How Abduction Of Chibok Girls In 2014 Pushed Me Into Politics— Ezekwesili

A former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, has revealed that the abduction of the Chibok school girls in 2014 pushed her into partisan politics in Nigeria.

Ezekwesili who is also the Founder of the School of Politics, Policy, and Governance (SPPG) made this known at the matriculation of the school class of 2024 on Saturday.

On the night of April 15, 2014, about 276 female students aged between 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.

Expressing dissatisfaction, Ezekwesili said she initially thought the girls would be released.

However, as time went by, she knew they would not be returning home immediately.

She said, “Initially, I just hated anyone associating me with politics but it was foolish, and in the process of doing that, Chibok girls were abducted. And when Chibok girls were abducted, I thought it was a matter of about, you know, just to the voice out there for those girls, the weak and vulnerable.

“And then, you know, they would do something, the government would do something, the world would do something, the girls would be found so that we would not have to, you know, lose our moral pedestal for telling parents to send your girls to school.

”It mattered so much to me that we should not lose that, and that, you know, nobody should assault our civilization by saying that education is an abomination or is abhorrent. So it was based on the Chibok girls that over a period, I then had to sort of just realize that girls were not coming back immediately.

“It was too much of a turning point in the way that I saw my country, Nigeria, and governance. And so it was, it got even more as simple when the government of which the girls were adopted, were voted out of office, and the government that succeeded repeated the same pattern of behaviour.

“So, instead of recognizing that and showing that in the way that they focused on the girls and handled their parents, just saw a pattern of behaviour where hideous politics was more important than the lives of those girls.

“And so it was part of the reason why someone like me entered into politics, because it was like, where are we going to get this place, this continent, this country to reflect the kind of governance that comes from the right kind of politics.”

She urged the new matriculant to aim at accountability, public accountability, for that was required to satisfy the present degree of government, which is the security of life, of citizens which is a primary duty and focus of every government.