‘Bring back our girls’

Earlier this week, London based Nigerians protested against the kidnapping of 276 young women in north eastern Nigeria by the Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. The protestors have vowed to continue demonstrating outside the Nigeria High Commission until all the young women are safely returned.

The bank holiday demonstration, staged in solidarity with protests in Nigeria, South Africa and the United States, aimed to put pressure on the Nigerian government and international community to take swift action to secure the girls’ release.

It has been three weeks since the young women were abducted by Boko Haram gun men while sitting their final year exams at a high school in the north eastern province of Chibok. Reports at the time said the 17 and 18 year olds had been taken to the terror group’s hideout in the Sambisa forest, but after botched rescue attempts by the Nigerian military, due to last minute tip offs, it is likely the girls have been moved. To date there has been no information about their whereabouts, what has happened to them, or when they will be returned.

Feelings are running high and Nigerian Londoners are outraged at what they perceive as the inertia and lack of political will of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, which has failed to hunt down and rescue the girls and bring their kidnappers to justice.

The protest which carries the slogan ‘bring back our girls’, #stolen dreams, attracted around 100 protesters of all ethnicities.

Young and old, women and men, students and professionals - all took part in solidarity with protests happening around the world and to vent their anger and frustration at the on-going insecurity in the country.

Oshunkoya Olalekan, a London university law student and president of Nigerian Students in the Diaspora, UK chapter , played a key role in organising the action. Explaining why it had been staged he said:

We think it’s important that we make noise and that we get the attention of the media and the public and foreign governments to understand that the silence of the Federal Government of Nigeria about the abduction of 234 girls in northern Nigeria is no longer acceptable and that the government has to do more and collaborate with international institutions as well to make sure these children are brought back safely to their parents.”

He added:

We know they’re doing something, but we need them to be more proactive. We want them to go the extra mile since the lives of these 234 children is something we cannot just ignore like that. It’s been more than three weeks since these children have been missing. “

Speculative reports suggest that the girls may have been trafficked across the borders into neighbouring countries. Cautiously Olalekan explained that he could not be certain about what has happened to them since nobody even knows where they are, but based on the accounts of the young women who had managed to escape, he had heard stories of repeated rape and human trafficking. He said:

What we know is that some of them have been raped up to five times daily, they’re being sold for less than £10 into Mali and other parts of the country. “

Many of the demonstrators believe that the government’s handling of the crisis is being influenced by the looming presidential elections which will take place in 2015. Another protestor, Adesua Olunuyiwa, said the Boko Haram problem in Nigeria is primarily one of security and believes that the government’s response to the crisis has become politicised and that there were in fact some politicians supporting the group. He said:

They need to take politics out of it. They are just thinking of the 2015 election and don’t want to intervene in case they lose votes.”

Meanwhile Tasik Karim, a retired pensioner with daughters and grandchildren of her own said she had felt so strongly about the issue of the kidnappings that she had decided to join the protest. She said:

I’m really upset by what has happened and for me to come out today as a pensioner, because I don’t usually come to things like this, is a reflection of how strongly I feel. I don’t see why the government isn’t doing more and that’s why I’m here today”.

Karim went on to say that the protest was an important way to raise awareness among the British public and that she had spoken to many ordinary passers-by who hadn’t heard anything about what was happening in Nigeria. And while Nigerian High Commission officials were probably enjoying a day off on the sunny bank holiday Monday, Karim said she was sure word would reach them that the protest had happened. She said:

Even if the Nigerian High Commission is closed today they still know we are here and whether they see us on a blog or on YouTube or somewhere, they will see how angry we in the diaspora are.”

Concluding she lamented:

I mean I have children and I have grandchildren – girls, and I just can’t imagine what those mothers are going through. What those fathers are going through. So that’s why I’m here.”

Chizom Ekeh
Former OBV intern reporting from the demonstration