...First Lady asks women to end protests
First Lady Patience Jonathan has asked all Nigerian women to stop protesting over the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State.
The First Lady said she took the decision due to the absence of the wife of the Borno state governor Hajiya Nana Kashim Shettima at an expanded meeting she called at the Presidential villa in Abuja over the abduction.
“If after today, Borno women say we should not help them, then Nigerian women, don’t demonstrate again. If you demonstrate and police do you anything (sic), you are on your own. Borno women are playing games. Nigerian women should not go out for demonstration. Don’t use school children for demonstration again. Borno women are not ready for cooperation,” she said.
Present at the meeting were wives of the governors of Nasarawa, Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Gombe, Benue, Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
Others were the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Commissioner for Women Affairs, the principal of Chibok Government Secondary School, the chairman of Chibok Local Government Area, the divisional police officer in the area and the troops on duty when the girls were abducted.
She criticised Shettima’s wife for allegedly being unconcerned over the girls’ abduction.
The First Lady suddenly burst into tears, saying repeatedly “God is watching o”.
She however said she could no longer weep more than the bereaved, saying that Shettima’s wife should be the more concerned.
“Before all these killings, I called and told the first lady of Borno State to let us come together. She answered me yes, but when the kidnap happened, I called her, she did not answer me. I invited her; she did not turn up even up till today. No woman will fold her arms when her house is on fire. Today my house is on fire,” she said.
“Before last
Friday,
I called her and she promised to attend the Friday’s meeting here. But to our greatest surprise, she sent her commissioner for women affairs. Also today, she sent her commissioner for women affairs. She is the mother of Borno State. She is the first mother of these missing girls. I am their grandmother. She is not coming out. All Nigerian women are calling her. If she is not concerned and she says she doesn’t want her people to be safe, then it is left to her. If you tell us you are not crying, why I should cry more than the bereaved. If I cry more than the bereaved, the world would ask me a question.”
Challenging all those at the meeting to tell the truth about the girls’ abduction, she said Nigerian women should not join men in the killings.
“People are dying. How can you play politics when you see your fellow human beings dying? Nigerian women, I beg you to support me. Why we will join our husbands to kill others? We want the killings to stop. If we don’t get to know the whereabouts of our daughters, the next thing is they (Boko Haram) will get to us. I am not accusing anybody. My own is let us stop killings and kidnapping. Let us say a stop to these.”