Jonathan orders removal of BringBackGoodluck2015 banners.

President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the removal of the #BringBackGoodluck2015 banners. It’s adaptation of the popular #BringBackOurGirls, campaign had sparked outrage on Tuesday as many saw it as mocking the kidnapped Chibok girls. 

The Jonathan hashtag was being promoted by campaigners for his re-election in 2015.

A statement released by the president’s office today, Wednesday, September 10, said:“President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has directed that the #Bring Back Jonathan 2015 signs and banners around Abuja which he and many Nigerians find offensive and repugnant be brought down immediately”

A statement signed by Jonathan’s spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the banners were put up without his principal’s knowledge.

It read: “President Jonathan wholly shares the widely expressed view that the signs which were put up without his knowledge or approval are a highly insensitive parody of the #Bring Back Our Girls hash tag.

“While President Jonathan appreciates the enthusiastic show of support for his administration by a broad range of stakeholders, he condemns the #Bring Back Jonathan 2015 signs which appear to make light of the very serious national and global concern for the abducted Chibok girls.

“The President assures all Nigerians and the international community that his administration remains fully engaged with efforts to rescue the abducted girls and that he will not knowingly promote any actions that will fly in the face of the seriousness of their plight and the anguish of their families”

The banners, displayed at strategic positions in Abuja, triggered angry  reactions in Nigeria and abroad, to the extent that it was criticized in international media outlets, including the BBC and the Washington Post.

The #BringBackOurGirls Twitter hashtag was coined to help galvanise international support for the release of nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted April 14 in Chibok, Borno State, by extremist sect, Boko Haram.

While more than 200 of the girls remain in captivity, the campaign became a rallying point and is deemed amongst the social media’s most popular campaigns yet.

Washington Post’s columnist, Ishaan Tharoor, described the #BringBackJonathan2015 hashtag for a government that has failed to rescue the girls nearly five months after, as likely the “most inappropriate hashtag of the year”.

Tharoor wrote: “It’s not clear whether Jonathan has officially endorsed the new hashtag, but its seeming ubiquity suggests that he is not opposed to it,” Mr. Tharoor wrote.