Women for Peace and Justice – Lagos, do not give into time squandered and insist : #BRING BACK OUR GIRLS!
We cannot forget! We must not forget! Our humanity and our respect for human rights of girls and boys, of men and women, rest on recovering all kidnapped victims. Justice must never be complacent or silenced. If we are complacent, we are complicit.
The wall of missing girls around the Falomo Roundabout under the Falomo Bridge in Lagos stands! Women For Peace and Justice Bring Back Our Girls Lagos replaces placards of 200+ girls that are still missing. The wall is a symbol of commitment to BRING BACK OUR GIRLS.
IN THE MEANTIME…this week more disturbing news from Northern Nigeria.
June 24/25: Kaduna. Gunmen rampage through villages in Southern Kaduna region, Kaduna State. Over 100 persons, mostly children and women, were buried in mass grave.
June 25: Abuja. An explosion Wednesday afternoon rocked a parking lot at a crowded plaza in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, killing 21 people and injuring 52 others, authorities said.
June 24: Kano, Boko Haram abducted 60 females, including children as young as 3 years of age, and killed 30 men last week in a raid of a village in northeastern Nigeria.
June 21: Kano, A bomb blast Monday killed eight people and injured at least 12 others at a medical school.
June 21 Northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram raids two villages where 10 people were killed Saturday.
The wall of missing girls around the Falomo Roundabout under the Falomo Bridge in Lagos had become significant in the crusade for the search for our missing girls. On May 8th at the roundabout, Women For Peace and Justice Bring Back our Girls Lagos after obtaining the required permission, had carefully placed placards with the profiles and names of 176 Chibok girls that had been verified by CAN (Christian Associations in Nigeria). The placards were evidence that 200+ girls were missing and were a symbol of our commitment to bring back our girls, the shared pain of the Chibok parents and the love of our nation.
Yesterday afternoon on returning from our weekly speak out Saturday, we found that our wall of missing girls was gone without a trace. On inquiring about the whereabouts of the placards, we learnt that the police around 3 am Saturday morning removed the placards. No one could tell us why and no one could tell us how and clearly no one had done anything to prevent it. As the very little known facts were presented to us, a chilling reality emerged In a cruel way, the Chibok girls’ night of horror exactly 2 months ago on 14 April had repeated itself in Lagos in a less violent yet equally shocking way. The 200+ girls had again been abducted. The nightmare was repeating itself.
We are still trying to make sense of it. What is the symbolism of this cowardly act executed in the middle of the night? Could anyone deliberately want the girls to disappear and be erased from our memories forever? Who could possibly be threatened by 176 wooden placards at a roundabout in Lagos?
When we mounted the placards several weeks ago, Lagosians from all walks of life had joined in the rally with allies from the international community including the United Nations charging the way. The busy round-about with the girls’ profiles had served as a daily reminder for all of us not to accept these acts as a way of life in Nigeria and demand that the girls be brought back safe and alive.
We should all be proud of our ability to unite to bringbackourgirls. The rallies and events should be seen as vibrant signs of a society that cares and an African democracy that allows freedom of speech. Abducting girls – whether they be living human beings or represented by wooden placards – in the middle of the night are both heinous acts but for different reasons. One directly violates the young girls from Chibok while the other violates our right to express ourselves. We remain more dedicated than ever to the efforts to #BringBackOurGirls and bring back the right for Nigerian citizens to express themselves freely as could be expected in a democratic society.
We are not going away and nor will our right to speak out and continue to do so till the girls are back – safe and alive!
Women for Peace and Justice, Lagos
Jinkai Yama…Lyndia Simon…Deborah Abari…Ester Josha…Naomi Bitrus…Awa Bitrus…Glory Yaga…Maryamu Yakubu…Talata Daniel…Mairama Abubakar…Naomi Luka…Helen Musa…Mary Paul…Hauwa Peter…Rebecca Joseph…Ihyi Abdu…Sicker Abdul…180 names called out over a bullhorn at the UNICEF office in Ikoyi.
Iya yi to,
Iya yi to o, President.
Koba wa la ra mu!
(Suffering is too much, Suffering is too much, Mr. President. We had enough.)
With each foot step, each name gathers weight. A first name, a last name. We meet each girl. She is a person with a name; her name. She is present. We march solemnly.
“We no go gree o.
We no go gree, until you Bring Back Our Girls!
We no go tire o!”
Rahila Yahanna…Christina Bitrus…Yana Pogu…Naomi Adamu…Halima Gamba…
BRING BACK OUR GIRLS
Five days in May:
May 5th… Abuja, Lagos march
May 7th…US to send troops to search for kidnapped girls.
May 7th…Boko Haram raids Gamboru Ngala, Borno State, 200 massacred, 11 girls kidnapped
May 8th…Boko Haram bombs bridge in Gamboru Ngala, Borno State, that linking Nigeria and Cameroon – 30 killed
May 8th…France, China, Britain joins search for kidnapped girls.
May 9th…Rumors that girls are bargained for a prisoner trade.
May 9th…Kaduna, Ibadan, Imo, Lagos, and Borno State march
Bring Back Our Girls! We Want Our Girls! No More Abductions!
We chant, we yell on a hot and sweltering Monday morning in May. None of us are happy to be here, the circumstances for which we march are too grim :
We Want Our Girls!
Over the weekend an email forwarded from one person to another gained momentum. Other mail queried: is it safe? is there security? can the traffic be controlled? what about area boys (local hooligans)?
The email stated that we would meet at Allen’s Roundabout in Ikeja and march 2 miles to the Lagos State House in Alausa. We should bring a white handkerchief and candles with circular paper around the stem so as not to burn our hand.
We were to wear red.
The program announced that we would begin the march promptly at 10 am, which for Lagos, we miraculously did. We were to deliver a formal letter of protest to Governor Fashola. Indeed, we did. At the State House, speeches, singing, candle ceremony and waving handkerchiefs were on the agenda, it did not happen.
What did happen was a group of about 200 men and women 
came together from diverse backgrounds—Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, foreigners—ethnicity didn’t matter; religion didn’t matter. Race didn’t matter. We marched for every abducted girl; we marched for our daughters. If only our calls could bring just one girl back into the arms of her family, we would rejoice. But we know this will not happen.
If only our calls could kindle a fire under the politicians to spur to action, we would rejoice. But it has been 3 weeks since Boko Haram kidnapped 234 young girls from the Chibok Girl’s Secondary School in Bornu State in northeast Nigeria, and took them deep into the bush. We do not rejoice.
We yell louder: BRING BACK OUR GIRLS!
For weeks there is silence, there is blame, and the formation of a presidential committee; but, no action. We hear the girls have been moved to Chad and Cameroon; they have died of snake bites; they were forced to marry and sold into slavery.
But there is no action, only we…we yell louder, we demand, but we go home to our families to our dinners and still:
over 200 girls are missing.
Article: Bring Back Our Girls, Valerie Magazine
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