Journalist accuses FG of abandoning Chibok girls, says counterparts in US faring better

Chika Oduah, an award-winning journalist, has accused the federal government of abandoning the rescued Chibok girls in Nigeria.

In an interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica, Oduah claimed that the Nigerian government has stopped paying the school fees of the girls.

Chika, who was the first journalist to visit Chibok after their abduction by Boko Haram, said the girls taken to the United States have been fully integrated into the society, unlike their Nigerian counterparts.

She commended the organisers of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement for their efforts in drawing global attention to the abduction, adding that although most of them are focused on tackling other issues in Nigeria, they are still bent on rescuing the remaining missing girls.

“I got a message from one of them a few weeks ago saying that the government has stopped paying her school fees and asking for my help,” Odyah said.

“Obviously, these ones who were taken back to Chibok have been abandoned by the government.”

She also condemned the killings in the south-east by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), noting that her support for the struggle remains strong.

Oduah accused the federal government of blocking the website of her Biafra War Memories Project in the country, which has interviews of witnesses of the war.

“I didn’t know that IPOB would descend to the level of killing the people they claim to be fighting for in such a cruel, brutal way,” she added

“The support for the Biafra cause is still very strong in the region even though many people have begun to question the methods being used by IPOB.

“The website of the Biafra War Memories Project, which I started in 2017 and in which I have interviewed hundreds of people, cannot be accessed from Nigeria because it was blocked by the government. The blockage happened around 2018, and till today, it has not been lifted.”