LAGOS (CodeWit) – Nigeria’s ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to Boko Haram in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, a source close to the talks told AFP.
The meeting took place last weekend at Obasanjo’s farm in southern Ogun state and included relatives of some senior Boko Haram fighters as well as intermediaries and the former president, the source said.
“The meeting was focused on how to free the girls through negotiation,” said the source who requested anonymity, referring to the girls seized on April 14 from the remote northeastern town of Chibok, Borno state.
Reports of the talks emerged as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said the girls had been located while casting doubt on the prospect of rescuing them by force.
Obasanjo, who left office in 2007, has previously sought to negotiate with the insurgents, including in September 2011 after Boko Haram bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
Then, he flew to the Islamists’ base in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, to meet relatives of former Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody in 2009.
The 2011 talks did not help stem the violence and some at the time doubted if Obasanjo was dealing with people who were legitimately capable of negotiating a ceasefire.
Spokesmen for the former head of state, who remains an influential figure in Nigerian politics, could not be reached to comment on the latest reported Boko Haram talks.
But the source told AFP that Obasanjo had voiced concern about Nigeria’s acceptance of foreign military personnel to help rescue the girls.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
LAGOS — PROSPECTS of the country’s major opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, were shaking, yesterday, ahead of a decisive ruling on the validity of the party’s registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Besides, some party members were also apprehensive on the direction of the party following tension among party leaders on account of recent disagreements.
Some party insiders were fearful that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who had been a major rallying point for the opposition party might be losing enthusiasm over what sources claimed as the increasing opposition to him by other major party stakeholders, mainly some governors.
A ruling by a Federal High Court, Abuja, today, was anxiously being expected on a suit instituted by the unregistered African Peoples Congress, APC against the registration of the All Progressives Congress by INEC.
A loss for INEC in the suit in which the All Progressives Congress was refused to be joined in as a party, could be catastrophic for the new political party and put it in possible jeopardy ahead of crucial gubernatorial elections in Ekiti and Osun states.
Tinubu, according to sources was not enthusiastic about the meeting expected to deliberate on outstanding issues flowing from recent congresses across the country. Tinubu, it is alleged, is miffed over the recent turn of events in the party which has seen him at the short end on three sensitive issues to the club of governors in the party.
Tinubu, according to party sources lost out on the venue of the convention, the choice of a chairman of the convention planning committee and on the zoning of the office of national chairman in the next executive.
Following the development, there were fears that Tinubu who had alongside General Muhammadu Buhari been the rallying point in the merger could lose enthusiasm for the new party. Party spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, however, rebuffed insinuations of any tension in the party over the alleged misunderstanding. Party elders are, however, to meet within days to deliberate on outstanding issues affecting the party notably the unresolved congresses, zoning of national party offices and permutations on the presidential candidate of the party.
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, a party elder also dismissed claims of a crisis in the party, saying the party would win the 2015 round of elections despite signs of internal rifts. He said, “Positions are being more keenly contested, people are seeing the future and I know that the next government in the next election will be an APC government at the federal level. We are now a serious contender for power at the federal level.”
The suit on the ownership of the acronym, APC, was entered before the high court by a rival political group, the African Peoples Congress, which is insisting that it has the patent right to the ‘APC’ acronym. The plaintiff told the court that though it was the first political group that applied to the electoral body to be registered as ‘APC’, it alleged that upon fulfilling all the condition precedents, INEC, without any cogent reason, declined to grant it the status of a political party in Nigeria.
Defunctpolitical parties
More so, the plaintiff told the court that it was surprised that after INEC under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega refused its application, it went ahead and registered another group with the same ‘APC’ acronym that was originally submitted to it by the plaintiff. It further told the court that it had earlier instituted an action that sought to prevent the Bisi Akande-led APC which primarily consist of three defunct political parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the Congress for Political Change, CPC, and the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, from laying claim to the acronym since it was already in existence prior to the demise of their former political parties.
The plaintiff further insisted that it was wrong for INEC to have gone ahead to register the rival APC when a suit restraining the party from using such acronym was still pending in court.
Consequently, the plaintiff, in a motion on notice before the court which is due for ruling today, applied for an order to stop INEC from further recognizing or having any dealings with the ‘APC’ pending the final determination of their substantive suit.
