KANO (AFP) – Relatives of some of the schoolgirls seized in a mass kidnapping by Boko Haram demanded Wednesday that Nigeria’s president meet everyone affected, describing a hastily-arranged plan for a visit with a select few as offensive.

More than three months after the Islamist rebels seized 276 girls from a secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok, President Goodluck Jonathan has not met the parents of the hostagesor with any of the 57 girls who haveescaped.Visiting Nigeria this week to campaign for the girls’ release, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a 2012 assassination attempt by the Taliban, urged Jonathan to hold face-to-face talks with those touched by the abductions.

A meeting scheduled for Tuesday was called off at the last minute, with the presidency saying the families had been manipulated by activists who are exploiting the hostage crisis to damage Jonathan politically.

But Chibok community leaders told AFP that if Jonathan truly wants make amends for his disappointing response to the abductions, he should visit the town, or, at the very least, bring all the victims to Nigeria’s capital.-

‘We deserve a visit’ -

“It is embarrassing that the president had to wait for Malala to come all the way to Nigeria to convince him to meet with us threemonths after the attack,” said Dauda Iliya, a member of the Chibok panel of elders.

“We deserve a visit by the president,” he added, saying that if Jonathan cannot go to the remote northeastern town for security reasons, he can bring “all the 219 mothers to meet with him. This meeting should not be selective.

”Jonathan had scheduled a visit to Chibok in May but called it off at the last minute, without providing an explanation.“For more than three months all weare praying for is for Goodluck to come and see what happened to us and see us crying,” said Ayuba Chibok, whose nieces are among the hostages.

“If our governor (Kashim Shettima of Borno State) was able to come and go back safely, why can’t the president, with all his helicopters,” he added.Jonathan on Monday asked to meet a small delegation of parents and escapees who were selected by Chibok leaders to travel to Abuja togreet Malala.

Chibok residents said the group would have faced significant backlash at home had they met the president.“It would have been a big insult to those of us who were not present,” said a father of a girl who was kidnapped, requesting anonymity.Jonathan spokesman Doyin Okupe charged that the group had been co-opted by the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, which includes some of the president’s political opponents.

Okupe told journalists the presidency had formally asked victims to meet Jonathan next week, but the venue and number invited was not immediately clear.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/bringbackourgirls-embarrassing-jonathan-wait-malalas-visit-convince-meet-us/

Their level of immaturity knows no bounds, ‎​yes GEJ shld've visited months ago but didn't,now he(the president of their nation) invites them and they refused,pride!!why not meet him and get to know what he has to say,the priority shld be to get the girls safety and not get involved in the dirty politics of our land

nedu2000: Their level of immaturity knows no bounds, ‎​yes GEJ shld've visited months ago but didn't,now he(the president of their nation) invites them and they refused,pride!!why not meet him and get to know what he has to say,the priority shld be to get the girls safety and not get involved in the dirty politics of our land

Politics should not always be an excuse for official incompetence, inactions and dereliction of duty.

aresa:



Politics should not always be an excuse for official incompetence, inactions and dereliction of duty.

of course it shouldn't be,FG has portrayed all you've mentioned,but the parents shld know that,unfortunate as it maybe the FG are the only ones with the might to rescue their daughters,so they invite you for a visit its wise to accept. It could be to brief them on efforts made, ‎​yes GEJ should've visited chibok, ‎​yes he should've met with them earlier but scrutiny can come after the girls 'ave returned,as for now we share a common enemy & that monster will be grinning on hearing this news

.... No missing 219 girls or thereabout
....Thus no parent of missing girls

But 1 thing for sure is that the chibok scam is coming to an end.

nedu2000: Their level of immaturity knows no bounds, ‎​yes GEJ shld've visited months ago but didn't,now he(the president of their nation) invites them and they refused,pride!!why not meet him and get to know what he has to say,the priority shld be to get the girls safety and not get involved in the dirty politics of our land

^^^Pride.....and prejudice!

The truth is this,It was a political abduction & the girls hav rturned Home,shikena!!!Dat is y all those foreigners LEFT THE STAGE!

nedu2000: of course it shouldn't be,FG has portrayed all you've mentioned,but the parents shld know that,[b]unfortunate as it maybe the FG are the only ones with the might to rescue their daughters,[/b]so they invite you for a visit its wise to accept. It could be to brief them on efforts made, ‎​yes GEJ should've visited chibok, ‎​yes he should've met with them earlier but scrutiny can come after the girls 'ave returned,as for now we share a common enemy & that monster will be grinning on hearing this news

You are right, but unfortunately, the man refused and wont rescue the girls, the girls are permanently condemned to marry and have babies with BH simply because he refused to negotiate their release and also refused to use force to have them released.

So, of what use is any meeting with this mean spirited and I don't care president?

All we need from this man is action and getting back our girls, not some silly meeting and photo opportunity..

In fact, do we really need a grown man, a father with his own kids and the president of a whole country to be told by a 17 year old girl old from another country to do his job or to show compassion 3 months after the girls were kidnapped?


I wonder how this heartless man go to bed at night knowing his own kids are safe while others he refused to help and care for not are not.

Jonathan has never visited bornu state since 2011

Jonathan and his Boko Handlers wanted to impress Malala. What a shame.