We could all use some good news this holiday season especially when it comes to the young Nigerian women who were kidnapped and brutalized by Boko Haram in April 2014. In a bit of good news, a Black Austin, Texas-based philanthropist and investor is supporting 24 Chibok schoolgirls – 21 of whom escaped Boko Haram – by paying all expenses for them to attend American University at Yola, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

Billionaire Robert Smith’s identity was revealed on Tuesday as the financial backer for the gift to the Nigerian government by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on the Media to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. The 54-year-old businessman has also offered to “take responsibility for the 21 girls freed in October and all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free.

Terror group Boko Haram took responsibility for kidnapping the 234 girls shortly after the news became a worldwide call to #bringbackourgirls. Over the months that followed, many of the young women were able to escape Boko Haram while too many others remained under the force of the terror group. Nearly three years later, many of the young women are feared dead, used by Boko Haram in other acts of terror.

In 2015, Forbes named Smith the 268th richest person in the United States putting him ahead of Michael Jordan. They also referred to him as a “private equity titan.”

Hopefully, Smith’s act of kindness will inspire many other political leaders and philanthropists to support the young women whose lives were uprooted by Boko Haram and those who continue to face oppression and terror at the hands of groups like this.

 

Read more at the News Agency of Nigeria.

Author

  • Jenn M. Jackson was born and raised in East Oakland, California, a fact which motivates her writing and academic ambitions. She is a scholar, educator, and writer whose writing addresses Black Politics and civil and public life for young Black people with a focus on policing and surveillance. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Water Cooler Convos, a culture platform for Black millennials. Her writing has been featured in Washington Post, BITCH Magazine, Marie Claire, EBONY, The Root, Daily Dot, The Independent, and many others. Jackson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying American Politics with a focus on political participation and engagement, public opinion and social movements. For more about her, tweet her at @JennMJack or visit her website at jennmjackson.com.