Below is what Washington Post wrote about
president Jonathan's supporters using the
#bringback hashtag for his campaign
It was the social media campaign of the
year. #BringBackOurGirls awoke the world
to the ravages of Boko Haram, an al-
Qaeda-linked terror group in Nigeria, and
the plight of the millions of people who
live in the midst of their insurgency. At
the heart of the message were hundreds
of missing schoolgirls, abducted in April
from the remote village of Chibok by Boko
Haram fighters, who vowed to make them
into slaves. Continue...
The #BringBackOurGirls hashtag channeled
both sympathy from abroad and local outrage
and concern in Nigeria, with many angry at the
government of President Goodluck Jonathan for
being unable to free the captured women.
But four months later, the girls have yet to be
brought back despite the efforts of the Nigerian
military as well as U.S. counter-terrorism
forces deployed in neighboring Chad. More
than 200 girls remain missing in suspected
Boko Haram captivity. Others have perished
from snakebite, illness and deprivation in the
wild.
Boko Haram itself has continued its
slaughter this summer, and seized more
territory in the country's restive northeast.
Over the weekend, it stormed towns along
Nigeria's border with Cameroon, killing dozens
of innocents.
Nigerian forces are now fighting Boko Haram in
pitched battles around Maiduguri, the capital
of Borno state, the main hotbed of Boko
Haram's operations. The U.N. reports that at
least 1.5 million people have been displaced by
the conflict since Jonathan's government
declared a state of emergency in May.
But the gravity of the moment hasn't stopped
some in Nigeria from appropriating the
tragic hashtag for rather cynical purposes.
Banners emerged in the capital Abuja over the
weekend showing Jonathan alongside a
new slogan: #BringBackGoodluck2015. The
campaign appears to be the work of supporters
of the president, keen for his reelection in
presidential polls next February. It's not clear
whether Jonathan has officially endorsed the
new hashtag, but its seeming ubiquity suggests
that he is not opposed to it.
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