Bring Back Our Girls Petition by Global Youth Ambassadors Nigeria

PETITION by Global Youth Ambassadors – A World at School

As newly appointed Global Youth Ambassadors for A World at School in Nigeria, we are calling for public attention to the campaign to #BringBackOurGirls:

Nina Mbah - Global Youth Ambassador

The group Boko Haram, whose name means, “Western education is forbidden," has abducted about 200 girls from their school in Northern Nigeria.  Their location is unknown but they are believed to be in remote forest areas in Borno state.

Amid reports that the girls have been forced into marriages, or even taken over the border into Chad or Cameroon, parents have been left in fearing for the lives of their children.  Boko Haram has murdered five thousand adults and children in the last five years and the group have made schools their target, with 59 young pupils murdered in a massacre in school grounds in neighbouring Yobe state in just the last few weeks.

 

 Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, is to meet President Goodluck Jonathan next week in Abuja and wishes to take a strong message from the international community that we will support Nigeria in securing the safe return of the girls and support efforts to make schools protected safe havens for learning.  He also proposes that the United Nations Security Council discuss giving schools the same protected status as hospitals, making it an international crime for schools to be attacked or used as tools of war and conflict.

Please join us in ourdeclaration:

 “We declare our solidarity with the girls who have been kidnapped in northern Nigeria, send our sympathies to their families, and call on International Communities to provide the support for the safe return of the girls.  We call on International Community and Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that, moving forward, schools are protected safe havens for innocent children to learn.”

Signed, Nigeria's A World at School Global Youth Ambassadors:

Esther Eshiet, Jackson Akor, Nina Mbah, Ojonwa Miachi, Philip Obaji Jr., Adebukola Orenuga, Ojedeji Samuel, Ichide Charles, Ayodeji Morakinyo, Chinemerem – Amara Egbuchulam, Temidayo Musa, Kenechukwu Oraelosi, Oluwaseyi Akindutire, Aina Abdularahmon, Douglas Imaralu, Emilia Asim – Ita, Dayo Akindolani, Purpose Osamwonyi, Daniel Stephen, Iserhienrhien Onibode, Kofoworola Jennifer and Damola Morenikeji.