Finally, Jonathan Meets Chibok Girls’ Parents Today

Barring any last minute change in plan, President Goodluck Jonathan will on Tuesday (today) meet the parents of the girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14.

Those expected at the meeting scheduled for the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja are some of the girls who escaped from their abductors.

Jonathan had last Monday promised a Pakistani girl-child education campaigner, Malala Yousafzai, that he was ready to meet the parents and the girls when the 17-year-old girl met with him during her three-day visit to the country.

Based on that promise, a meeting was scheduled for last Tuesday but the girls and the parents shunned that meeting.

They were said to have returned to Borno State early in the morning of the same day after meeting with the Pakistani girl.

None of them showed up for the meeting despite the fact that the President was waiting to receive them.

Some government officials including the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike; and the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who were billed to join the President to receive the parents later left when it became clear that they would not honour the invitation.

The Presidency later attributed the failure of the parents to attend the meeting to the influence of the BringBackOurGirls campaigners, who it accused of politicizing the issue.

In the event that the meeting holds, Jonathan will be having direct contact with the people today for the first time since the abduction of the girls.

He has yet to visit Chibok since the incident.