President's Daughter Lambasts Oby Ezekwesili Over Chibok Girls' Franchise Claim

Hadiza Buhari-Bello

In a statement released on Friday, Hadiza Buhari-Bello, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari, has faulted a statement credited to a former Minister of Education and leader of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili.

According to a report by Punch, the former minister had alleged that the president's daughter is using her Africa Support and Empowerment Initiative (AFRISEI) to infringe on the franchise of Bring Back Our Girls group.

Hadiza Buhari-Bello, who spoke on the statement she jointly signed with AFRISEI Secretary, Don Uche, said her organisation was a responsible body that would never engage in illegal activities by stealing someone else’s franchise.

She explained that contrary to Ezekwesili’s allegation, her organisation did not need to lean on the BBOG to be of service to the Chibok Girls and therefore had no reason “to steal anything from BBOG or use its name to achieve any advantage.”

The President’s daughter disclosed further that her organisation has its own defined objectives and that it didn’t need to steal anybody’s ideas to operate in line with its own objectives, adding that the organisation was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and issued certificate of incorporation on July 14, 2016.

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.

She said though the Chibok girls were within the priority of their organisation, its commitments to humanitarian causes did not end with Chibok schoolgirls. “Given the size of the problem at hand, the more organisations we have assisting Chibok and other devastated communities, the better for the country,” she said. 

Hadiza disclosed that AFRISEI is committed to empowering the youth and the less privileged in the area of job creation and skill acquisition, adding that there was no law that prevents the organisation from assisting the Chibok schoolgirls, and that as a charity organisation, they offer help to people in distress, including the Chibok girls and other Boko Haram victims.