The federal government cannot put a timeline on the rescue of the 217 Chibok school girls abducted two years ago, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said yesterday.
Speaking in Abuja at a one-day roundtable on vulnerable people in Nigeria and in other conflicts in the country in honour of the Chibok girls and other victims of internal conflicts in the country, the Vice President cautioned that on no account should it be assumed that government was not doing enough to bring back the girls to their families.
He called for patience and caution on the part of Nigerians, assuring that everything that needs to be done to rescue the girls was being done with the help of the international community.
The roundtable was jointly organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser and Presidency. The strategic objective of the roundtable was to provide an avenue for engagement with citizens, relevant Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on issues relating to vulnerable people in insurgency and other conflict situations in Nigeria.
He said the safety and security of the girls is paramount in the efforts of the government to rescue them.
“At every security council meeting that I have attended, the President has always been concerned about Chibok girls. He thinks of how this can be done quickly.
“But it’s a very delicate issue and we cannot say we can deal with it next week. Every rescue attempt must take the safety of the girls into consideration.”
Osinbajo assured that “from the security reported we get, we will be able to bring back the girls but we must exercise some caution and patience and not sound as if it can be done but it’s not being done.”
The Vice President added that apart from the rescue of the girls, the situation of other vulnerable Nigerians remained the focus of the present administration adding that in dealing with the poorest of the poor in the country, there seemed to be a problem around the core subject of what a budget should be.
The Vice President stated that government must pay attention to how programmes were designed as “the soft under belly of our system is that we expose the most vulnerable to the harshest conditions. That’s why the government has come up with intervention programmes including conditional cash transfer.”
Osinbajo said compiling the list of the poorest in the society has been difficult despite the assistance received from some international agencies, but “we must push it”.
In his remarks, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, observed that there has been an increase in the use of children as suicide bombers but stressed the determination of the government to check the trend.
The NSA, represented by Remi Oyewunmi, the NSA assured that government was committed to locating and rescuing the Chibok girls.
Aisha Oyebode of Murtala Mohammed Foundation speaking on behalf of the NGOs noted that the issue of the abducted girls has brought about the issue of security in schools in the country.
The Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, this meeting demonstrates FG’s govt resolve to deal with the issues of security.
In her remarks, Ayo Obe of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group regretted that the round table did not offer hope for the rescue of the Chibok girls.
She reminded the administration that it success did not just depend on recovering territories from terrorists but also rescuing the captives and making their lives more meaningful.
The highlight of the roundtable was when Fatima Hassan, a survivor of Burni Yadi, who in an emotional voice, narrated how she escaped death but her senior colleagues in school were unlucky. She said her father, a business man was ruined with his house burnt and his businesses wiped out.
