Obiageli Ezekwesili Accuses Army Of Human Rights Violations In War Against Boko Haram
Obiageli Ezekwesili Accuses Army Of Human Rights Violations In War Against Boko Haram
Co founder of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign and former Nigerian Minister of Education told Al Jazeera that the Nigerian military are guilty of human rights abuses in their fight against the violent group Boko Haram in the north of the country.
The former World Bank vice president for Africa, told Al Jazeera’s Head to Head “It clearly does have instances where human rights violations have happened” .
Obiageli Ezekwesili Accuses Army Of Human Rights Violations In War Against Boko Haram
Oby told host Mehdi Hasan and an audience at the Oxford Union that one year over 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Chibok, northern Nigeria, by Boko Haram, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign was not a failure. “No, I wouldn’t say that we have failed. I would say that we have not been able to move the elephant.”
Oby blamed the President Goodluck Jonathan administration for the failure to secure the freedom of the kidnapped girls and said it was still possible to defeat Boko Haram.
Oby said that Nigeria has a political class problem but she refused to put her former boss and mentor President Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled between 1999 and 2007 on blast.
She however said that OBJ was “aware of the elements of corruption, and it was his responsibility to tackle” them, but denied that he was corrupt during his administration.
She said: “Of course it [the government] was [corrupt]! [But] There was no way it could have been more corrupt than the government of Abacha”.
Oby said that they failed to fully tackle corruption during OBJ’s term and denied being a window dressing for a corrupt regime.
She insisted that she was not a politician despite holding two ministerial positions in the Nigerian government, being an advisor to presidents and holding high office at the World Bank.
Ezekwesili and Hasan talked about the widespread poverty, inequality and corruption as the reason why Boko Haram insurgency began, and debated whether World Bank policies have helped or hurt Africa’s development.
Oby Ezekwesili is known in Nigeria as “Madam Due Process” due to her fierce anti-corruption drive.
Oby founded Transparency International in 1996 and was an advisor to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and served in two of his cabinets as Minister of Education and Minister of Solid Minerals between 2003 and 2007.
She became a the vice president of the World Bank for Africa, where she stayed until 2012.
0 comments: