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Oby Ezekwesili is our winner

Mrs Ezekwesili's resilience and doggedness against all the odds, has won her 'The Pulse Person of the Year' award for 2016

Oby leads the Bring Back Our Girls group to Aso Rock on August 22, 2016

It was in the nation’s capital city of Abuja.

She had her mouth sealed with a duct tape; as menacing police officers held hands behind her.

Aunt Oby (as she’s fondly called by almost everyone) has witnessed days like this since 2014-- when the advocacy to rescue the abducted Chibok schoolgirls commenced.

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In April 2014, more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by gun wielding terrorists from their dormitory in the dead of the night in the rustic community of Chibok, Borno State.

The hapless teenagers were then corralled into the back of a creaky truck and driven to the heart of a dense Sambisa Forest.

Oby’s life hasn’t been the same since the night of the abduction.

She has become the global face of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement--the lady who galvanized and pressured the rest of us into keeping hopes alive even when it seemed foolhardy to do so.

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Aunt Oby made us believe we could get the girls back one way or the other. She rallied the rest of the nation into keeping hope alive.

She whipped our sorry asses when we showed signs of inertia. She marched on the streets in the face of police tanks, insults and a sometimes unruly Presidency.

She led from the front.

“Our unwavering commitment to ensure that each and every Chibok girl is released and returned to their families has wider implications than the girls’ release itself”, Oby told

“We made a promise to never stop until our girls are back and alive. I am a woman of my word. I shall not stop. We shall not stop. A pledge is a pledge and the Bible says that being honorable means that one who makes a promise must fulfill that promise even when they hurt.

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“Standing for our #ChibokGirls has far reaching implications for every girl or child that is abducted and cut off from receiving an education that they and their parents desperately strive to obtain. We cannot allow the enemy to create a “new normal” by disrupting the most basic rights of a society including education, livelihoods, and dignity”.

And true to her promise, she didn’t stop. Not for once since 2014.

She would sometimes sit sprawled on the turf of the Unity Fountain (where members of the BBOG group usually converge), amid tear-soaked eyes, grief in her voice and a cry on her lips--surrounded by other members of the advocacy group who dared to believe.

And then it happened.

One humid morning in October of 2016, the federal government announced that 21 Chibok girls had regained their freedom.

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Oby captures that moment better than most.

“When it was announced on May 18th that had been found, the feelings of joy and relief I had were indescribable. It was that tiny flicker of light needed in a place of gross darkness that at least one girl rightly affirmed as one of our #ChibokGirls was now back”, she recalls.

“We had just finished our Global Week of Action the month before she was found, and I recall saying back then that we would have our girls back before marking three years of the abductions. Amina’s return rekindled our hope after two years of not seeing a single Chibok girl despite reports of hundreds of abductees being found.

“When our 21 girls were released in October, I was in I was in my hotel, just about to sleep when I received a call, asking if I had heard the news. I had received a text just moments beforehand, intimating that the girls had been released.

“Then I called my husband, and then received a call from the saying that they had valid information about the girls’ release. Then many  other calls kept coming in. In all that time, I was numb and showed no emotion, contrary to what I often imagined would happen.

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“There was a sense of excitement amongst those who were calling and many had been involved throughout the campaign...so felt delirious at the news. By that time, the names of the girls hadn’t been confirmed. So, I was thinking about which girls had been released and which hadn’t, and how we would deal with that.

“As dawn broke and I arrived at my meeting venue, I was greeted by a round of applause. But do you know what happened?  I began to cry. I just cried. I really cried. It was as if all that the pain I had been carrying – some of which I wasn’t even fully aware that I had been carrying -- just had to come out.

“One has to remember that the girls were released just a few weeks after an incredibly intense period of campaigning by our movement, during our intense marking the 900th day of abductions. Our movement had been so badly assaulted by the Government, the Nigerian Police and even some pro-government hirelings during our Week of Action.

“I had been especially targeted with all manner of assault, denigration, slander and threats.  As I cried all through that day, I felt an amazing relief and strength come over me by night time. I went to bed joyful and determined that having at least 21 of our girls home was good enough for all the abuse and that I will gladly continue taking it if so that the remaining 196 of our Chibok girls are released”.

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196 Chibok Girls (or thereabout) are still being held by terrorist sect Boko Haram even as the government has just announced that troops have recaptured the dreaded Sambisa Forest and sent the terrorists fleeing.

Oby wants the government and the rest of us not to rest on our oars until all the abducted girls--and all other Boko Haram captives--are back home with their families.

“One of the phrases we started using around the two-year mark of the abductions is “Hope Endures”.

“When 21 of our girls were released, our hope was undeniably renewed. While we are disappointed that the promised 83 girls have not yet been released, we remain hopeful that the Federal Government of Nigeria will do whatever it takes to build on the renewed hope and rescue ALL of the remaining 196 girls still with Boko Haram.

“There is only so much that you can say to a parent who has had to endure the agony of not knowing where their child is and how that child is doing. In this case, our actions must speak louder than words. By continuing to demand for their daughters, the remaining parents know that there is still hope and a great chance that their daughters will be released.

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“What we do not accept is another protracted period of lethargy, inertia and lack of communication from the federal government. It simply does not reflect well on governance when the public imagines a cold trail of action by the government on an issue of such immense importance.

“One issue that we would like to be kept abreast of is the welfare of the returned 23 Chibok girls.  It is imperative that they receive the required care so that they are fully rehabilitated, reintegrated and eventually resettled into their communities”, she told Pulse.

2016 was the year of resilience--we braved a biting economic recession, braved the odds to keep our businesses afloat and stood resilient as terrorists invaded our farmlands and homes with guns, cudgels and bombs. In 2016, we lost friends and family members to terrorists as well.

But here we all are, still standing. 2016 was the year of resilience and Aunt Oby Ezekwesili was RESILIENCE.

She was resilience personified. She embodied the word. She taught us all the true meaning of the word.

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The choice of Madam Obiageli Ezekwesili as Pulse Person of the Year was a unanimous one. As our team of Editors looked back at a year when everything seemed to fall apart, only the Nigerian Soldier evading bombs and landmines in the war ravaged North East region of Nigeria, came close.

In the end, we settled for the lady who kept us believing that we’ll have our abducted Chibok Girls back--one protest march and TV outing at a time.

2016 belonged to the strong and in Aunt Oby, we all became stronger.

We are honoured to settle for Madam Obiageli Ezekwesili as Pulse Person of the Year for 2016.

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Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng

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