I’ll help free Chibok girls, says Malala

By Doyin Ojosipe & Mashe Umar Gwamna, with agency reports

Teenage education activist, Malala Yousafzai, has lend her voice to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, pledging to help ensure that the 200+ Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok girls, were set free by their captors.

Malala, who met with parents of some of the more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls yesterday, said: “I can see those girls as my sisters … and I’m going to speak up for them until they are released”.

Malala was once a victim of the Taliban militants, who was shot in the head when she campaigned for the education of the girl child in Pakistan.

Her dogged campaign for the right of women to education had earned her a European Union’s (EU) prestigious human rights award and the Noble Peace Prize last year.

In a report by Reuters and the Associated Press (AP), yesterday, she was said to have also pledged the sum of $102, 500 (over N16 million) toward promoting girl child education in Nigeria; the fund was the proceeds, from her portrait’s aution, last Wednesday.

While consoling the grieving parents, she reassured she will join in the campaign until the abducted girls are released. “I’m going to participate actively in the ‘bring back our girls’ campaign to make sure that they return safely and they continue their education”, she said.

Expressing sadness over the happening, Miss Yousafzai said, “I can feel … the circumstances under which you are suffering…; it’s quite difficult for a parent to know that their daughter is in great danger. My birthday wish this year is…. Bring back our girls now and alive.”

Meanwhile, the BringBackOurGirls movement in Abuja, yesterday welcomed back the five girls, who are the latest among the abducted Chibok schoolgirls to be freed.

Former Education Minister, Mrs. Obey Ezekwesili, who spoke on behalf of the group expressed happiness, saying the whole purpose of the sitting-out by members of the group at the Unity Fountain was to ensure freedom for the girls.