The plaintiff specifically prayed for an order of the court in the exercise of its disciplinary jurisdiction, annulling, setting aside and voiding the action of INEC in registering All Progressive Congress with the acronym ‘APC’, notwithstanding the pendency of the suit.
As well as, “an order of the court in the exercise of its disciplinary jurisdiction, setting aside and voiding any steps taken by INEC to facilitate the registration of the said All progressive Congress APC after becoming aware of the pendency of the suit, in contravention to the doctrine of Lis pendens.”
The matter will come up before Justice Gabriel Kolawole for ruling, following which the court will adjourn to enable all parties adopt written addresses in preparation to the final judgment on the issue.
Party spokesman Alhaji Lai Mohammed was, however, calm yesterday and apparently unmoved by the pending ruling.
It was feared yesterday that a ruling voiding INEC’s registration of the Akande-led APC could cause unmitigated disaster for the new party in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Ekiti and Osun States.
Speaking with Vanguard in a telephone interview yesterday, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun assured that the party would resolve all issues ahead of winning the forthcoming elections.
He said “some of the congresses have not been resolved but I think most have been resolved, this is natural. Where there are difficulties, we will continue to try to make peace though there are few states where there are differences. Once a vast majority of the states conclude their congresses, we will proceed to the convention.” ”When opposition parties were basically regional parties, they did not have problems, now the APC is a national force, it is a government in waiting. Given the mood of the nation today, it has the possibility and probability of becoming the government of the federation.”
The former governor of Edo State added that “positions are being more keenly contested, people are seeing the future and I know that the next government in the next election will be an APC government at the federal level. We are now a serious contender for power at the federal level.
When asked if he is not disturbed about the controversy trailing the possibility of the party throwing up a Muslim-Muslim ticket, Oyegun said “you see, I do not know who is playing it up in the party. I know that those opposed to us are driving it in the media to distract the feeble minded in the APC. It is an issue we have not discussed. In fact, as at today, a Christian-Christian ticket is also possible. The Muslim-Muslim ticket is not an impossibility, but at the end of the day, the need to win an election, is what will guide us, the need to salvage the country is what will guide the party. So, all this speculation in the party is neither here nor there. The conclusion is that we shall cross that bridge when we get there.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
IBADAN — The nursery school teacher, Mr. Olayinka Oluwadare Folarin, who allegedly defiled three under?aged pupils in a toilet, yesterday, said it was one of the girls that made advances at him.
Folarin, aged 38, who claimed his illicit romance with the minors was a demonic attack which had been affecting him for a long time, said: “One of them made advances at me. You know how children play with you in a funny way. This thing is beyond me.”
Folarin
This came as he challenged policemen and newsmen interviewing him to throw the first stone at him if they had not sinned before. He was being detained at Iyaganku, Ibadan.
Though he showed remorse for being involved in the act, he intermittently flared up, saying nobody is beyond demonic attack.
Calls for help
He said: “I have been doing this for a long time. I feel terribly bad each time I did it but I could not stop it. Why don’t you find a way of helping me. Is this meant to expose me?
“Some people should just think and reason with me. The person who has not sinned before should cast the first stone. If God did not forsake some people, I know he would not forsake me. I am a changed person now.”
Method of operation
Tearfully, he recalled how he invited the girls into the toilet and put them in the wash hand basin in the toilet and then fondled their private parts.
He confessed that he always used his hair cream to lubricate them. However, he denied using his manhood to penetrate any of the girls.
When asked why his claims contradicted the medical report which revealed that the hymen of the girls was not intact, he said it might have been broken elsewhere.
“I never penetrated them. I only used my manhood to rub their private parts. Yes, I used my hair cream to lubricate my organ to stimulate myself.”
He lamented that since the incident happened, the school management had sacked and abandoned him, noting: “When the attack started, I called them.”
Though, he reportedly wrote in his statement that he used to abuse them on Saturdays, he said it was once a while.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Olabisi Okuwobi?Ilobanafor said: “The suspect had engaged in multiple defilement and all the victims said the same thing that he always abused them twice a week since last year. The third girl was lured by the suspect to cover his illicit affairs.
“The third girl he abused saw a note he wrote to one of the two girls when she was sweeping the floor and asked what was happening. The teacher then collected the paper; for fear of being exposed, he recruited her into the group.
