A former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, has
asked the British government to send troops to Nigeria to help secure
the release of the abducted pupils of Government Secondary School,
Chibok, Borno State.
The girls, well over 200 of them, were kidnapped from their hostels on
the night of April 14.
Brown, who is also the United Nations Special Envoy for Global
Education, while speaking during a debate at the House of Commons,
said that in view of the possibility that the kidnapped girls might have
been divided into groups and hidden in separate places, his home
government should send the UK forces to assist Nigeria’s army.
He said, “These wholly innocent young girls—Lugwa Abuga, Rhoda
John, Comfort Amos, Maryamu Yakubu and 200 others—are now
incarcerated in the forest areas of Borno State. Some have perhaps
been dispersed across three other countries: Niger, Cameroon and
Chad. Their physical and mental health is a worry for everyone.
“If the girls have been dispersed to a number of different places, a
rescue mission for one group would immediately put the other groups
at risk. That is the dilemma that confronts the Nigerian Government,
as I understand it.
“That is why they need additional support to monitor what is
happening and, if it is necessary to intervene, (we should send) the
troops, security services and the air cover to do so.”
Jim Shannon, a member of the House, told Brown that the legislators
were concerned about the ongoing violence in Nigeria and the
continued incarceration of the schoolgirls.
He however expressed doubts over Nigeria’s reaction to the
insurgency.
Shannon said, “The House is filled with members who are equally
concerned about this issue. There has been unwillingness, or perhaps
the Nigerian government have been unable, to respond in the way
that we back home think they should.
“Is that because they are unable to seek the covert assistance that
they need in order to ascertain where the schoolchildren are and bring
them back? Does he feel that perhaps the covert assistance that this
government could offer is one way forward?”
Brown urged the UK’s lawmakers to prevail on the country’s
government to do more in assisting the Nigerian government, saying
that security at Nigerian schools should be beefed up.
He said, “There is a second thing that we can do to help. We cannot
have safe schools if we do not have safe communities. In addition to
the rising military and security presence in these towns, we need to
allocate extra resources to reassure parents, teachers and children
that they can go to school.
“It has to make its schools safer, so that there is confidence among
pupils and families that children can go to school. That may mean
better perimeter fencing, walls, lighting, and communication and
security systems to keep people in touch.”
Brown, who is promoting the UN’s safe school for children initiative,
explained that Nigeria had already contributed $10m to the project.
According to him, $10m has also come from the business community,
£1m from the UK and $1.5m from Norway.
“Money is coming from other countries in the EU, and there are
promises from the United States of America. I hope that one outcome
of the debate will be to convince the government that it is worth
providing more than £1m. Without this initiative, many of the other
measures in which we are engaged to help education in Nigeria
cannot be successful,” the former prime minister told the House.
According to Brown, the UN has just passed a Security Council
resolution, Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, which
states that schools should have the same legal protection in conflict
areas as hospitals.
“In northern Nigeria today, we have on the one side terrorists,
murderers, rapists and cowards hell-bent on acts of depravity, and on
the other side we have the defiant, relentless, and brave beyond
comprehension young people who are desperately fighting for a future
but are too often oblivious to our attention.
“We must be clear that in the battle between the girls of the world
and the backward-looking extremists, there will, in the end, be only
one winner, but we should not have to wait another half-century with
millions of lives ruined, millions of dreams destroyed, millions of
hopes and aspirations crushed, for the world to deliver—as we must
for the Nigerian girls, and for girls everywhere—the opportunities that
should be and are every girl’s birth right,” Brown urged the UK
parliament.
Appearing before the parliament earlier, the Coordinating Minister for
the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had
said that Nigeria was taking a “three-pronged approach to dealing
with the various dimensions of crisis, and this includes security,
political and economic solutions.”
She said, “On the security front, our military men and women are
confronting an unprecedented challenge that they were not really
trained to confront and so we thank them for their courage and
bravery. The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has
increased the number of troops that are in the North-East from
15,000 to 20,000.
“Regional cooperation on security has got better following a decision
by neighbouring countries: Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger, to each
contribute a battalion of soldiers, to fight Boko Haram alongside
Nigeria.
“President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted offers from the
international community for more surveillance, aircraft cover, and
equipment that enhances our ability to locate, fight and root out
insurgents.”
SOURCE : www.punchng.com/news/chibok-girls-gordon-brown-wants-troops-in-nigeria/

Gordon Brown is on crack cocaine, if he thinks Nigeria can be recolonised by a few English men, whilst Scotland makes haste for Independence from the English man.


Whoever, told him Boko haram is a problem Nigeria can't handle? Abi na becos we never kill all the Northerners yet?

Chei!

Is it my naija they are discussing in such light?

These oyibos have finally found a way to our soul and made us look incapable of simple home keeping. How on earth has the unthinkable finally become our lot. Just see how we are being ridiculed everywhere.

I suspect a conspiracy in this Boko harram imbroglio with America and her cohorts seeking to balkanise us for their self aggrandizement.

May God expose our detractors.

Calculia: God punish Gordon for that utterance, he must mean Scotland not Nigeria.

God punish Gordon for that utterance, he must mean Scotland not Nigeria.
Nigeria can never be to Britain wat Ivory Coast and all other slaves colonies is to France. No British troops on our soil.

So we said no to the Americans and they reject our oil and sent the British... oyibo no get sense at all.

Abeg! Make them come help us for naija