Senior Economic Adviser, Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative, Dr Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, has cried out over incessant bloodshed across the country, calling for a stop to it.
Apparently supporting the genocide claim, she said more than 90 per cent of the abducted Chibok girls were Christians, before some were radicalised.
In a statement following the alleged genocide in the country, which caused the United States President Donald Trump to threaten military action if the situation was not arrested, the former Minister of Education and Mineral Resources wondered what use is a government that could not protect its people.
She stated, “Of what use are ‘leaders’ who do not value the lives of their people? Of what humanity are people in power and our society who defend such failures? Of what future are a people who allow such evil to become normal in their country while they sit around to ‘debate’ about the mass killings of their fellow countrymen, women and children to determine if it is really ‘genocide’?”
Noting that the attitude of debating the loss of human life did not just begin, she cited the 2014 kidnapping of about 300 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State and how Nigerian leaders argued until the matter got out of hand.
“In 2014, they came for our Chibok daughters and several others, Nigerians sat around debating politics while the parents of the girls cried in anguish, pleading ‘even to be believed that they are not scam parents’.
“Those who believed them joined their cries, stood in empathy to ask governments to take constitutionally mandated, effective actions for the girls’ rescue; their cries and demands fell on deaf ears and hardened hearts. We cautioned that if government failed to act decisively against the terrorists by allowing them to go unpunished, the inaction and absence of deterrence would embolden the organised deadly criminals,” she recalled.
The former Vice-President of the World Bank said, as predicted, kidnappings soon escalated and morphed into an industry, with many families in the country becoming victims of the same losses, grief and anguish that the Chibok Girls, Leah Sharibu and their parents were left to suffer.
According to her, more than 90 per cent of the abducted Chibok girls were Christians.
She noted, “I, for example, did not know this until much later in the demand for their rescue and justice. Sharibu was punished for being a Christian and not released along with her classmates when government negotiated their freedom. Yet, as kidnappings and killings escalated, rather than take responsibility and act effectively, governments were more interested in unleashing all manner of assaults on innocent citizens who demanded accountability and results.”
Aside from urging a stop to the bloodshed, Ezekwesili added, “Stop the silly debates. Stop defending the indefensible. Stop the irresponsible deflecting. Stop the heartless indifference to the sufferings and injustices done to others.
“There are no ifs, buts and whataboutisms about the mass killings of Nigerians. Just be human by imagining what it feels like to be in the line of vulnerability that historic, courageous and incredible Reverend Ezekiel and others have been calling all of us to see. When your fellow humans tell you they are being targeted, learn to listen with human compassion.”
According to her, the death and dearth of empathy is the basis of some of the horrible definitional debates on ‘genocide’ that are going on in a land where hundreds of our fellow citizens are killed daily with impunity.
“Even a Lai Mohammed called it genocide in 2023 when he was Minister of Information. Yes, the same Lai Mohammed that Nigerians know. So what are all the debates about?
“One more Nigerian does not deserve to be killed while our governments do nothing. Period! Be human beings for a change and stop ‘majoring in the minors’. It did not have to take the insults and threat from Trump to wake up our government to the duty of care it owes every citizen of Nigeria,” she added.
