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.”
Source:PM News
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