The Boko Haram Girls: A Twitter Campaign that Went Burst

So much is often made of the power of social media to galvanize people for a cause - and this has sometimes been the case. However, in the case of the Nigerian girls abducted by Boko Haram, the social media campaign to effect their rescue seems to have ended in a stalemate - like the war in Syria. This case demonstrates a significant shortcoming of social media campaigns - it is easy to tweet from afar. To effect change in status quo bodies are often needed. In the case of the Boko Haram girls, bodies have been few in coming and the political has overwhelmed the humanitarian. Thus, over one hundred days after the abduction of these girls, the social media and political campaigns to bring back the girls seem to have gone cold. Where do we go from here?