Last Saturday marked two months since 276 girls were abducted from their beds at gunpoint, loaded onto a truck, and taken into the woods by terrorists for daring to go to school. Since then, the terrorist group, Boko Haram, has continued to wreak havoc across northeastern Nigeria, practically unchecked. The girls are still gone.
But you wouldn't know that from the lull of "hashtag activism" since the story became international news in late April. Scroll through the Twitter mentions of #BringBackOurGirls today, and you won't see Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton sending supportive messages. Gone are the viral photos of celebrities like Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Justin Timberlake, Sean Penn, and the cast of The Expendables 3 holding up #BringBackOurGirls signs on the red carpet. (Sharon Osbourne, however, has not forgotten about them).
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's government has been criticized for not having recovered the girls yet. "Pray for Oby Ezekwesili. You have no idea what the Jonathan government is making her go through at the moment. #BringBackOurGirls," Japheth J. Omojuwa, a prominent Nigerian blogger, tweeted about one of the kidnapped girls on Friday. But even Nigerian activists are growing fatigued from the barrage of bad news. Ten minutes later, Omojuwa tweeted, "I am tired of everything here. I will now focus very much on the World Cup."