She said the case would be transferred to the state Police headquarters because of its seriousness.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The current state of insecurity in the country caused by the Boko Haram sect will not hamper the free flow of foreign investment in Nigeria, ECOWAS consultant on Multi-National Companies, Dr. Moji Afolabi-Timson, has said.
Afolabi-Timson, who spoke to newsmen with the President of Socio-Cultural Integration of African Youths Organisation, SCIAYO, Mr. Slyvester Ejarkaminor, in Lagos, about the seminar on procedure on how to obtain ECOWAS Trading Liberalisation Scheme, ETLS, and the importance of integration for regional development, coming up in Ivory Coast early next month, said terrorism was not peculiar to Nigeria.
He said: “At the moment, over 27 countries are doing business with us. Japan, China, France and other big economies are daily making enquires on opportunities to expand their flourishing trade relationship with ECOWAS states.
“Forget the issue of Boko Haram, Nigeria remains one of the biggest players, where products make remarkable growth.” Ejarkaminor said SCIAYO and Moje Group Pharmaceu-tical are promoters of regional entrepreneurial and cultural integration.
He said that the two groups, in partnership with Ivorian Ministry of African Integra-tion and Nigeria’s Ministry of Commerce and embassy of Nigeria in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, were organising the seminars on how to obtain ETLS and business ventures within ECOWAS countries and international award night.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
NIGERIA certainly now carries a terrible boil of anguish in the form of Islamic insurgency. Red and swollen with pus from long neglect and impunity, the boil must at this point either burst and bring relief or it becomes gangrenous and grows into something more terrible.
The cup of insurgents that has been gradually filling with murderous impunity is now full and spilling over. Although mass murders, abductions and rapes have for long been the insurgents’ trademark, the latest series of atrocities heralded by the abduction of the Chibok school girls makes it all clear that their long career of terrorism is about being terminated.
Either now or we are doomed for a long time to come. They wanted attention and are getting it right now beyond anything they could have imagined. Having become a terror powerhouse operating on their own terms without much interference from the government of the day, the abduction of the Chibok girls was just another routine operation that could have gone without a whimper.
The Jonathan administration clearly had no mind to change its tired tactics of responding to the insurgents’ reign of terror with anything worse than threats. The insurgents therefore had nothing to worry about from the Nigerian state or the rest of the world. Nothing at all until Chibok came into the picture to change all that. And that too only by chance.
But the tide of terror is nowhere close to being stemmed. The terrorists are yet having a field day. They are obviously enjoying the attention that is coming their way given the way they have carried on. No day goes by now without report of another act of murderous impunity. It is either bridges linking communities are being blown up or whole towns are being sacked and their inhabitants either killed in the most gory fashion or their women are taken into slavery. The Kano explosions were hardly over before the terrorists struck in Jos that until the latest attack had been out of the news.
The invading hordes from Sambisa forest and environs have been widening their field of operation in a manner that suggests they are ready to take on anyone or force from any part of the world. Not even the hurried assemblage of support from the United States of America, France, China, Israel or Britain has done anything to stem the activities of the mostly ragtag zealots riding motor bikes to run over towns and villages.
For so long has the Jonathan administration neglected its responsibility in taking on the insurgents when it should have that the insensate brutes have apparently now bought into the idea of their own invincibility. The fact of their unhindered march into town after town abducting and raping women; detonating bombs in major cities across the North and sending hundreds to their untimely death in one fell swoop should have and has definitely convinced them that the Nigerian state is no match for them.
In no time at all, and except something is urgently done to contain the insurgencies, it would be difficult to deny that Nigeria is at war, another civil war, started and prosecuted by Islamic renegades in the Northern part of Nigeria.
The presence of foreign forces should not deceive the Jonathan administration into thinking it can dump its responsibility on others as it seems to be doing. Parts of the North East are now as lawless as Iraq after the exit of the US and its allies. Bombs are detonated at will and without anyone being held for it. The ongoing war in Syria started in this manner.
By the time an opposing force that controls parts of a country engages a state in a no-win battle for long and it becomes clear it cannot be dislodged, such a force has to be recognised as the de facto authority over the parts it controls.
Nigeria cannot claim to be in charge of parts of the country now under the outlaw rule of insurgents. In fact, the country seems to have ceded authority of certain no-go areas, no matter how small or large, such as Sambisa forest to the insurgents.
