Propelled by the recent happenings in Northern Nigeria, particularly the abduction of school girls in Chibok, Borno State and acknowledging the fact that women are natural peace-makers, the Mother of the nation, Dame Patience Jonathan, convened a meeting of relevant women stakeholders on Friday, May 2, and Sunday May 4, 2014, at the State House, Abuja, to discuss and rub minds on how Nigerian women, as peace builders, can play critical roles in resolving various security issues in the country.
A melodrama played out itself on the last day of the programme at about midnight on Sunday. When one of the women stakeholders stood up to complain of suspicious women in their midst; and this led to the suspicious women being called out, and during interrogation they confessed their real names and the role they played in impersonating as real mothers of the abducted girls. They also revealed how they were contracted for the job by mischief makers.
Luck ran out on one of the impersonators when the First Lady fished her as leader of a protest few days back. The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, uncovered the leader of a group, popularly known as “Bring back our girls,” whose real name is Naomi Murlah. She had last week led about 300 women on a false protest March to National Assembly over the reported abduction of about 234 secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno State.
However, the die was cast during the stakeholders’ meeting convened at the First Lady’s conference room at the villa on Sunday May 5, 2014. While all the women at the meeting wrote down their real names at the entrance of the gate, Naomi, who is a Deputy Director at the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Abuja, wrote down her false name as Grace, which was one of the names of those expected to attend the meeting from Borno State.
The said Naomi Murlah was the leader of the arrange group that claimed she was one of the parents of Chibok girls on major television stations syndicated last week and in all media platforms by the ‘hand of opposition.’
Accordingly, when the cat was let out of the bag, she pleaded for sympathy and forgiveness as she was recognized by the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs to be among the women stakeholders. The Minister said: “When they said they have gone to lay complaints to the Federal Government and the National Assembly, I asked for the leader of the mothers whose children were abducted, this woman (Naomi) was the one that came forward and said that her child was abducted. I believed her, she was the woman dressed in black among the protesting mothers of missing Chibok girls. The Senate President believed them, I also believed them too.”
The First Lady exclaimed: “God is leading us to the truth!” She wondered why notable names joined in the fray without knowing the facts of the issue and that she was disappointed by the impunity of Naomi also.
After all due diligence on Naomi and thorough interrogations, she was let off the hook. The women stakeholders, however, passed a motion that the security authorities should look into the matter urgently and decided to also tender an apology on behalf of Nigerian women to the National Assembly for the shame brought to womanhood by Naomi and her likes.
When quizzed at the meeting, Naomi Murlah admitted that she was being used and that she had no child among the abducted children. She confessed she was contacted to represent one of those expected to attend the meeting at the First Lady’s conference room.
According to her, it was in the morning that somebody called her from Borno State, one Mrs. Grace. She said that Grace was supposed to come, but she appealed to her, saying, “since you people are there as Chibok representatives, please, represent me also.”
Asked if she had been to Chibok in the last one year, she confessed, “I have not gone to Chibok in the past one year.”
At that point, she started pleading, saying it was the work of the Devil and that due to the economic situation in the country she submitted to being used and that “Nigerian women should, please, forgive her.”
The First Lady had no hand in whatever transpired between her and the security officers, who said she breached protocol under false name to gain entry to the stakeholders’ meeting at the State House, Abuja. Rather, she was heart broken due to her unparalleled commitment to the wellbeing of the girl child and women and called on other First Ladies around the world to lend their support in our search for the abducted girls.
At a time like this, particularly in this explosive period when terrorists are detonating bombs anywhere, anytime, we should not be in haste to judge or pass the buck. But unfortunately, politicians are having a field day, doing the blame game as never before, and doing everything possible to bring down the government of the day. What we as a people should be looking at now was the audacious revelations that came out from the meeting and a lot of unanswered questions still begging for answers by the Borno Government.
Nigerians should look beyond this orchestration and see how we can be united in spite to fight against terrorism, which is our collective calamity. We should also resist every divisive efforts of enemies of Nigeria, who are really sly unpatriotic leaders, wolves in sheep’s skin, who will do ‘any thing and everything’ to make the country ungovernable and proudly present themselves as alternatives to the government of the day.
Written By Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele
email- Kenneth_aigbe@yahoo.com
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