Soldiers from the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army stand outside the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in Borno State north-eastern Nigeria on March 25, 2016. There’s not much left of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram kidnapped 276 teenagers in the dead of night nearly two years ago. Even the word ‘girls’ on the school sign outside has been painted over in black — hidden from the world, just like the 219 students who are still missing. / AFP / STEFANRescuing the Chibok girls is “uppermost in the mind of President Muhammadu Buhari”, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said on Tuesday, cautioning against cynicism and hopelessness, two years after the girls were abducted by Boko Haram.
Mr. Osinbajo said the recovery of the Chibok girls dominates every security meeting, adding that President Buhari as a parent shares in their trauma.
Close to 300 schoolgirls were abducted on 14 April 2014 in Borno State as they slept in their school dormitories preparing for exams. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, and current leader Muhammadu Buhari, both promised to rescue them, but two years after, the schoolgirls remain in captivity, firmly in the hands of Abubakar Shekau’s men, ruthless terrorists who had vowed to sell them off or turn them into sex slaves.
“At any security council meeting that I have attended, the President in particular has always been concerned about the question of Chibok girls in particular. Of course it comes out of ensuring that apart from the international importance attached to it, he reflects on the abduction as if any of the girls is one of his own”, Mr. Osinbajo said while speaking today in Abuja at a one-day Roundtable on Vulnerable People in insurgency and other conflicts in Nigeria, a forum organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
He expressed government’s appreciation to local NGOs, CSOs and international partners and pleaded for their continued collaboration and assistance.
“It brings to fore some critical issues on the handling of the plight of vulnerable people notably the abduction of Chibok girls and the killings of Buni Yadi boys as well as the recent kidnap of three girls in Ikorodu, Lagos in a non-confict area,” Mr. Osinbajo said.
He said vulnerable people are exposed to the harshest conditions not only in conflict areas but in everyday life.
According to him “interconnectivity of many issues like poverty, corruption and lack of education exposes the fact of vulnerability especially of women and girls in our society”.
“The question of poverty and how poverty generally as an overarching issue exposes state system and institutions of state and make them impossible to solve most problems without addressing the fundamental questions first”.
He said past budgets have largely ignored this need, stressing that budgets should be tailored to provide for the poor people.
“ There is a sense in which we must pay attention to how we design government programmes, how we plan budgets, so that we take into account the great poverty of our people”.