Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on the Federal Government to intensify its efforts to bring back the missing Chibok girls.
At the one year anniversary of the kidnap of the schoolgirls, who were abducted by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014, in Lagos on Tuesday, Soyinka urged Nigerians to support the government in its efforts to crush the insurgents and bring back the girls held hostage by Boko Haram.
On Monday, the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, had promised to do everything possible to find the missing girls if they were still alive.
Soyinka said, “We must make sure that such assault on our humanity doesn’t happen again.
The survival of humanity and of the nation must remain paramount.”
According to him, terrorism is not peculiar to Nigeria and may not end soon.
“However, we must not get used to it.
Our children are being dehumanised.
I believe that our responsibility is to assist by becoming vigilant.
We must become policemen and policewomen, vigilante of our communities.
We must encourage others to be protective members of their community,” Soyinka said.
Also speaking at the event, political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, said since the kidnap of the Chibok girls last year, many Nigerians had their hearts held hostage.
“For one year, our conscience have been held hostage.
Anyone whose conscience has not been held hostage is not a human being.
Terror is not something we can tolerate in our society.
It is something we must stamp out.
“We are not going to stay in our house and fold our arms.
We must stand up to those whose way of life is terror because we are much more than them.
Today is also not just about to sing Bring Our Girls Back, but to stay together to fight for what is right,” Utomi said.
Similarly, wife of the late human rights activists, Gani Fawehinmi, Ganiat Fawehinmi, said she was convinced in the ability of the President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhamadu Buhari(retd.), to crush the Boko Haram insurgency.
According to the convener of the event and President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, the anniversary was a way of telling the Federal Government that it owed Nigerians the responsibility of finding the missing girls.(Punch)
Consolator Okaneme liked this on Facebook.