The kidnapping of more than 200 girls by the extremist Islamic group Boko Haram in Nigeria has prompted a worldwide campaign for their release, in which figures like Michele Obama and singers and Hollywood celebrities have featured. The international media has made of the kidnapping one key topic, more than often affirming that the Nigerian government weakness was the main factor explaining the tragedy.
This salvationist tone that began prevailing in the discourse of the media, of international organizations and social networks, particularly North of the Equator, is being criticized by a number of voices. The South African Chapter of All Nigerian Nationals in Diaspora (ANNID), for example, issued a public document calling the Nigerian government to take the necessary measures to bring the girls back and making a plea for the African Union to provide the necessary support, while at the same time it strongly cautious against the risk of such campaign to create a climate favorable to a military intervention in Nigerian territory. The document also underlines that the Nigeria must strive to create “a better life for all Nigerians irrespectively of religion, age, sexual orientation or background”.
A similar argument is developed in the article by Jumoke Balogun in The Guardian when the author writes the following:
“… your calls for the US to get involved in this crisis undermines the democratic process in Nigeria and co-opts the growing movement against the inept and kleptocratic Jonathan administration. It was Nigerians who took their good-for-nothing president to task and challenged him to address the plight of the missing girls. It is in their hands to seek justice for these girls and to ensure that the Nigerian government is held accountable. Your emphasis on US action does more harm to the people you are supposedly trying to help and it only expands and sustain US military might. If you must do something, learn more about the amazing activists and journalists like this one, this one, and this one just to name a few, who have risked arrests and their lives as they challenge the Nigerian government to do better for its people within the democratic process.”