Ezekwesili to FG: Don’t create trust deficit syndrome

Source: TODAY NG

Former Minister of Education and leader of the #BringBackOurGirls group, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to avoid the creation of trust deficit syndrome in its governance.
Speaking during the normal sit-out of BBOG group yesterday, she want the government to continue to tell the truth to the citizens especially as it relates to the issue of the fight against the insurgency adding that if there are lies, it will create doubt in the citizens, and trust for the citizens could be difficult to regain.

“The government cannot afford to go to the old ways where lies were fed to the people. Let there be truthfulness. Government should not create a trust deficit syndrome because it will be difficult to mend. Everything that the government is doing concerning the war, they should tell the truth. We will get used to it and join in the solution,” she said.
She also stated that the group will continue in its advocacy for the safe return of the abducted Chibok girls, no matter how tough it becomes, while calling on the president to fulfill the promise he has made to the parents of the girls of bringing them back.

“What drove us out of our comfort zone is that we got tired of not doing anything. We will continue with our core value. No matter what anyone want to do, this advocacy will continue. A pledge is a pledge. We made a pledge to parents of the Chibok girls and will not fail in this pledge.

“We have gone through a lot. But what we have gone through is little of what the 219 girls are going through in the hands of the Boko Haram sect. Let nobody succeed in making us feel we should not continue. We will continue until the girls are back. The girls deserve justice and they have not been given justice. We are unhappy that they are spending close to two years in the hands of the terrorists.

“I have not lost hope. There is no basis to lose hope. Though we might be depressed sometimes, we won’t lose hope. We will stand for the girls. We will hold on to the commitment the president made to the Chibok girls’ parents and Nigerians.
We believe that he will keep his promise and bring the girls back,” she said.
Ezekwesili, however, frowned at many who had stood with the group during the past administration, demanding that government rescue the girls but who now see the missing girls as a distraction, describing them as people of no character.
“Some people have been vocal about our Chibok girls, but now they feel the Chibok girls are distractions. Our Chibok girls are not distractions. Once were those that say, government should bring back the Chibok girls.”