Opinion: #BringBackOurGirls was the hashtag of 2014, but why didn’t it bring them back?

by Adedayo Ademuwagun

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Most of the people involved in the #BringBackOurGirls movement were not Nigerians or in Nigeria. Nigerians weren’t really driving force of the movement.

Boko Haram kidnapped a number of girls in Chibok eight months ago, and most of the girls still haven’t been found. However, the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag that raised awareness about the kidnap certainly had a wide impact.

Millions of people from all over the world got involved when the hashtag took off last May. Rallies were held internationally. Some of the world’s most famous and most powerful people supported the movement. Nearly everyone on earth heard about the kidnap. #BringBackOurGirls was a classic case of hashtag activism.

Unfortunately, it didn’t bring back the girls. Here are 8 reasons why it didn’t bring them back.

1. Events overtook the hashtag and it stopped trending.

Many other tragic things happened around the world after the kidnap, so the international media inevitably shifted attention. There were epidemics, aviation disasters, shootings and more. Even more recent hashtags came up such as #Icantbreathe. A lot of people simply stop talking about an issue when the hashtag stops trending. That’s what happened to #BringBackOurGirls.

2. There were too many inconsistencies.

Too many details didn’t add up about the kidnap report. Even the actual number of kidnapped girls was never ascertained. Was it 234 or 276 or 200 girls? How did the girls continue to escape from those deadly armed men as if they were escaping from naive teenagers? How come we don’t have verifiable data about all of these girls, despite that they were registered in the school and should certainly be identifiable by the school and their community? Some people got disillusioned by these things, and the cause soon began to lose some supporters.

3. The campaign was politically flawed.

The people who led the protests had been severe government critics before the kidnap and they were believed to be linked with the opposition party. So when these people led the movement, there was some perceived connection between the movement and the opposition, such that it was believed that the opposition was influencing the movement to lash the government. Maybe this wasn’t true, but it was a significant drawback of the movement.

4. Some people had other motives.

Business people made money selling things branded with the hashtag. Activists used it to project themselves and land themselves jobs. Celebrities used it to improve their PR. Politicians quickly pounced on it to make points and promote their propaganda. Everyone wanted a piece of this cake. Soon it wasn’t about these girls for many people, it was about power. It was about money. It was about gain. This really put off some people who genuinely supported the movement from the outset.

5. Terrorists aren’t moved by hashtags

In 2012 #StopKony was a big hit just like #BringBackOurGirls, but it didn’t stop Joseph Kony or his Lord’s Resistance Army. It simply portrayed them as the bad guys. It’s similar to what has happened with #BringBackOurGirls. The point here is that terrorists aren’t softened by hashtags and millions of retweets. It’s one reason #BringBackOurGirls didn’t bring back the girls.

6. It was mostly Western-driven, unlike #OccupyNigeria.

Most of the people involved in the #BringBackOurGirls movement were not Nigerians or in Nigeria. Nigerians weren’t really driving force of the movement. It was America and the rest of the West. Americans made the hashtag trend worldwide. It was the Western media that brought the attention of the whole world to the issue. At one point some people in the world even thought a certain American woman started #BringBackOurGirls.

#OccupyNigeria, however, was a hashtag driven mainly by ordinary Nigerians home and abroad. It didn’t get a Michelle Obama or David Cameron backing and it didn’t even trend worldwide, but the movement had a home backing so strong that it produced a significant change and made a more lasting impression.

7. There was a lot of talk, not action.

When David Cameron held up a #BringBackOurGirls card on Christine Amanpour’s show, Britons quickly criticised him for not doing more. Is that all the British Prime Minister, of all people, could do?

He wasn’t the only one. Powerful politicians and celebrities got involved in one way to support the movement, but most of it was just tweeting, holding up a card and “calling on government” to do something. There was no real, evident action by the people in the high places of this world who have the power to make a change. That’s another reason #BringBackOurGirls didn’t work.

8. It’s in the society.

In many developed countries, protests, rallies, petitions and all that stuff are taken seriously and governments are actually committed to look into those matters and take real action. But this is not the case in this society. Even if one gets a million petition signatures or retweets or things like that, the government is not obliged to look into the matter. It’s just not the kind of thing that usually moves the government to take action such as carrying out a military operation. Perhaps #BringBackOurGirls would have produced the desired result if the society was different.

#BringBackOurGirls activists have continued to talk about it and keep the awareness up, and this is commendable. However, the movement can provoke more serious government action and bring back the girls if it gets some more funding and support. The prospect is grim, but it’s definitely not impossible.

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