In the same way Nigeria cannot be said to be in control in those parts of the country routinely sacked and/or taken over by the insurgents for many hours at a time.
The insurgents are enjoying the attention they are getting, I repeat, given the precipitate increase in their activities. There is no doubt too that they are getting immediate support from powerful forces in the same manner that the Jonathan administration has turned to foreign forces and countries. Which is why Nigeria (one cannot expect the foreign forces to do this) has to increase its intelligence gathering operations in the country. The insurgents surely have local sponsors living right in the midst of everyday Nigerians. They might even be among the very people detailed to hunt for them.
The Jonathan administration might wish to apprise Nigerians what it has done or is doing on the issue of highly placed Nigerians that have been directly or indirectly linked with the insurgents. Some of them or their wards, relations or associates, in Abuja and states most affected by the insurgency, have been fingered in the activities of the insurgents. What has Jonathan done about them? What is the latest on these individuals?
President Jonathan may be averse to going to Chibok, he may be wary of coming face to face with poorly resourced, mutinous soldiers that take arm at their commander- he may not see any reason in his going to Sambisa forest.
But what has he done with those directly under his nose in Abuja or in Borno and environs? Has he taken his eyes off these people believing they are not capable of the mischief they’ve been linked with? With bombs going off in built-up areas under curfew and emergency rule, is it not reasonable to imagine that the insurgents or their supporters are right in our midst, living in our neighbourhoods, worshipping in the same places and going to the same markets as the rest of us?
Are we to accept that those who killed hundreds of Nigerians, now turned mere statistics, in the market in Jos came straight from Sambisa forest; that the killers that operated in Sabon Garri, Kano, rode on a bike from Chad or Cameroon? What is Jonathan doing about these people right in our midst? Or is he waiting for his foreign supporters to look for them or leave before he starts asking these questions, in case he remembers at all?
While our military complain of inadequate resources, their commanders draw up a list of unattended grievances, the insurgents increase in strength. What is Jonathan doing about the enemies within?
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
UMUAHIA—ABIA State government has formally re-engaged 2700 non-indigenes sacked from its workforce in October 2011 and directed them to resume work at their various offices next Monday.
The government, however, charged them to be of good behaviour and loyal to the government of the day. The reabsorbed workers were among the about 4000 workers from various states of the federation, with fellow South East states being worst affected .
Imo State has the highest number of workers sacked in the exercise. Issuing them with their letters of re-engagement, the State Head of Service, Mr. Godson Adiele, said the exercise was on-going, and advised those yet reabsorbed to exercise patience.
According to Adiele, Governor Theodore Orji was touched by the hardship they were going through hence his directive that they be reinstated to stop their sufferings.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
A one time member of Nigerian FM, New York who was fired two weeks ago for using Emma Agu’s personal Facebook fan page to upload her private photos is up there trying hard to blackmail Emma Agu in her quest to take advantage of the current brouhaha between Jim Iyke and Emma Agu to get a much needed publicity she worked in vain all her life to get.
This 53-year old divorcee,Marion, who lives in a lonely Pittsburgh in Philadephia has no, dignity or pride as she copes with her drug addiction and frustration of not getting a man. The evil woman is a disgruntled, disenchanted, frustrated , divorced, desperado and menopausal woman who takes pride in blackmail and back-stabbing.
Emma Agu, a father of 3 boys one girl is a happily married and a US Citizen.
At this point, we are not prepared to join issues with her and any other paid blackmailer, Jim Iyke may hire to come after my husband.
We imply bloggers to verify stories before posting them out as we shall not hesitate to report URL’s who publish false news on Emma Agu to google.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Dear Mr. Mitch, we googled your name, checked you out on Facebook, searched for your blog; we saw nothing of you that deserves our attention, however, your vituperation and unwarranted statement against Emma Agu over the running battle your client, Jim Iyke created, will not die down unchallenged. Did I hear you call my boss a frustrated musician?
Mitch NGAMAN you must have been sleeping on the switch hence your client’s inaction and complete absence of activities, made him become a devil’s workshop. How long would he live this a life riddled with drama? When will your client grow up and act like a responsible adults? Must he react negatively and very uncivilized and uncultured to everything? It is a case of one lazy man, leading the other ! if anyone is frustrated here, it is you and completely redundant Jim Iyke.
