2015: Jonathan’s billboards take over #BringBackOur Girls Meeting Venue

The group behind the billboards, GEJites, on its website said it is a volunteer organization that is aimed at popularizing the policies and programmes of the federal government led by President Jonathan, thus taking the name GEJites.“GEJites is a volunteer organization that believes totally in Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,” the group stressed on its website.Also, the […]

The group behind the billboards, GEJites, on its website said it is a volunteer organization that is aimed at popularizing the policies and programmes of the federal government led by President Jonathan, thus taking the name GEJites.
“GEJites is a volunteer organization that believes totally in Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,” the group stressed on its website.
Also, the website indicates that Chief Anthony Tosan Prest is the brain behind the group, presenting him as an IT savvy entrepreneur, an anti-corruption campaigner and a vanguard for Nigeria’s unity.
“The philosophy and ideas behind GEJites is mirrored after the Chavistas, the highly successful campaign by the former president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and the victorious Obama Volunteers.
“We at GEJites believe the President Jonathan has good intentions for the development of Nigeria across all the six geo-political zones and sectors of the economy that would liberate the common Nigerian from the claws and shackles of poverty.
“We at GEJites believe Nigeria can be great again if the government of the day is given the necessary support and encouragement,” part of the statement on the website read.   
The group further said it decided to volunteer for Jonathan because his transformation agenda was conceived with the right intentions to better the lot of Nigerians.
“GEJites are out to connect, educate and enlighten the entire populace about our fatherland with the vision, ideas, programmes, policies, dynamics and transformational path to follow in order to reach to a very bright future for Nigeria.
“Invariably GEJites is set out to enlighten Nigerians and make Nigerians know about all that the federal government is doing across the country which would immeasurably tackle most developmental challenges such as poverty, unemployment, security and the deplorable state of infrastructure,” the profile statement of the website added.
Unity Fountain as the name implies is symbol of Nigeria’s cohesion and oneness, and significantly carved at the heart of the nation’s capital with white pillars representing the 36 states of the federation standing in the middle of the lush green park. Symbolically, Nigerians from all walks of life converged on the park in the wake of the Chibok incident to pressurize government to take decisive action on the school girls kidnapping. It incidentally became the headquarters of the BringBackOurGirls protests nationwide.
Unfortunately, towards the end of May, there was fracas at the park involving the original #Bringbackourgirls women group and the newly sprung #ReleaseOurGirlsNow” women group.  
Reports at the time of the incident indicated that the new group was politically motivated and its attack on the #Bringbackourgirls group was meant to discourage them from continuing with the protests.
The ReleaseOurGirls group who were believed to be mostly Abuja-based market women smashed some of the chairs and mats of the other group. And it took the intervention of the Nigeria Police to bring sanity to the park.
It was also observed that most of the women who were present at the Unity Fountain belonged to the Release Our Girls group.
It was also observed that few members of #Bringbackourgirls group at the Fountain wore white tee-shirts which was a departure from the red attire they usually wore in the past.
Reacting to the incident at the time, the former Minister of Education and the leader of #BringBackOurGirls group, Dr. Oby Ezekwisili,  said: “It is rather unfortunate that this is happening now. But the group would not be intimidated by anybody. Our normal campaign of #BringBackOurGirls, alive and well will continue. Until we see our girls we would not stop the campaign”.
But few days later, the Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu, banned all protests over the abducted  Chibok school girls in the territory with immediate effect.
Mbu,  announcing the ban at a news conference in Abuja, said that the trend of the protest in the FCT was posing a serious security threat.
“Accordingly, protests on the Chibok girls are hereby banned with immediate effect. As the FCT police boss, I cannot fold my hands and watch this lawlessness (protests). Information reaching us is that too soon, dangerous elements will join groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government,” he said.
Mbu added that a situation where the ‘Fountain of Unity’, was being turned into a place for “cooking and selling” was embarrassing, stressing that many diplomats live in that area of the territory.
He urged residents of the territory to encourage the security agencies in the war against terrorism and criminality by appreciating the sacrifices they had made and would continue to make.
Asked whether the ban would not violate freedom of expression and assembly of the protesters, the commissioner said that one person’s freedom should not affect other peoples’ freedom.
“People have been protesting over a month now…it is the issue of terrorism, it is not solved in one day. Then, when you continue to do it persistently, it becomes a nuisance to the government,” the police commissioner was quoted as saying.
However, the ban was widely criticized with observers saying it was politically motivated.
With the protesters now dispersed and the GEJites billboards taking over, the observers will feel vindicated.
In a statement earlier in the week, the National Publicity Secretary of the opposition All Progressive Congress, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said it was callous and insensitive for the Jonathan campaigners to take over the venue of the protesters, demanding that Jonathan’s government disassociate itself from the group.