Chibok Girls: The Whole Nation Has Failed These Children – Tunde Bakare Laments

Founder of the Latter Rain Gospel Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare yesterday in Abuja, amid tears, chided the Federal Government and entire Nigerians for doing so little to rescue the 219 Chibok girls abducted two years ago.

Bakare, a former political ally of incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari and organizer of the occupy Nigeria protest spoke yesterday in Abuja at a special sit-out of the #BringBackOurGirls, BBOG. Pastor Bakare berated past and present administrations in the country for their failure to rescue the girls saying; “The whole nation has failed these children.”

Pastor Tunde Bakare

According to him; “Parents, families and friends of our dear daughters, I am here today not just to speak to you, but to speak to the nation and to the world as one of you. I’m here as a father burdened by the captivity of our daughters, and I am here as a friend. I am here to express our frustrations and to speak of our undying hope as we wait expectantly for the return of our dear Chibok girls.

“We are not unmindful that the Nigerian state failed to provide security for our daughters as they gathered to write final examinations despite prior intelligence reports that suggested they were in danger.

“It is most severely injurious to see that the fate of our daughters has been frequently politicized. Rather than rise to the occasion as stakeholders and custodians of the security and welfare of the citizens of this nation, political parties and politicians have paid lip service, using our pain and plight of our daughters to score cheap political points.

‘’We are not convinced that the matter of our daughters has been given the needed thoughtfulness.

“We do not believe that those who are in a position to act have taken sufficient actions towards addressing the issue or even towards claiming our anxiety as waiting parents.”

According to him, the girls would have been rescued if they were children of politicians and renowned pastors. The sit out marked 712 days since the girls have been kidnapped and part of BBOG Global Week of Action to mark the two years anniversary of the abduction.

He added that those responsible for the rescue of the girls have not taken sufficient actions in the last two years that the girls have been abducted.

“We do not believe those concerned have taken sufficient actions concerning the rescue of these girls”, he said, expressing optimism that the girls would be rescued even as he prayed God to see to that.

“We believe that they are still alive, at least no evidence, satellite evidence that they are in a mass grave. We believe they are alive. It remains a scar on the soul of this nation until these girls are brought back,” he said.