Reprehensibly, your client should be called to order, this is not the time to defend him. Sir, you are not doing your job as a publicist or a manager, if indeed you are one. You need to work extra hard to enable your act get busy and stay out of trouble.
Jim is 39, at that age, my artist has achieved virtually everything a man should do. Blessed with a beautiful wife, beloved Children, my artist, an accomplished artist has always been seen over the years as a silent achiever.
Sir, my client runs his own business in the last 12 years in the greatest City in the world-New York. CastleHill Studios, now Mb5 Studios, is a brand name. My client is not ostentatious, for that, you may not have heard much of him; his family and his business interest. My client is a very principled man who never backs down when pushed against the wall.
You are not a professional, if you were, you would not issue a statement to lie through your teeth that my client published and said your gigolo actor and Nadia Buari are no more together. The story was even out there before my client called Nadia’s Manager, to verify.
The story came from another website, based in Ghana. www.nigerianfm.com is not a gossip site. My client’s site does not need Jim Iyke’s input to become one of the most visited African sites at the moment after 8 months of operation.
The point of argument here is that your client who call my client his trusted friend and big brother sneaked into town , a situation arose where his ex made claims that her prodigal boyfriend came back on his knees and begging to be accepted back. My client reached out to Nadia’s manager having made concerted efforts to reach Jim Iyke who apparently was hiding. The only question my client who had witnesses in the studio asked, was if Jim Iyke and Nadia Bauri are still together?
At this juncture, we are putting a caveat on this whole Jim Iyke’s endless drama. Any attempt by you and your client to blackmail and embarrass my client further would push my client to release more damaging tapes of your double faced actor who speaks from both sides of his cheeks.
We heard your artist was delivered of some evil spirits recently, who knows, those demons are back in legions. You may have to try another prophet.
Push one more button,test our resolve, try one more time!
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Street Rhymes Studios is a residential recording studio, owned and operated by Nigerian singer/record producer Gabriel Soprinye Halliday popularly known as Slim Burna.
The studio began functioning in late 2008 following Burna's leave from record label Grafton Records due to an alleged company property theft. Situated in his D-line home at 10 Railway Close, Street Rhymes Studios has recorded top musical icons such as award-winning rapper M-Trill, and famous singer Muma Gee. Other talented artists who have also recorded at the studio include Bukwild Da Ikwerrian, DJ Joenel, Zubillionaire, Spaceman, and Young Stunna.
Slim Burna's first critically-acclaimed full-length project was titled "I'm on Fire". The mixtape's production and recording were carried out in the Street Rhymes Studios between 2012 and 2013. Since its release in April of last year, "I'm on Fire" has garnered over 50, 000 downloads worldwide, making it the most successful mixtape ever recorded by a Port Harcourt-based artist to date.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Hashtag online activism has continued to prove critics wrong in the amazingly unique way it amplifies disconsolateunheard minority voices, suppressed or subdued by a repressive and despotic government. It draws attention of millions to a horrific story. It gets better when world leaders and celebrities latch onto the hashtag as it nudges other countries to weigh in or even intervene in the crisis. Granted, a lot of persons may not know the complexities of the political, economic or security problems associated with such hashtags, and don’t bother to know, but still join the sentimental global train to amplify such stories helping to raise awareness to tales of horror. It is sometimes regarded as a wave of superficial momentary sentimentality because it is not in any way a real engagement in any attempt to resolve a complex or violent threat. However, the voice of minorities is amplified by sharing their stories in a way even the most sophisticated and networked print or electronic media platform cannot achieve. Like #OccupyNigeria protest of 2012, #BringBackOurGirls campaign is another case in point.
The #BringBackOurGirls hashtag went viral worldwide sparking global awareness to the almost 300 schoolgirls abducted in the predominantly Christian community of Chibok, a small village on the outskirts of Borno State. Celebrities and global politicians – among them, world leaders – have united behind a cause to bring succour and hope to the families of the abducted girls by the Islamic fundamentalists who started out as a small salafist sect in Borno but have over the years morphed into a monster threatening to take control of some North-East states of Nigeria. Before now, many people outside the shores of Nigeria have never heard of Chibok or Borno State. The awareness the hashtag raised brought to public knowledge, the horrendous atrocities the religious zealots have inflicted on a nation now at the mercy of their mindless and wanton killings. While the #BringBackOurGirls movement has drawn attention to the plight of the Chibok families, we’re still faced with the stark reality of our girls still missing. Like everyone else, I had hoped that the campaign will be a tipping point for Nigeria’s war on terror. But subsequent attacks by the Jihadists in different states that have claimed over 250 lives and many more injured, has deflated such hopes.
