The Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis, has joined the league of those demanding the release of the 276 abducted pupils of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State
The 77-year-old Argentine cleric, using the global trending hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, took to Twitter to lend a voice to the plight of the schoolgirls.
Calling for the “immediate release” of the female pupils kidnapped by the violent Islamist sect, Boko Haram, the Pope, who leads the world’s 1.3billion Catholics, called on people from around the globe to offer prayers for their safe return.
“Let us all join in prayer for the immediate release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria. Let us bring back our girls,” the Pontiff wrote on his Twitter page.
His appeal came just as the Presidency accused the foreign media of “commercialising” the “Bring Back our Girls” campaign geared towards ensuring the freedom of the abducted pupils.
The Presidency through the Special Assistant to the President on New Media, Reno Omokri, stated on Twitter that Nigerians should take the foreign coverage of the push for the girls’ freedom with a dose of skepticism.
The Presidency did not however name the foreign platform(s) it levelled the allegation against or explain what it meant by the commercialisation of the #BringBcakOurGirls campaign.
“Foreign Media commercialising the #BringBackOurGirls. Be wise to take their coverage with a pinch of salt,” the Presidential New Media aide said of the online campaign that has drawn global attention to the plight of the abducted girls.
Boko Haram members invaded the school last April 14 and forcibly took away the girls who were writing their West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations.
Omokri also lamented that politicians have been unfairly criticising his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan, over his handling of the Boko Haram insurgency.
He argued that if critics had channelled a fraction of the criticisms “attacking the President” to suggesting ideas, “we would collectively defeat terrorism sooner.”
The presidential aide said Jonathan had hitherto been begging for assistance from the international community to stem the menace posed by the sect.
“If politicians condemning the government had condemned Boko Haram with this same venom yesterday, we would have been closer to defeating terror by now.
“The accusation that President Jonathan was slow to ask for foreign military assistance to fight Boko Haram is false,” he added.
But Nigerians have disagreed with the Presidency over allegations that the foreign media were commercialising the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
Many of those who faulted the alleged commercialisation of the campaign credited the foreign media for bringing the schoolgirls’ abduction to the attention of the international community.
Yaks Ameen, a Kano State-based resident, accused the Presidency of being “small-minded and caring too much about unimportant matters. In a post on Twitter, Ameen said, “The Presidency should be tweeting about increased efforts being made to bring back our girls not this for goodness sake.
“Very soon Omokri will tweet about American politicians giving the opposition political party in Nigeria, international support.”
“Do they have any shame in the Presidency?” a social commentator, Ayourb asked, adding, “Instead of working to bring back our girls, they are making spurious allegations against foreign media organisations.”
Another respondent, Prof. Cornel, accused the Federal Government of dishonesty in its public communication mechanism concerning the missing girls, saying, “I do not agree with you (the Presidency) at all. But the media is far ahead of what you guys are doing over here. Giving us lies after lies.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians spearheading the #BringBackOurGirls campaign have vowed not to relent in their demands that the Federal Government should account for the missing girls.
A former Vice-President of the World Bank, Oby Ezekwesili, insisting that the campaign will continue, thanked all who have been supporting the cause.
Describing them as “models of empathy for our common humanity,” she added that “no amount of distraction or diversion, intimidation, wicked insensitivity for the families in pain will stop us from demanding” that the government brings back all the girls alive.
Ezekwesili, who has been protesting on the streets of Abuja and coordinating in an online campaign, tweeted, “Our constitutional right to peaceful gathering is what we stand on as we again stand with our Chibok girls.”
An online campaigner for the missing girls, Soyombo Ayomikun, wrote on Twitter that the wait by the victims’ relatives to reunite with their daughters is “killing.”
“But we won’t give up on hope. The (Federal Government) should bring back our girls alive and well,” Ayomikun added.
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