Bring Back Our Girls Group: Buhari appoints Founder, Hadiza Bala Usman as new MD, NPA.

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, the founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Group as Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Her appointment is effective July 11, 2016, according to a federal government tweet at handle @AsoRock.

The President also appointed three persons as Executive Directors at the NPA.

They are: Mohammed Bello-Koko (Finance), Professor Idris Abubakar (Engineering) and Dr Sekonte Davies (Marine Operations).

Hadiza, 40, takes over from Alhaji Habib Abdullahi, who was removed following the recommendations of Transport Minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, THEWILL reports.

Until her appointment, Hadiza was serving as the chief of staff to the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai and is a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

She is married to Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, the once very influential former Chief Economic Adviser to the deceased President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

PM NEWS

WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION: Sagay heads advisory committee full of Profs…

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption headed by Professor Itse Sagay, a prominent professor of law and civil rights activist.

The Committee’s brief, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, is to advise the present administration on the prosecution of the war against corruption and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system.

Other members of the Committee, which is also expected to develop comprehensive interventions for achieving recommended reforms, are:

(i) Prof. Femi Odekunle
Professor of Criminology, Ahmadu Bello University
– Member

(ii) Dr. (Mrs) Benedicta Daudu
Associate Professor of International Law, University of Jos
– Member

(iii) Prof. E. Alemika
Professor of Sociology, University of Jos
– Member

(iv) Professor Sadiq Radda
Professor of Criminology, Bayero University, Kano
– Member

(v) Hadiza Bala Usman
Civil Society Activist
– Member

(vi) Professor Bolaji Owasanoye
Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Member/Executive Secretary of the Committee

In support of the Federal Government’s efforts, an Anti-Corruption and Criminal Justice Reform Fund has been established by three international development partners namely the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Foundation.

The $5 million fund is to assist implementation of key components of the Action Plan and the work of the Presidential Advisory Committee.

The fund will be managed by Trust Africa, an international development Civil Society Organisation with programme presence in more than 25 African countries.

BOLD STATEMENT: Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (@elrufai) names #BringBackOurGirls Convener, Hadiza Bala Usman as Chief of Staff (@hadizabalausman)

Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has appointed a new Chief of Staff. She is Hadiza Bala Usman, a well-known figure in the APC where she served in a number of committees and capacities, key amongst which are: the Administrative Secretary of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization, Member Secretary APC Elections Planning Committee, Member APC Strategy Committee. She was also Director of Finance in the Nasir El-Rufai Campaign Organization, and later the Kaduna State APC Campaign Council.

 

Hadiza Bala Usman was born in Zaria where her father, the famous radical historian Yusufu Bala Usman, was lecturing at the university. Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman himself later became Secretary to the Kaduna State government during the Balarabe Musa administration. She started her primary education at ABU Staff School, attended ABU Demonstration Secondary School and earned a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2000. She later obtained an MA in Development Studies from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, in 2009.

 

Hadiza worked at the Bureau Of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 2000 until 2004 when she was hired by the UNDP for the Federal Capital Territory Administration [FCTA] from October 2004 – January 2008 as a Special Assistant to the FCT  Minister on Project Implementation. Since 2011, she has been Director of Strategy for the Good Governance Group (3G).

 

In April 2014, she co-founded the global movement #BringBackOurGirls which has been demanding for the rescue of the 219 young girls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State North East Nigeria.

 

Hadiza has been internationally recognized for her contributions. Financial Times [FT] named her amongst the most influential women of 2014, while  CNN chose her as the  most inspiring woman of 2014. Ebony Magazine also named her amongst the 100 most influential black women in the world in 2014. In August 2014 she gave touching speech on Chibok Girls at the United Nations Headquarters in New York  during UN DPI conference as a guest speaker.

 

Similarly, the government has announced the appointments of Bashir Dabo as Special Assistant, New Media, and Mrs. Saude Amina Mohammed as Personal Secretary to the governor.

 

Mohammed is a graduate of Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Advertising and Marketing from Coventry University, UK. As a researcher with the Good Governance Group, she provided support for the  work of Malam Nasir El-Rufai on the critically acclaimed budget series published in his weekly newspaper column. She also featured as a guest writer during the young voices series published in Thisday and Peoples Daily. Most recently, she has served as Secretary to the finance sub-committee of the Kaduna State APC Transition Committee.

 

Saude is the grand-daughter of the Reverend Canon H.O Mohammed of Wusasa, Zaria, who was the former Chief Commissioner of the Public Complaints Commission and Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau.

 

Bashir Dabo holds an M.Sc. in International Business Management from the University of Bedforshire, United Kingdom and a Master’s in International Affairs and Diplomacy from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was assistant coordinator of the Kaduna State APC Situation Room for the 2015 elections.

 

Signed

I

Samuel Aruwan

Special Assistant, Media and Publicity

29 June, 2015

#BringBackOurGirls plan events for 100 days of schoolgirls abduction.

BBOG Press release:

#BringBackOurGirls Day 100: THE NIGERIAN CITIZEN WILL NOT
BE SILENCED:

Wednesday, July 23rd will mark 100 days since 276 girls were savagely abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State. 57 escaped and 219 remain in captivity.

The families and community have suffered deep anguish seeking effective rescue to end the peril that befell their daughters who had gone to school in search of knowledge.

In those 100 days, the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign has focused on creating awareness of the abduction to ensure that it is a priority issue requiring action and compelling the right sets of action for a positive outcome. We have engaged various stakeholders – the Presidency, the National Assembly, the office of the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defense Staff, the Borno State Government & other State Governments, ECOWAS member countries and UN agencies to name a few.

