Nigerian Girl Abductions Hit Close to Home for NBA's Masai Ujiri
BLITZER: A half dozen U.S. military advisers arrived today in Nigeria to help find nearly 300 schoolgirls taken last month by the terror group Boko Haram. Amnesty International claiming it has evidence Nigerian forces had evidence of the impending attack but failed to act. The abducted girls are now believed to be split up into smaller groups and possibly taken out of Nigeria altogether. One girl who escaped tells what happened. CNN cannot independently verify the video's authenticity, but watch this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): They us to gather around. They said it's nothing. There's nothing that will happen to you. Then we gathered and asked us where was the food and said if we didn't tell them they would kill us.</s>BLITZER: The plight of the girl certainly hits home for Toronto Raptor's general manager, Masai Ujiri. He was born in northern Nigeria, leaves his native country, loves Africa. He's joining us from Toronto. Masai, I know this hits very close to home for you. What can we do to bring those girls back?</s>MASAI UJIRI, GENERAL MANAGER, TORONTO RAPTORS: I think one of the cruxes of the issues, Wolf, is honestly not identifying this thing on time. I think for us to actually accept help from outside is a great step. I think it's an atrocity that we waited this long. And it's -- this thing happened April 14th and it's taken so long to get the needed attention that it has gotten now.</s>BLITZER: When you see what's going on -- you grew up actually not very far away, correct me if I'm wrong, Masai, and you and I have known each other for a long time. You grew up not that far away from where these kidnappings occurred. What was it like when you heard about it?</s>UJIRI: I grew up in the area, Wolf, as we've said and we have always talked about, and the terrain is hard there. It's difficult. I think in society, a good percentage of good people and some not so good people. For me, growing up was enjoyable. I was happy. With all of those problems coming, you need to step up and sometimes where they don't know as much and we need to seek help. We call ourselves one of the biggest rising economies. I think we have to step up and take care of all the little things like security, hospitals, roads, and getting into a terrain like that in northern Nigeria, which I know is full of good people. It's unfortunate with this situation, but we need to step up as a government and as a people to go find these girls.</s>BLITZER: And I assume, Masai, that you welcome the United States, Britain, other countries, including China, now telling the Nigerian government we're ready to help.</s>UJIRI: Yes. I saw that and I think it's huge. I think the government should really accept this and we should get this thing moving because our borders are loose. Those are things we need to step up on and actually address the situation, some of this militia that is happening over there. With the insertion of these countries coming in for help, I think we need to accept it and move quick.</s>BLITZER: It's hard for us to understand. And you lived there, grew up there. Boko Haram, this group, they go after these little girls because they're simply getting an education. They don't believe girls should get an education. It's hard for us to grasp the brutality of the concept right now. I wonder if you want to comment on that notion. They go after Christian girls, Muslim girls. They don't care. If a girl is getting an education, they have got to go and grab them and effectively sell them into slavery.</s>UJIRI: I grew up with Muslims, Wolf. It was unbelievable. They are great and good people. They all went to school and we had a good education in primary school, high school. I grew up in university town. It's tough to see because I grew up around smart, very smart girls, very smart Muslim girls. They deserve -- they really deserve at least an education, an opportunity to go and express themselves. And for me, growing up in my -- in the environment that I grew up, and to see this, I think it's very harsh. We really need to step in.</s>BLITZER: I know you're a proud son of Africa. We've spend quality time talking about in the NBA in Africa. We'll continue this conversation, Masai, down the road. Masai Ujiri is the general manager of the Toronto Raptors. Next time we'll talk about what's happening in the NBA, your Raptors and my Washington Wizards. We have got a lot to discuss. Thanks very much for joining us.</s>UJIRI: thank you.</s>BLITZER: Good luck to all of those little girls in Nigeria and their families. We hope they are back with their families very, very soon. Masai, thank you very much. Just ahead, the Lewinski scandal was nearly 20 years ago but will it come back to haunt Hillary Clinton if she chooses to run for president in 2016. Political host, political commentator, Michael Smerconish, standing by to join us live.