Why we shunned meeting with Jonathan – Chibok girls’ parents

The members of the Chibok Community and representatives of the 12 fathers and five escaped girls have absolved the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners of complicity in their decision to shun the meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sequel to a request made by the Girl-Child Education Campaigner, Malala Yousfazi, President Jonathan agreed to meet with some of the parents and five of the girls that escaped from their abductors, Boko Haram, at 4pm on Tuesday.
However, the meeting could not hold because the parents and the escaped girls did not show up.
Speaking on the issue, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, accused the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners of not allowing the parents to honour presidential invitation.
But addressing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, Dauda Iliya, the spokesperson of Chibok community in Abuja, under the umbrella of Kibaku (Chibok) Area Development Association, said the visit of the parents of the kidnapped girls to Abuja was on the invitation of Malala and not Jonathan.
According to Iliya, it was, therefore, totally misleading, unjust and without foundation to hold the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja Movement responsible.
He said: “The logistics and meeting between the 12 fathers and five girls and Malala was facilitated by the Abuja Chibok community and Citizen’s platform, BringBackOurGirls, with our consent and on trust, considering their sustained and focused advocacy to Bring Back our daughters.
“These parents and escaped girls did not come to Abuja at the instance of government or its representatives for a meeting with Mr. President but on the full understanding that they were coming to meet with Malala.
“That in the course of the interactions with Malala, neither the parents nor the escaped girls asked for a meeting with the President or any government functionary.
“Rather, the narrative back home was to persistently ask why Mr. President has not visited them in Chibok since the abduction.
“It is obvious that the numbers of 12 fathers and five girls is about two per cent of the parents of the 219 abducted girls still by their abductors and the 57 girls that escaped.
“Therefore, these parents decided on their own accord to review the announced visit of Mr. President, which they first heard of, like other persons during Malala’s speech at Hilton hotel.
“That consequent to their decision to revert to other family members in order to incorporate every stakeholder on the matter as well as avoid discord and suspicion on a change of plans from original mission to Abuja, they reached out to the Malala team and through them to the Presidency to request for a new date for an expanded and more representative meeting that has legitimate mandate to meet with the President”.
The spokesperson said they decided to request for a new date for the meeting, having recognised the huge opportunity of a meeting with the President for the first time and after 90 days of the tragic abduction of their daughters.”
Iliya confirmed they received a formal invitation from the Presidency on Wednesday and are eager to meet with Jonathan.
“We therefore take full responsibility for our decision and welcome the formal invitation by the Presidency as a follow up to Malala’s visit, which we received this morning,” he said.