The former country director of ActionAid Nigeria, and activist, Dr. Ene Obi has revealed that more than 500,000 Nigerian girls are in captivity right now.

She said that many girls are in captivity due to the activities of bandits, saying that many such girls have been raped with pregnancies emerging from the situations.

Dr. Obi stated that the government and legislators are busy debating and sitting in air conditioners while the parents of such girls suffer alone.

She made this submission in Abuja at Plan International’s inter-generational dialogue session on the International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration titled, ‘Accelerate progress in gender equality through economic empowerment.’

He said: “Now so many girls are in captivity. Nobody is talking about that. Many girls have been raped and then pregnancies emerged from those relationships and all that. What do you do if you’re a parent? That is one of those that has one of those children. Now we have more than, you know 500,000 of our girls in captivity right now. What is the government doing about it? They are busy debating and sitting in their air conditioners but the parents of this student you can only imagine what they are going through.

“They need to take it seriously and as far as they are not organising to save them. Because if you save women, you’re not doing them a favour you are doing humanity a favour. You are doing something that is right for humanity because the girl child is the hub of humanity.

“When you take care of a woman we are talking care of the children that are under her, and that’s why we say women’s rights are human rights and you need to take it very seriously. We have maternal mortality that is heavier than any other place in the world. And Nigeria is not at war. And so issues of mentorship wherever you find yourself as a girl, as a girl child you have come this far for a reason, make sure you care for the next girl. Make sure you open the doors make sure you mentor another girl. We need to build a women’s or girls’ agency.

“My call to the government is that they need to pay attention. We need to take the individuals away and make Nigeria our priority because we see a rise Oh competition. We say I pledge to Nigeria my country, are you doing something about Nigeria or yourself or with your family? Growing up as activists, we were taught Nigeria is your number one, Nigeria is your tribe, humanity is your tribe, not your village, or not your family the way they are thinking now. They put themselves first if you don’t remove the individual, the primitive kind of accumulation that is happening now is insanity.

“Where we are now we’re not going anywhere we are in the last six years of the Sustainable Development Goals. There is no way we are going anywhere with the way, the attitude of people, you have budget issues that is going on in the country right now. Nobody is talking about how to help the girl child, even the boy child, you know.”

Plan International’s Country Director, Charles Emmamuzou said this year’s theme of IWD, reflects the importance of not just documenting and telling the stories of women, but also ensuring that we tell the stories of women in their diversity.

He said there are benefits and inventions that we enjoy today that are as a result of the hard work of women whose stories remain unknown because they did not have the “right” identity for such accomplishments.

Emmamuzou reiterated that diversity is not merely a buzzword; it’s the heartbeat of humanity. It’s the recognition that each individual, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic, brings a unique perspective and experience to the table. (The Nation)

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