Police were right to stop protesters from entering Aso Rock

monjola sotubo

August 23, 2016 5:29 PM

Members of the Bring Back Our Girls Group (BBOG) group marched to the Presidential Villa in protest on Monday, August 22, 2016, but were refused entry by police officers stationed at the gate.

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The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group is doing great work to champion the cause of the abducted Chibok girls, but the group has developed an unfortunate sense of entitlement, and this must be dealt with.

Members of the group marched to the Presidential Villa in protest on Monday, August 22, 2016, but were refused entry by police officers stationed at the gate.

The BBOG members had demanded an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari in order to register their anger at the government’s continued failure to rescue the missing girls, who were abducted on April 14, 2014.

The refusal of police officers to allow them access the Presidential Villa caused an outburst of anger among the group and led some of them to say that they regret voting for Buhari.

“They tell us that our girls seen in the latest video was merely an arrangement. No one has spoken to the family of any of the Chibok girls since the last video was released, by the terrorists. We regret our votes. We regret it,” Chairman of the Chibok Community, Hosea Tsambido said.

Tsambido was speaking of the August 14 release of a video showing about 50 of the girls standing with a Boko Haram terrorist.

The Chibok community and the BBOG group have legitimate grievances, but, as author Jayce O’Neal said, doing the right thing the wrong way is still the wrong thing.

One does not just march up to the presidential residence and demand to see the president after giving one week’s notice.

If every aggrieved group was allowed to march up to the president whenever and however they liked, then he would never be able to lead and the country would be thrown into chaos.

Some people might argue that we’re in a democracy, but even in the United States of America, protesters stay outside the White House, and attempting to do otherwise would be risking arrest.

The continued captivity of the Chibok girls is of great concern to the whole world, and the Buhari administration certainly could have handled things better, but we must call a spade a spade and do things the right way.

The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group was wrong to march to the Villa without following established protocol and the police were right to stop them from seeing the president.

monjola sotubo