Through our various meetings, our singular message has been to demand that the Federal Government perform its fundamental duty of ensuring the security and the welfare of its citizens. As we denounce the wave of terror and insecurity across the country, we continue to demand that the Federal Government deploy its resources to ensure that the missing girls are brought home, and the errors leading from three-weeks of delayed action are remedied.

Citizens who have insisted on standing with our girls and ensuring they are not forgotten are heartbroken that our daughters and sisters are about to spend 100 days with their evil captors.

To amplify our voices in demanding that these girls be brought home now and alive, on the 100th day, there will be a variety of activities around the world. These include:

• Ibadan: Press Conference at the BRECAN Centre at 10 am
• Abuja: Special Sit-out Ceremony at the Unity Fountain at 3 pm
• Lagos: Remembrance service at the Wall of Missing Girls at Falomo
Roundabout at 4pm
• New York: Candlelight vigil at the Nigerian Consulate at 5.30pm.

There will also be events in India, Pakistan, the UK and most world capitals where there are teachers’ organisations in partnership with the UN Special Envoy’s Office of Gordon Brown. Organisations participating are World at School, Girls not Brides, Global March Against Child Labour, Walk Free, Educational International and ITa.

The continued pattern of intolerance to the activities of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign is at variance with our effort to promote healthy civic engagement by citizens to strengthen the resolve of government to rescue the girls.

As days become weeks and months and our girls are separated from their parents and their community, our singular focus remains on their safe return in the shortest possible time.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Signed:

Hadiza Bala Usman, Abuja
Oby Ezekwesili, Abuja
Aisha Oyebode, Lagos
Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, Lagos
Betty Anyanwy-Akeredolu, Ibadan
Amina Hanga, Kano
Eleanor Ann Nwadinobi, Enugu

#BringBackOurGirls Campaign Team Meets With Army Generals; here is the briefing prepared by Oby Ezekwsili, Saudatu Mahdi and Hadiza Bala Usman.

After five intensive days of rallies and marches to the National Assembly and the Office of the National Security Adviser, the #BringBackOurGirls Movement marched yesterday to the Defence Headquarters to hold a scheduled meeting with the military high command. The objective of the meeting was to articulate our concerns and obtain a detailed briefing from the Armed Forces on the state of play relative to our demand to BringBackOurGirls. After a two-hour march, we were received at the office of the Chief of Defence Staff by a formidable team of Generals.

We stated the following concerns and demands. Since Monday 14^th April 2014 when over 200 young female students from the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State were abducted by heavily armed men, millions around the world have been unable to come to terms with the loss. We arrive at the military High Command on behalf of millions of Nigerian women and men to call on the Federal Government and the security agencies to find and bring back these girls currently living in captivity:

1)    We expressed our concern over the fact that three weeks after the abduction, there is still no substantive newsfeed or public evidence on what is being done to rescue the girls;

2)    We expressed our surprise at how it could be possible in this age of drones, Google Maps, and aerial surveillance that over 200 girls would vanish without a trace.

3)    We queried why there was no protection for these children in schools in the North East in spite of the advance warning derived from the devastation and pain of the 59 innocent children murdered in Federal Government College, Buni Yadi on February 25^th 2014.

4)    We questioned how under a state of emergency, 4 trucks and numerous motor bikes could be deployed, move in a convoy, unleash terror on the school at Chibok for four hours unchallenged and then flee with over 200 girls to a location yet to be determined by Nigeria’s security institutions.

5)    We asked for explanations of why, despite the massive increase in security spending (up to N1 trillion in 2013 and N845 Billion in 2014), Nigerians are not safer; and our security and military personnel are reported to be under equipped and ill prepared to face the ever-growing security challenges confronting the country.

6)    We drew the attention of the Military High Command that it is their responsibility to BringBackOurGirls and that we needed to know why that had not yet happened.

7)    We demanded for significant bulge in ground troops to raise action capacity and adequacy.

The military high command responded with a detailed power point presentation of their efforts so far and requested that for the sake of the security of the girls and the success of the operations, we should not divulge some of the confidential information provided. They assured us of the following:

1. Troops are effectively deployed on the ground, are making steady progress in the efforts to rescue the girls and the results of their efforts will soon become apparent.
2. The operation is difficult and delicate and to avoid providing vital information to the enemy, they have been discrete about their activities.
3. Intelligence is a vital part of asymetrical warfare and all citizens should commit to feeding accurate and useful information to our security agencies.

Following elaborate discussions and debate, the following challenges were identified as vital elements on which the whole country should work to ensure that the girls are rescued as soon as possible and alive:

1. There has been a decline in trust and confidence between the military and local communities, a situation that has played in favour of the enemy and the time has come for confidence building and cooperation among all stakeholders, the Federal Government, State and Local Governments, security agencies and local communities.
2. There has been a deficit of information flow and communication between the security agencies and citizens, and there is an urgent need to address this lacuna even if it is understood that for security reasons, operational details might not be revealed.
3. Over the past three years, a lot of resources have been provided for security agencies. We require security budget analysis to provide information on Value for Money, (budget effectiveness and efficiency), and the use of the information obtained for better prioritization and/or augmentation with the key objective of better equipping and resourcing of operations.
4. There is need for an Operational Review of current Counter Insurgency Strategy and design of an Accountability Matrix to accompany the process by using Chibok as a test case.
5. Building the morale of our troops is a collective responsibility and we should do all that is possible to maintain their morale while they will need to demonstrate their commitment and resolve to #BringBackOurGirls.
6. These interactions between the armed forces and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign should be sustained.

In view of the commencement of the World Economic Forum starting today Wednesday, our sittings are temporarily shifted to Maitama Amusement park at the normal time of 3 p.m.

Dr Oby Ezekwsili, Hajia Saudatu Mahdi and Hadiza Bala Usman, prepared this report on behalf of the undersigned of the Women for Justice & Peace Under the auspices of the Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN)