Francis Sadhere
A Warri based Non-Governmental Organization, Every Child Counts Initiative for Education (ECCIFED), has joined the league of those mounting serious pressure on the Federal Government to get the abducted Chibok girls out now, urging government to take decisive action against the Boko Haram Sect.
The NGO at a well attended prayer session/rally in Effurun, near Warri, Delta State, for the abducted Chibok girls, frowned at committees being set up here and there by the Federal Government over the worrisome matter.
“Boko Haram has been operating in the country’s northeast since 2002, the government never saw them as a big threat until now. A common practice with Nigerian government is the manner with which they set up committees to deal with matters that could be dealt with instantly. I am of the opinion that, if we see a snake just kill it, don’t appoint a committee for snakes,” the initiator and founder of ECCIFED, Dr. (Mrs) Veronica E. Ogbuagu said at the event.
Dr. Ogbuagu, former Education Commissioner in Delta State and proprietress of Chinkelly Group Schools said that; “Today’s gathering is very important to us as school heads and to my NGO – “Every Child Counts Initiative For Education” [ECCIFED]. The abducted girls are students as well as children from different homes. We are highly concerned about their plight, and have deemed it necessary to come together as a family, to share in their present predicament. In a time like this, we have no power to fight or force the government and our poorly trained and ill-equipped security agencies to go into the Sambisa forest to rescue our girls, other than to come together and offer prayers to God for their safety and quick rescue.”
She said, since the abduction of the girls, she had always asked; “Where could these girls be as we speak, what are they doing with them, what have they done to them, how can they be rescued, who will rescue them, is this real, is this happening in our time, could this be a modernized form of slave trade.”
“The more I try to figure out answers to the above questions the more confused I am. We were taken aback when President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday, 15th May, 2014, declared that his government was at a loss on the exact location where the school girls were being held after two weeks in captivity. This came as a rude shock to us. Our NGO ECCIFED, had no other choice than to organize this ceremony. ECCIFED is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that is committed to the course of children, youths, and women, established in 2007, ECCIFED focuses on encouraging positive parental upbringing of children. We support families to care for their children, wherever possible, in their own homes and communities,” she quarreled.
She reminded parents, teachers and adults of their role in ensuring that children were kept safe, adding that “children looked up to us to make sense out of this world to soothe their fears as we work to make children and their communities safe. We must try to protect them always.”
She equally, called on the Governor of Borno State to make frantic efforts to rescue the Chibok girls, saying that he is the caretaker of Borno’s most wonderful resource: the children.
Dr. Ogbuagu said she saw the need to organize the prayer session/rally, were she invited students from several secondary schools in Effurun and Warri Local Government Areas as well as parents, teachers, heads of schools and religious leaders.
In his speech, the state Chairman of Nigerian Aid Group of Islam Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Delta State Chapter, Sadiq Musa, condemned the senseless killings and abduction of innocent citizens by Boko Haram, saying the actions of Boko Haram were in clear contradiction with the tenets of Islam.
The Commissioner for Education (Primary and Secondary Education), Prof. Patrick Muoboghare was represented by Mr. S.A. Onojaiyefe, Chief Inspector of Education, Ministry of Education.
