A year after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari and 816 days of the abducted Chibok girls in captivity, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement wants all schools in Chibok and other liberated areas, shut as a result of the insurgency, to be re-opened.

The movement had hard knocks for the federal government for failing to implement recommendations made to President Buhari by the group when they met him a year ago.

But it insists that a more visible and result-based humanitarian program is urgently established and rolled out for the IDPs, even as it thumbed up soldiers for doing a good job of securing much of the troubled part of the country.

In a lengthy statement which included a report yesterday, the BBOG movement gave a list of demands it submitted to Buhari a year ago, but which have remained unmet.

The demands, according to the statement, are:

“Implementation of the verification, authentication and reunification system (VARS). We proposed that a team be tasked with the credible implementation of VARS. The primary task of the team was to work with every abducted victim’s family and community to accurately ascertain the true identity of such individuals. Following their accurate identification, the comprehensive programme for Recovery, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Reintegration was to be made available to them. It was also supposed to entail the setting up of a Missing Persons’ Register.

“Protocol of engagement with citizens: We requested that the President direct relevant Government representatives to work with the BBOG Family to commence work immediately on an Accountability Matrix, which will define the protocol for obtaining and sharing information with citizens. We also suggested a monthly meeting between security operatives and community stakeholders in communities most affected by these acts of violence e.g. Chibok, Gwoza, and Bama. We believed at that time that it would encourage much-needed collaboration and information sharing to bridge the identified communication gap.

“Commission of inquiry for accountability on abduction and rescue of Chibok Girls. We requested that the President direct the establishment of a Commission charged with the task of transparently investigating and reporting on the security lapses that caused their successful abduction and the operational leadership failures that led to their long captivity in the terrorist enclave. This Commission was also to review the allegations of corruption within our security services that have hindered its capacity to perform effectively

“Public release of committee reports. We requested that the President direct that the Report of the Presidential Fact-Finding Committee of the Chibok Girls and the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North-East be made public immediately.

“Prevention. We suggested that the Government begin, in earnest, a holistic process of proper sensitisation and enlightenment to curb this trend of youth radicalization and extremism. The BBOG Family indicated a willingness to work with the Government to design the programme.”

In the statement by Mrs. Aisha Yesufu and Oby Ezekwesili, the group regretted that a year later, “it is extremely disappointing that none of the five demands has been completed.”

But it noted that the positive developments in the period include the gallant efforts soldiers that have resulted in the liberation of large numbers of our communities, opening up of access routes within the North East and the return of one of the girls, Amina Ali Nkeki on 17th May 2016.

“The just concluded incident-free, Eid celebrations in major capitals of the North East (the first in 5 years) are a testament to the successes of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and the Civilian JTF. Revelations of the scale of corruption and the subsequent diversion of resources meant for our hardworking security services have further deepened an understanding of causal factors and the prosecution of these cases are in progress.” The statement added.

•Text courtesy of The Guardian. Photo shows some of the abducted Chibok girls.

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