Former
Education Minister and now leader of the Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG, group, Oby
Ezekwesili, has responded to a group led by President Muhammadu Buhari’s
daughter, advising it against the use of the BBOG name for fund raising.
The Africa Support and
Empowerment Initiative, AFRISEI, led by Hadiza Buhari-Bello, had earlier
rejected allegations of franchise infringement by the Bring Back Our Girls,
BBOG, group.
“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,” the group
said in a statement Friday.
It followed BBOG’s
criticism of the use of the group’s inscription at the signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding on the Chibok Girls Endowment Project, which took place on
Monday in Abuja.
The BBOG demanded an
immediate retraction and unreserved apology from the organisers of the event,
and urged the public to disregard attempts at linking the group to the event.
However, Mrs.
Buhari-Bello said contrary to the allegation, AFRISEI did not need to lean on
the BBOG to be of service to the Chibok Girls.
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 her organisation
had broader objectives beyond the Chibok girls.
“Given the size of the
problem at hand, the more organisations we have assisting Chibok and other
devastated communities, the better for the country,” her group said.
She
said, 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.”
But Mrs. Ezekwesili
responded on Twitter Friday,
insisting the BBOG should not be mired in request for donations.
“What’s hard to
understand? From the outset in 2014, @BBOG_Nigeria DECIDED
that the Movement shall NEVER be mired in DONATIONS. Simple,” she tweeted.
“WE, @BBOG_Nigeria DON’T
RAISE FUNDS. If your organization is RAISING FUNDS, don’t call it “BBOG
STAKEHOLDERS”. ETHICS matter, not so?
“A people that keep
blurring the lines between Good and Bad,” she wrote.
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