[!!! Please read this interview in its entirety. From Premium Times to Mr. Ogebe to Aso Rock, I am just confused, who do you believe anymore these days? How did we get to be like this? SMH]
"Emmanuel Ogebe, a US-based human rights lawyer and humanitarian worker, missed death by the whiskers under the late General Sani Abacha's dictatorship for his outspokenness against the government. He fled to the USA upon his release and has since remained there, practicing as a lawyer, engaging the US government and other international organizations on foreign policies and aids for Nigeria.
Mr. Ogebe has been involved in relief and rehabilitation for victims of the various attacks and through his NGO, Education Must Continue, provides educational opportunities for hundreds of children in the North.
Since 2014 when over 200 girls were abducted from the Chibok Secondary School in Borno State, his life has taken a new and drastic dimension. Rather than restrict himself to advocating via the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, he took a practical step of taking 10 of the escaped girls to the US to continue their education. Benue State-born Mr. Ogebe, a father of two, has since taken on the role of father to the 10 girls as well as a few other similar victims he had also taken to the US before now.
PT: How long have you been in the US?
Ogebe: I have been here since the 90s, I am a product of the Abacha era's persecution of Human rights workers and activists. So after my imprisonment by Abacha I went abroad on exile.
PT: How long were you in Prison?
Ogebe: I was arrested by Abacha in June of 1996 and I came back in August 1996. It was a short but intense one.
PT: Were you tortured?
Ogebe: I was, and I was directly held in the villa for a while before I was moved to detention in Asokoro.
PT: Did you fear for your life at the time?
Ogebe: There was no doubt because I was directly under the captivity of Major Al-Mustapha. Those who made it to the villa, if you remained in the villa as a prisoner, your likelihood of coming out was very remote. In fact, nobody knew where you were – nothing! The SSS and different arms of government were approached by my family members looking for me. They didn't know where I was. It was the most maximum detention imaginable, where other security agencies didn't know where you were.
PT: So you were tortured everyday?
Ogebe: Not every day but it was the week before June 12 so as paranoid dictatorships go, they were edgy. There was torture and interrogation but on June 12 they had to focus on more pressing issues.
PT: At that point, what was going through your mind?
Ogebe: I was resolute in my mind that military dictatorship was wrong for Nigeria, was wrong for any civilised people and for humanity. So the torture was not going to change my perspective on the ideal. It was only a question of whether I was prepared to pay the ultimate price for my convictions.
.......
PT: How do you feel when you hear from certain quarters that no girls were abducted?
Ogebe: It is unfortunate because up till now we still see people who make those kind of remarks and it is sad that people are still divided. This is not something that we should play politics about; the abduction of someone's child is not something that should be an object of any game. It does, because as a nation we love to engage in shadow boxing. You have a situation on ground instead of facing it, you are arguing myths and legends, instead of facing it and finding solution to the problem.
PT: What kind of support have you received from Government so far?
Ogebe: Zero. We have received no support from Nigeria, America or any country. If anything, we are the ones supporting the government because our highest administrative cost in Nigeria has been the visa fees that we pay to the American government, the transport cost to the embassy, sometimes being denied, being delayed and so forth.
So no, we have not received any government support. Not only government, even institutional donor support, we have not received any support from any foundation. It has purely been a grassroots movement, individuals have donated, donations as little as 20 dollars, 25 dollars.
PT: Have you approached the US government to see if they can give the girls scholarship?
Ogebe: The US government is very aware of what we are doing, we have spoken to them but they have not indicated any interest in helping. The same thing with the government of Nigeria and they haven't shown any interest in supporting. So we have to continue doing what we need to do.
PT: How is your relationship with the Nigerian embassy here?
Ogebe: The embassy is aware of their presence and some of the girls have visited, in fact the late ambassador (Prof. Adefuye) who died recently, invited the girls to the embassy to have lunch with him, which we thought was a very state-manly and fatherly action to have been taken. This is because the Jonathan-led-government had spent over $4 million dollars fighting the 'Bring Back Our Girls Campaign' and almost fighting the veracity of the abduction, saying it wasn't true. So I was very touched when the ambassador risked his career so to say, to invite them to offer them lunch, he couldn't do much because the embassy had limited his gesture.
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