'BRING BACK THEIR GIRLS', WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Icheoku says it appears that the ugly Oby Ezekwesili had made a calculated decision to rein in her motley crew and stop them from marching again as a trade off for her expected slot in the September unveiling of President Muhammadu Buhari cabinet ministers? If this is the case, does it then mean that she never had conviction with her protestation since the Chibok girls are still missing and that she merely carried out her activities just to sabotage the erstwhile President Jonathan's chances at a reelection? Hence, once they succeeded in achieving their objective, mission accomplished President Jonathan's ouster, suddenly the Chibok girls are no longer missing nor kidnapped and/or their cause is no longer of any paramount importance to continue to keep them in the fore-burners? So, where is the ugly duckling Oby Ezekwesili now and what has become of her rabble rousing, menopausal, wild-eyed feminists, who were previously pounding the pavements in Nigeria, protesting the failure to rescue some kidnapped school girls from Chibok? 

Although they paid a courtesy visit to Aso Rock early in July, following so much lull and public outcry, but it seems they have once again simply melted away. Icheoku asks what has become of these anarchists and why have they stopped marching since the Chibok girls have not yet been rescued or was there no Chibok girls to be rescued in the first place? Icheoku has always maintained that the Chibok girls drama was a mere calculated ruse used as part of the script in flushing out the man from Otuoke from Aso Rock. Now with a new president Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock and three months down the road, no one is seriously talking any longer about some kidnapped Chibok girls; including Oby Ezekwesili and her band of rabid females who have equally since stopped marching in this regard? Icheoku asks what is going on and happening with the Chibok girls saga and who is fooling who in Nigeria; a matter not help because the level of gullibility usually exhibited by Nigerians in issues of this nature is indeed very high. 

With the visit to Aso Rock, the 'Bring Back Their Girls' motley crew seems to have adopted a different approach to "Bringing Back their girls?" Instead of their usual rowdy protestations, these hired guns have now chosen to dialogue with the government instead, a courtesy they never extended to the former President Jonathan of Otuoke and if they did, was never in this respectful manner with which they approached the new sheriff in town, the man from Daura. A sort of change of modus operandi in their operational tactic, one would say. It was no longer business as usual with their usual streets-creed themed rowdy protestations. Instead they made a more dignified b-line to Aso Rock where they were warmly received in audience by one of their mentors and the beneficiary-in-chief of their crass activism, President Muhammadu Buhari. Although Icheoku has nothing against their latest change in strategic thinking, to dialogue with the president instead of raising hell on the streets of Nigeria, but says if only they extended the same courtesy to the former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom they helped hound out of office. Anyway, what is done is done as the man from Otuoke has since scurried back to his native Bayelsa State, but let us hope that Ms Oby Ezekwesili will keep faith and continue her marching until those Chibok Girls regain their freedom; assuming there were any Chibok Girls that were kidnapped in the first place to begin with. 

It is also noteworthy that over sixty days have passed since the "Bring Back their Girls" supported party, APC, won the presidency and were sworn into office; yet those Chibok girls which they are "bringing back" have not been brought back? Those Chibokans are still in their kidnappers' mercy and custody, neither located nor rescued, thus leaving Icheoku and millions of other thinking Nigerians wondering, what's going on really? Why has Oby Ezekwesili and her band of agitators lowered the heat of their agitation with those Chibok girls still out there and yet to be rescued? Why have they tempered their protestations and bomb-throwing fiery speeches or is the rescue of those girls from Chibok no longer as important today as they were during the dying days of President Jonathan's presidency? Is this another vindication of former maximum ruler Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who once asserted that every Nigeria but the late Gani Fawehimni has a price and once you make them an offer they cannot refuse, they will bite?  So could the information that Oby Ezekwesili has been wooed with a promise of a ministerial appointment in President Muhammadu Buhari's coming September cabinet and thus compromised her agitation for the rescue of those Chibok girls, indeed be true? 

Anyway, in the affairs of man, it is always what profits them most that usually counts and comes first; so Icheoku fully understands if and why the wind has suddenly been taken out of the sail of the 'Bring Back Their Girls' activism. This is a clear indication that Oby Ezekwesili desperately wants to secure a slot in President Muhammadu Buhari's cabinet and would bury her conscience in order to achieve that. Oby Ezekwesili also knows that the man from Daura, unlike the one from Otuoke,  does not care a hoot about what Oby Ezekwesili thinks; neither would he be moved by an Oby Ezekwesili organized and led bunch of meno-pausal feminists walking the streets of Nigeria, protesting the none rescue of some kidnapped Chibok school girls. On a hindsight, Icheoku says if only Jonathan of Otuoke had deployed the Okadigbo tear-gas on this 'Bring Back Their Girls' activists when it would have mattered most, possibly he would be enjoying his second term now. But hey, what is done is done and in some cases cannot be undone as was the Jonathan's planned second term which suffered a miscarriage and was aborted. So from Icheoku to Oby Ezekwesili and crew, until the Chibok girls are rescued, Nigerians will not accept anything less from you. So start marching again and start shouting more loudly until those girls from Chibok regain their freedom. Just make sure to pressure President Muhammadu Buhari to 'Bring Back those Your Girls' the same way you pressured Jonathan of Otuoke, as anything short of their release will be unacceptable to Nigerians.