Hadiza Buhari-Bello, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu
Buhari, has faulted a statement credited to a former Minister of
Education, Oby Ezekwesili, that she is using her Africa Support and
Empowerment Initiative, AFRISEI, to infringe on the franchise of the
Bring Back Our Girls group.
The BBOG advocacy group via statement
jointly signed by Aisha Yesufu and Oby Ezekwesili had dissociated BBOG
group from a fund-raising event organised by Hadiza Buhari-Bello,
daughter of Nigeria’s president.
The event tagged: “Official
Inauguration and Signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the
Chibok Girls Endowment Project”, took place at the Peace Corps of
Nigeria premises, Abuja, on Oct. 17, with the #BringBackOurGirls
inscription on the backdrop.
While demanding an immediate
retraction and unreserved apology from the organisers of the event, the
BBOG also urged the general public to disregard attempts at linking the
group to the event.
However, in a statement co-signed by the
President and Secretary of the NGO, Hajiya Hadiza Buhari-Bello and Don
Uche, respectively stated that contrary to Yesufu and Ezekwesili’s
allegation, AFRISEI did not need to lean on the BBOG to be of service to
the Chibok Girls.
They maintained that they had no reason “to steal anything from BBOG or use its name to achieve any advantage.
“The
Africa Support and Empowerment Initiative has its own defined
objectives and that it didn’t need to steal anybody’s ideas to operate
in line with its own objectives’’.
While
praising the activities of the BBOG to raise and sustain awareness
about the plight of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, the President’s
daughter said that their organisation had broader objectives beyond the
Chibok girls.
They said though the Chibok girls were within the
priority of their organisation, their commitments to humanitarian causes
did not end with Chibok schoolgirls.
“Given the size of the
problem at hand, the more organisations we have assisting Chibok and
other devastated communities, the better for the country,’’ they said.
According
to them, as a charitable organisation, AFRISEI is committed to
empowering the youth and the less privileged in the area of job creation
and skill acquisition.
“It is also committed to supporting the
education of the less privileged students, giving material support to
the downtrodden; the internally displaced persons.
“AFRISEI is
committed to educating the masses to discourage unhealthy practices such
as child trafficking, child abuse, child labour and gender
discrimination’’.
The AFRISEI president and secretary said there
was no law that prevented their organisation from assisting the Chibok
schoolgirls, adding that as a charity organisation, they offered help to
people in distress, including the Chibok girls and the Boko Haram
victims.
They noted that AFRISEI was duly registered with the
Corporate Affairs Commission and issued certificate of incorporation on
July 14, and hence would never engage in illegal activities by stealing
someone else’s franchise.