Critics of hashtag activism have drawn parallels between the #BringBackOurGirls movement and #Kony2012 campaign. Via a movie, Invincible Children, that went viral on the internet with over 8million views on YouTube within the first few hours of upload, global attention in 2012 was attracted to a Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony, and his Lord’s Revolution Army (LRA), where children were made soldiers and used to perpetuate some of the most brutal crimes against humanity. Kony had been terrorising Uganda and Ugandans for decades but America and the rest of the world only got a glimpse of it when it became a convenient and popular hashtag. #Kony2012 trended for days and weeks on social media platforms turning the LRA Ugandan warlord into the most hated, loathed and wanted man. Despite the awareness that compelled the US to send some 100 troops to Uganda to co-ordinate the search for Kony, the campaign soon lost momentum and two years on, Joseph Kony remains at large!
Not so impressed observers have described hashtag online activism as "a frictionless convenience, conducted from the safety of a computer screen or handheld device that often serves more as a flattering public symbol of concern than concern itself.” Complex and multidimensional nature of problems are otherwise meant to look too simplified by mere tweeting, filming, and changing picture profiles across platforms. They posit that beyond the awareness raised, hashtag activism does not solve the problem. Some others call it an exercise in “self-esteem”. True, the reaction of the outside world is mostly sentimental as it essentially revels in the moment but in the case of the Chibok girls, it has drawn global attention to their plight, ratcheting up the pressure that has led to some sort of international military intervention or assistance. But a hashtag campaign at the very least can’t hurt even if those involved in it know next to nothing more than the hashtag.
Granted that hashtag activism oversimplifies the complexities of events abroad, and even if well-intentioned, rarely affect things on the ground but same cannot be said of the #BringBackOurGirls movement. Fillip and compass have been added to the rescue mission with the deployment of foreign intelligence personnel and some advance aerial surveillance gadgets by the US, Britain, China, Israel, France and a few other European countries joining the ongoing efforts to reunite the abducted schoolgirls with their loved ones. Sustained daily protests in the Nation’s capital, Abuja, by the #BringBackOurGirls movement have put the government on its toes. Western countries are rushing Special Forces and all their first-world paraphernalia to Nigeria in the hope of tracking the missing girls down.
In spite of all the criticism against hashtag activism, the bring back our girls campaign has gone beyond borders, breaking barriers and doubts that the farthest hearts can be touched and leaders of world superpowers can be forced to act.
President Jonathan, the man in the eye of the storm, only came alive when he learnt the online campaign has drawn the attention of Western powers. He did not flinch since the religious extremists kidnapped about 300 girls from Chibok. Nigerians didn’t expect him to lift a finger though, after all, nothing now moves him considering how he danced away in Kano 24 hours after 74 persons were killed by a bomb blast at Nyanya. On this occasion, he began to act when the international community joined in the viral campaign. Wishing the uproar will go away quickly, same way his government moved on from the murdered schoolchildren of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, who were killed by some unhinged monsters. John McCain, the straight from shoulder, critically outspoken Republican Senator, lampooned the Jonathan’s government slow response: “The United States didn’t have to wait until a practically non-existent government of Nigeria gave us (Americans, that is) the go-ahead before mounting a humanitarian effort to rescue those 276 abducted girls.” Hillary Clinton threw all diplomacy and prevarication aside to submit that “the government in Nigeria has been somewhat derelict in its responsibility towards protecting boys and girls, men and women in northern Nigeria over the last years”.
But these campaigns and sustained protests have made us realise that people do actually care, even if they’re unwilling to hit the streets in protest. There is a new way injustice can be fought in the world where everyone gets involved in some way. It gives those who join the bandwagon a sense of belonging that they can play a small part of something immense to raise awareness about people around the world who are powerless, helpless and can do nothing about a dangerous, difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
