Patience Jonathan Weeps At Chibok Abduction Meeting In Abuja …Angry Over Borno First Lady's Absence

First lady Patience Jonathan on Monday expressed displeasure at the

absence of Hajiya Nana Shettima, wife of the Borno State Governor, at a

second enlarged stakeholders' meeting on the abducted schoolgirls.

Shettima was absent at the first meeting, which Jonathan convened on

Friday in Abuja to seek clarification on the number of girls involved.

Jonathan postponed the meeting to Sunday to enable Shettima, parents of

the abducted girls, the school's security guard and two of the girls that

escaped, among others, attend the meeting.
However, the first lady burst into tears after she took a roll call and

discovered that the governor's wife and those she invited were absent.

She kept on repeating: ”There is God in everything we are doing. There is

God''.
The first lady had requested Shettima to chair the committee constituted

on Friday to seek clarification to the conflicting issues on the exact

number of missing girls.
Jonathan, however, expressed shock that the Borno State Government

appeared not to be taking the issue serious.
She said before the kidnapping and the killing started in Borno State, she

assured Shettima of her support, but was surprised that after such

incidence, Shettima did not come to see her.
“After the incidence, I waited for her, she did not come. I sent for her,

she came.
“I asked questions, no answer. I asked her to come with the principal and

parents: she did not turn up till today. To our greatest surprise, she

sent a commissioner.
“The next thing I saw was women demonstrating. No woman will fold her

hands while her house is on fire. She is the mother of Borno.

“She is the mother of these children, I am their grandmother. She should

be more concerned and come to her grandma.
“The police, army, WAEC, government officials came with a few of their own

but no parent was present to tell us their child was kidnapped or among

those who escaped.
“The mother of Borno is not concerned about what is happening, her

children are involved,” Jonathan said.
She urged Nigerian women not to take to the streets till they get to the

root of the matter.
She said, “I don't want anybody to reply or abuse me on the pages of

newspaper. It is because we are pained and crying, that is why I am doing

so.
“Why should I cry more than the bereaved? The world will ask me a question

if I do. If after today, Borno people say we should not help them, don't

go to the street to demonstrate.
“You are playing games. Don't use schoolchildren and women for

demonstration again. Keep it to Borno, let it end there. Until you people

are ready to cooperate.”