The Federal Government has urged the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group to see government as a partner rather than adversary in the quest to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
In a statement in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the BBOG’s continued portrayal of the government as an adversary and the needless firing of darts at President Muhammadu Buhari, were ultimately counter-productive.
Mohammed said the president was doing his utmost best to bring the girls back home safely.
“The Federal Government has bent over backwards to carry the BBOG along and to show transparency in the conduct of the search for the girls,” he said.
“The recent invitation extended to the group to witness first-hand the search for the girls by the Nigerian Air Force is a clear indication of this.
“However, it came to us as a surprise that in spite of its initial positive report on the tour, the BBOG has too quickly reverted to its adversarial role.
“BBOG should stick to its role as an advocacy group rather than pretending to be an opposition party.
“The synonyms of the word ‘advocacy’ do not include ‘antagonism’, ‘opposition’ or ‘attack’, in fact those words are the antonyms of ‘advocacy,”‘ he said.
The minister said it amounted to needless grandstanding for the BBOG to say it would no longer tolerate “delays” and “excuses” from the president on the release of the girls, as reported by the media.
According to him, such “impudent” language should have been reserved for those who did nothing in the first 500 days of the girls’ abduction, and not for Buhari.