Name anyone who has abandoned a cause as shamelessly as Obi Ezekwesili has. I cannot think of any.
Thinking of any, my mind takes me to Malaila who was shot in he neck and yet has continued her quest to see the Muslim girlchild educated. No politics or fear of safety has deterred this young woman. For that movies are made of her. She is not trying to hide from the public.
Hide from the public? Neither Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa or anyone with a cause has ever dreamed of that. They go at their cause hammer and tong.
Hammer and tong was how Obiageli Ezekwesili went at the Chibok girl issue. She went at it so viciously and brutally tht she made the Time 100 Most Influential. CNN, BBC and all global media came calling, begging for interviews and she gladly gave each with glee. She took women from their husbands bedrooms and they laid siege on Abuja demanding government action on the missing Chibok girls. She told everyone Goodluck Jonathan was culpable by his action and inaction and voting Buhari would #Bringbackourgirls.
#bringbackourgirls was the sinsong. Even Mrs Obama sang the song as beautifully as a nightingale. Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes all joined the choir, Obiageli the able conductor. The songs were to see the girls brought back and she promised PROMISED not to stop until each girl was reunited with her family and community.
What has happened to the promise? The Nigerian people and the world saw her target, Goodluck Jonathan removed. They oversaw her darling Buhari, who she SWORE would #bringbackourgirls elected and so the world waited for her now to urge on Buhari to fulfil her promise to the world about the girls. Now that the incompetent Jonathan was out, her FIRE MUST INCREASE and and ensure that Buhari
#Bringbackourgirls? Like Ofe-Owerri left under the bed for 5 days, suddenly Obiageli tries to wash the struggle away. On her plate have come more important things. The women are dispersed to go back to their husband’s bedroom and MULTIPLY as her pastor husband must be preaching from the Bible. No longer are they to abandon their homes. One meeting or two with Buhari and some face-saving, some lip-service (no literal reference to her massive ones) and voila. #Bringbackourgirls is DOA, dead on arrival…on arrival of Buhari.
DOA is all that she has stood for, all that has brought her true fame. DEAD on arrival of Buhari. Not even a single girl has been rescued, NOT ONE. Still Nigerians do not truly have a face to any of the grils. Never has she held up a picture of any nor truly shown us the face of a parent. For a thing that happened in our era and at a time when faces go viral, still we really do not knw the faces of the parents nr children. The pictures we have are from some foreign magazine. No baby pictures, no school-girl-girl-standing-in-front-of-flower, no remembrance of friends of 300 girls. Years later, no facebook posts of their friends and family remembering them or praying for them. No church or Mosque services telling us they used to worship there and mourning their members. The only persons who remembers them and FAMOUSLY so have all been appointed to public offices and file-carrying for El Rufai is more important than 300 of our daughters. The only one yet to be appointed is Obiageli Ezekwesili.
Obiageli Ezekwesili, with #Bringbackourgirls DEAD, perhaps all that remains ALIVE for her is hope of a well-deserved Federal Appointment. Surely Chibok role in the elections ought guarantee her a place at the table? Surely she deserves it.
What she deserves most surely is to hide away, to slink away in shame. No one in history has abandoned a cause that defined their lives as easily as Obiageli has deserted the hapless Chibok Girls. Who shall be their champion now??? SHAME SHAME OBIAGELI. Do hideaway in SHAME!
