the military clean out Boko Haram while freeing their captives.
Comrade Ibrahim Kabiru Dallah
Director of Communication and Publicity