10th September, 2014
Ayodele Oluokun/Abuja
Pesident Goodluck Jonathan has directed that the #BringBackJonathan2015 signs and banners posted in different parts of Abuja by Goodluck Initiative for Transformation (GIFT) be removed.
Many Nigerians have described the #BringBackGoodluck2015 adapted from the #BringBackOurGirls campaign used to draw global attention to the Jonathan’s administration slow response to the abduction of over 200 Chibok girls by Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, in April this year as repulsive.
Even more repugnant to many is the fact that the banners are also hoisted around the area where the #BringBackOurGirls groups usually hold their daily sitting during which they tasked government to do more to bring back the abducted girls who are yet to be rescued nearly five months after.
The Jonathan 2015 group has also in imitation of the group campaigning for the abducted school girls been sitting daily with poor women it chauffeurs from various parts of Abuja. They sit few metres away from the where the #BringBackOurGirls group usually sat.
Many commentators have condemned what they described as the obvious mockery of the efforts to ginger government to rescue the girls by the pro Jonathan group. In an article titled “This May Be the Most Inappropriate Political Hashtag of the Year”, the Washington Post echoes what many believe while Jonathan has not officially endorsed the new hashtag, “its seeming ubiquity suggests that he is not opposed to it”.
But while informing Nigerians that the president has directed that the banners be immediately taken down on Wednesday Reuben Abati, the president’s spokesperson said Jonathan shared the view that the #BringBackGoodluck2015 signs, apparently backing his re-election next year, were “offensive and repugnant”.
“President Jonathan wholly shares the widely expressed view that the signs which were put up without his knowledge or approval are a highly insensitive parody of the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag,” he added.
The #BringBackOurGirls campaign on Twitter, backed by ordinary people and celebrities across the world, forced Nigeria’s government to act after Boko Haram snatched the teenagers from the remote northeast town of Chibok in April.
It prompted a series of street protests worldwide and contributed to international help from countries such as the United States, France and Britain to find the girls.
The insurgents are still holding 219 of the girls, despite Nigeria’s military announcing that they know where they are being held and high-tech foreign surveillance and intelligence assistance.
Abati said the posters which have been seen around the capital, Abuja, “appear to make light of the very serious national and global concern for the abducted Chibok girls”.
“The President assures all Nigerians and the international community that his administration remains fully engaged with efforts to rescue the abducted girls and that he will not knowingly promote any actions that will fly in the face of the seriousness of their plight and the anguish of their families.”