It is painful and unbelievable that we are approaching the one year mark since Boko Haram abducted our girls from their school in Chibok. Many more fellow Nigerians were abducted before and after. So many have lost their lives, and we have millions of IDPs and refugees. Despite the devastating circumstances, we remain steadfastly hopeful that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) would collaborate with the governments of Chad, Niger and Cameroon as well as other African states and international partners to rescue our abducted girls and fellow citizens and reunite them with their families.
The FGN has a huge responsibility: Besides ensuring that our girls and fellow citizens are rescued, IDPs must be given decent humanitarian assistance according to established best practices. Refugees must also be given thoroughgoing protection, decent conditions and humanitarian assistance according to established best practices. Communities that have been devastated must be rehabilitated. Our country also needs healing and an end to the atrocities fostered by Boko Haram.
Sadly, #BringBackOurGirls will commemorate one year of our girls' abduction on Tuesday, April 14. Nevertheless we stand firm in our hope for their rescue and and reunification with their families. We encourage the FGN to begin making plans for the best psychosocial support for our girls, their families and communities, so they can resume their education and lives.
After our #ChibokGirls were abducted on April 14, 2014. if anyone had told me that it would be a year after and only those who managed to escape would have been found thus far, I would have categorically disagreed. But here we are. Therefore, consciously, we should maintain the hope that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) will rescue our girls and reunite them with their families. We also expect that the government will give our girls and their families cutting edge psychosocial support according to best practices, as well as fast-track the rescue and reunification of all other abducted Nigerians with their families, with similar assistance.
Nigeria also has millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees who are scattered throughout neighboring West African countries, which have now also felt the heavy hand of Boko Haram in their territories. It is now clear that the governments of all these countries should have collectively mobilized a regional strategy to fight this scourge as soon as it raised its ugly head. They didn't. They waited for old colonizers to exhort them to do what they ought to realize is their primary job: ensuring the safety, welfare and security of their citizens. Now there is awareness that a regional strategy is required, but there is much squabbling. This must stop. There is no room for lack of concerted, united front against Boko Haram. While it is commendable that the governments of European states and the United States as well as those from other parts of the world have pledged commitment to help fight Boko Haram, the primary responsibility belongs with the West African states, followed by fellow African States. It is admirable that the African Union recognized this, and deployed a 7,500 strong Multinational Force, albeit later than one would have hoped.
I just read a New York Times account of the #Garissa massacre. It aptly describes the students mowed down by Al Shabaab as "The young hopes of Kenya." The connections between this horrible massacre and Boko Haram's rampage through Nigeria's Northeast are clear. A renegade band of misguided, power hungry, bloodthirsty insurgents want to impose their warped interpretations of Islam on the people in the areas where they are operating. Anyone who disagrees with them is labeled an infidel. Make no mistake, their misguided actions are as much against Muslims as they are against Christians.
I asked a friend who sees this as another case of Muslims attacking Christians to consider that there are indeed secular Muslims in this world, and just as in the case of many secular Christians who don't know the Bible, I'm sure there are Muslims who may not have passed the litmus test of reciting portions from the Koran, and were thus summarily executed. We should see the Boko Haram abduction of our girls, their rape and plunder of Nigeria's Northeastern states, their suicide bombings, sometimes using very young girls, not as some kind of Muslim attack on Christians but as strategic and callous use of Islam as a cover for crimes against humanity. The same goes for Al Shabaab. Many respected, knowledgeable and virtuous Nigerian Muslims have condemned Boko Haram. Al Shabaab has been similarly condemned. All people of goodwill regardless of religious affiliation should come together and fight these efforts to divide us and manipulate us into hating one another.
Please read our press release:
Here are a few suggestions on actions you can take:
Our commemorative events include the following:
I.. Commemoration in partnership with Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, on Monday, April 13 at 11am at Dag Hammarskjold Park, UN
NEW YORK—On April 13 at 11:00am Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), Ambassador of Surinam to the UN Henry MacDonald, Minister of Counter Terrorism of the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations Lawal Mohammed Hamidu, City Councilmember Ben Kallos (District 5), Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright (76AD), human rights leaders and activists, a group of High School students, members of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development, and the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy organization will gather at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the kidnapping of 276 girls from their school in Chibok, Nigeria by Boko Haram. Although some of the girls managed to escape captivity, 219 of them are still missing. Maloney will also announce that the Empire State building will be lit in purple and red on April 14th in recognition of the need to locate the girls and return them to their families.
Maloney and advocates will call for a vigorous international effort to find the girls, along with a full investigation to determine if some of the girls may have been among those murdered last month by fleeing Boko Haram soldiers.
As a gesture of solidarity with the Chibok Girls, the High School students in attendance will tie 219 ribbons around trees and railings. One ribbon for each of the girls still missing.
Attendees are asked to wear red (official color of #BringBackOurGirls) or purple (official color of Stop Violence Against Women).
II. On Tuesday, April 14th, #BringBackOurGirlsNYC commemoration in partnership with Working Group on Girls, Girls for Gender Equity, Auburn Seminary, Muslim Community Network, American Jewish World Service, Intersections International, Lab/Shul, Pathfinders Justice Initiative, Nomi Network, Interfaith Religious Leaders of African Ancestry Concerned About the Abducted Nigerian Girls, Mentari and Collegiate Church of New York, will do the following:
1. Interfaith Prayer Vigil at UN Church House (777 UN Plaza)
2. Silent Schoolgirl Candlelight March to Nigeria House (44th St & 2nd Avenue)
3. Rally at Nigeria House.
4. Optional procession to Empire State Building to see the lights.
Please join us for this vigil and march as we stand in solidarity with the #ChibokGirls and their families and remind the world that they have not been forgotten. Wear RED and bring your signs/placards, red tape and flameless candles.
#BringBackOurGirlsNYC chooses to maintain a hopeful stance as we commemorate this one year mark of our #ChibokGirls' abduction. We stand firm in the unwavering hope that our girls will be rescued and reunited with their families and we urge all people of goodwill worldwide to stand with us.
#NeverToBeForgotten
#BringBackOurGirls
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