crash when adding user to user array

Android
1

Hi dear Backendless!

getting the dreaded : “NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method ‘boolean java.util.ArrayList.add(java.lang.Object)’ on a null object reference”

in a situation in which i’m not sure what the problem is:

   Backendless.Persistence.of(BackendlessUser.class).find(dataQuery, new AsyncCallback<BackendlessCollection<BackendlessUser>>() {
       @Override
       public void handleResponse(BackendlessCollection<BackendlessUser> foundUsers) {
           // all Contact instances have been found
           for (int i = 0; i < foundUsers.getTotalObjects(); i++) {
               // Create a new object for each list item
               ru = foundUsers.getCurrentPage().get(i);
               Log.i("objectid", ru.getObjectId());
               newfollowinglist.add(ru);

I’m sure that it should have worked, because “ru” is a Backendlessuser and “newfollowinglist” is an ArrayList of Backendlessuser, and because I do get the users’ ObjectId in the Log.i in the logcat.
this is how I’ve defined newfollowinglist and ru:
static ArrayList<BackendlessUser> newfollowinglist;
BackendlessUser ru = new BackendlessUser();please help,Gil.

2

newfollowinglist = new List<BackendlessUser>() {
@Override
public void add(int location, BackendlessUser object) {

}...}