Nigerian Government
Nigeria defended its response to the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by the terror group Boko Haram, even as details emerged Tuesday about a second mass abduction, adding to a growing global outrage over the fate of the children.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been under fire over accusations the government initially ignored and then later downplayed the abduction of the girls, who have become the focal point of a social media campaign demanding their safe return.Doyin Okupe, a spokesman for Jonathan told CNN:
President Goodluck Jonathan has been under fire over accusations the government initially ignored and then later downplayed the abduction of the girls, who have become the focal point of a social media campaign demanding their safe return.Doyin Okupe, a spokesman for Jonathan told CNN:
"The President and the government (are) not taking this as easy as people all over the world think,"
"We've done a lot -- but we are not talking about it. We're not Americans. We're not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something."
In detailing the government's response, two special battalions have been devoted to the search for the missing girls, Okupe said. That includes 250 locations that have been searched by helicopters and airplanes.
But the father of two of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram told CNN there has been no sign of the military in the days and weeks following the abduction. He accused the government of "playing" with the parents of the missing girls, treating them as "fools."
But the father of two of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram told CNN there has been no sign of the military in the days and weeks following the abduction. He accused the government of "playing" with the parents of the missing girls, treating them as "fools."
"Had there been these military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them," said the father, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals by the government and the terror group. "...We have never seen any military man there."
Search Teams from other countries
The U.S. military said almost a dozen staff officers were in Nigeria and would form the core part of the U.S. team to aid in finding nearly 300 schoolgirls who were abducted last month in northern Nigeria.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the team is “sharply focused” on crisis and “moving as quickly as possible.” About 10 more members from AFRICOM will join the team within days.
The team will be based at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, and will help with communications, logistics and intelligence. Discussions about how to share information with the Nigerian government is ongoing.
Parents of the kidnapped girls said troops had arrived on Thursday in Chibok on a mission to find the girls.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the team is “sharply focused” on crisis and “moving as quickly as possible.” About 10 more members from AFRICOM will join the team within days.
The team will be based at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, and will help with communications, logistics and intelligence. Discussions about how to share information with the Nigerian government is ongoing.
Parents of the kidnapped girls said troops had arrived on Thursday in Chibok on a mission to find the girls.
First ladies shows support
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama showed her support for the kidnapped girls on social media, posting a picture of herself on Facebook and Twitter, along with a message saying her thoughts and prayers were with the girls and their families.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also lent her voice to the international outcry on Wednesday, expressing her outrage and calling for action. "It's criminal. It's an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible. First and foremost from the government of Nigeria” said Clinton. |
WEFA summitNigerian President Goodluck Jonathan speaks at the opening session at the World Economic Forum in Abuja, May 8, 2014.
“As a nation we are facing attack from terrorism,'' Jonathan told delegates. "I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terrorism in Nigeria.” Despite such pledges, Jonathan admitted on national television this week that he had no idea where the girls were.
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#Bring back our girls
#BringBackOurGirls started in Nigeria on April 23rd by desperate parents and activists who didn’t believe their president when he said he was taking action to recover the kidnapped girls. They wanted to put pressure on the government to do more. They tried everything they could think of to raise awareness of the kidnappings within and beyond Nigeria.
One of those things was #BringBackOurGirls. It worked, likely beyond anything they’d imagined or hoped for. Encapsulating both a story and a cause in just four words, the hashtag at first began to take hold on Twitter only within Nigeria. Activists wrote it on signs to bring to street protests. Then it began to spread within Africa. Over the next few days, #BringBackOurGirls went from 10,000 mentions a day to 100,000 or 200,000. It jumped oceans, and thousands of non-Africans began using it. As often happens, celebrities got involved, to dubious effect: Kim Kardashian, Christiane Amanpour, Chris Brown–with no apparent recognition of hypocrisy–and, mostly recently, Anne Hathaway. Two weeks after its first use, #BringBackOurGirls had gathered 2 million mentions. |
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In recent days, #BringBackOurGirls has verged into feeling like Twitter’s cause célèbre, something people participate in regardless of whether they know the larger context or the campaign’s aims. Critics have begun dismissing it as empty online activism that won’t, in the end, bring back the girls.
We can’t know if the hashtag will ultimately help deliver the girls back their parents. But #BringBackOurGirls has felt like one of the first Twitter causes that has a chance of actually changing outcomes, especially since former and current Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry got involved and Michelle Obama tweeted a photo of herself holding a sign with #BringBackOurGirls written on it in big block letters.
Ignore millions of regular people participating in a hashtag campaign? Sure.
Ignore Michelle Obama? Two Secretaries of State?
However trivial hashtags can feel, their most basic function is as a tool for focusing attention. Crucially, they’re also free and open to anyone to use. So desperate Nigerian parents, without extraordinary power or resources can draw the kind of attention that leads to real pressure and real power.
That feels a little bit world-changing. And activists who started the hashtag have gotten out of it exactly what they’d hoped for. In the space of a week, they made it impossible for President Jonathan to continue chalking up their daughters’ abduction as the latest Boko Haram atrocity to be grimly accepted and eventually forgotten.
It’s not everything, but it’s a start. And the world is now talking about 276 stolen girls in Nigeria when before it wasn’t talking about them at all.
References:
- Lamb, Cristina (11 May 2014) Find our girls and save their dreams The Times, (online version may need a subscription) Retrieved 12 May 2014
- Collins, Matt (9 May 2014) #BringBackOurGirls: the power of a social media campaign The Guardian, Retrieved 11 May 2014
- Over 200 girls are missing in Nigeria: please help find them, bring back our girls, Change.