Protesters Defy Lagos Rain, Storm the Streets for Chibok GirlsChibok Protesters[THISDAYLIVE]

As the world continues to clamour for the safe return of the over 200 female school children abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, some protesters in Lagos yesterday defied the heavy downpour to stage yet another protest to register their grievances.

Organised by the Enough is Enough (Ei) Nigeria, a coalition of young Nigerians promoting good governance and citizen engagement, the protesters took off from George Street  by 9.30a.m. and walked through the Lagos Island streets to touch base at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) liaison office at Onikan.

Chanting the now popular ‘BringBackOurGirls’ slogan, the protesters led by the duo of Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams of the Future Nigeria Group and Ynaija fame, decried the number of days that had elapsed since the abduction occurred.

With placards which read ‘Cameroun, Chad and Niger, send out the criminals now’, ‘Abduction is Haram, release our girls now’ and ‘The end is near for Boko Haram’, the protesters who also displayed the collection of solidarity signatures signed by concerned Nigerians, blocked the popular Awolowo Road in Ikoyi.

The protesters, who also marched to the Falomo Roundabout, caused a traffic snarl, that saw motorists either take an alternative route or wait out the protest.

Although some protesters later left with a promise to come back later, some other stayed back to attend the interdenominational service that was scheduled to take place at Falomo by 6.30p.m.

Contention arises over ‘#BringBackOurGirls’ slogan

Meanwhile, contentions over the originator of the slogan ‘BringBackOurGirls’, raised a social media uproar which took the intervention of former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, to douse.

Since the slogan was coined, world celebrities including British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and United States First Lady, Michelle Obama, and US stars like Usher Raymond and so many others have been seen brandishing the slogan which has since gone viral.

The slogan, which was coined on one of the social media platforms, Twitter, to create awareness of the fight to bring back the Chibok girls alive, had seen the hash-tag reportedly retweeted over two million times.

However, the contention began when one Ramaa Mosley, a documentarian, with twitter account Mosley @marystrawberry in an interview with CNN and ABC, claimed she was the originator of the hashtag.

She claimed she coined the words after hearing the abduction story and discovered that there was no social media mentions of it.

Her disclosure soon set off a twitter war between her and Nigerians who pointed out to CNN and ABC that the actually originator was Nigeria’s former Education Minister, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, who has been in the forefront of the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ cause from inception.

To douse the attention and prevent people from loosing focus on the cause, Ezekwesili yesterday took to twitter to clear the air and bring the raging issue to an end.

Tweeting from her twitter handle @obyezeks, she pointed out that the slogan was actually coined by one Hadiza Usman who initiated it.

The tweet read thus: “Please follow @hadizabalusman. It was Hadiza that initiated the on-the-ground-march in Abuja which set off the massive marches all over.”