Parents and schoolmates of the 219 schoolgirls held captive by Boko Haram extremists refused at the last minute on Tuesday to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan, who accused activists of “playing politics.”
On Monday, there was a renewed call for Jonathan to meet with the parents of the girls by Pakistan education-activist Malala Yousafzai but in a shocking twist the president was snubbed by the parents.
“I want to be clear, this government stands with complete solidarity with the girls and their parents. We are doing everything in our power to bring back our girls,” he said Tuesday after the meeting was cancelled. “As a father of girls, I stand ready to meet with the parents of our abducted children and the truly brave girls that have escaped this nightmare through the grace of God,” Malala said during a visit to Aso Rock.
Jonathan who least expected the action of the parents said: “It now appears that our fight to get the girls of Chibok back is not only a fight against a terrorist insurgency, but also against a political opposition.”
The girls who were kidnapped on 14 April, about three months ago, has been plagued by politics from the start. According to AP, the wife of president, Patience Jonathan claimed the kidnappings never occurred and were being fabricated by her husband’s enemies to damage his image.
She also had two leading activists briefly arrested, and relations between the government, security forces and the #BringBackOurGirls movement have been tense ever since.
At one point in May when the activists tried to stage a peaceful march to present their demands to Jonathan, they were blocked by soldiers and police.
On Tuesday, security agents locked the doors to the National Assembly, preventing the campaigners from attending a scheduled meeting with the Senate president, said Rotimi Olawale, a spokeswoman for the campaign. It seems the campaigners then persuaded the parents and girls not to meet with the president, who has faced international condemnation for his slow response to mount a campaign to rescue the girls.
“My priority is not politics. My priority is the return of these girls,” Jonathan’s statement said. He accused the Nigerian chapter of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign of “psychological terrorism … playing politics with the situation and the grief of the parents and the girls. They should be ashamed of their actions.”
Jonathan has never met with the parents or the escaped girls, though they have been asking to meet with him for weeks. In May, he canceled without explanation a trip to Chibok, the remote northeast town where the girls were kidnapped.
Politics probably played a part in that cancellation since Chibok is in the northeastern state of Borno, which is governed by an opposition politician very critical of Jonathan.
