Former minister of education and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign group, Oby Ezekwesili on Wednesday said the agitation for the release of the Chibok girls was sustained by the social media.

Ezekwesili said this in an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, after delivering a keynote address during the opening ceremony of the second edition of New Media, Citizens and Governance Conference.

She said, “You will recall that advocacy for our Chibok girls started as an online advocacy in the first 15 days. It was on the social media that we kept demanding that they should all be rescued alive. It was only on April 30 that a physical protest about our Chibok girls started.

“So, the social media was ahead in the society in terms of placing a call on government for our Chibok girls to be rescued. Social media was what took the language of the call for the Chibok girls to be rescued. It turned into a hashtag (#BringBackOurGirls#), which galvanised the rest of the world.

“It amplified the voice of a few people that were originally talking about the girls to the whole world. So, it was a powerful tool for creating awareness and organising the global attention that was necessary. That attention then compelled action; for action to be is not sufficient because action must be sustained until it produces results.

“If we have absolute disregard for our own human capital, such that they can be taken away, killed, maimed and it didn’t matter to anybody, it is suggestive of the fact that we are in a society that will only operate at the lowest levels.

“So, our Chibok girls represent the symbol of the determination that this nation must come to where it respects its human capital. We must respect our human capital by insisting that girls who went to school were not abandoned.”

Azeez