When Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, said that Nigerians will be shocked to know those behind the abduction of the Jangebe girls, I looked forward to the revelation with bated breath.
Beyond shock, I was keen to see the mystery behind the ease with which hundreds of people are carted away and the identities of those behind such mastery, unravelled.
If I had a chance to meet the governor, I would have begged him to shock Nigerians. It was about time events in the country began to shock other Nigerians apart from President Muhammadu Buhari, who is always either shocked or not aware of things that happen on his watch.
This is important because it would seem that Nigerians and the world have come to accept mass abductions of students as a reality and so it no longer shocks anyone, or it has become so theatrical that we have lost sympathy for the victims and government or the rest of the country now sees it as a northern problem that should be handled by the north and so cannot be bothered.
We were, therefore, in need of something to jolt us back to reality, then the promise of a shocker by Matawalle.
In April 2014, when 276 school girls were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, the global outrage was palpable. The world stood in solidarity with Nigerians, calling for the release of the girls and #BringBackOurGirls trended globally, attracting personalities like then first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.
After Chibok, there was Damasak, Dapchi, Buni Yadi and Mamudo where students were either abducted or killed.
In the aftermath of these unfortunate events, a Safe School Initiative (SSI) to cover at least 500 schools was started but as is the case with many fine-on-paper policies, there is no known record of what became of that initiative, even as schools have become targets of criminal elements recently.
A report of the Nigeria Safe Schools MDTF Financial Reporting on Sources and Uses of Funds for the period ending December 31, 2019, shows that $1,750,240 was donated in 2018 of which $1,736,316 was spent, it remains unclear how much has been raised to date and how far it has gone in keeping schools and students safe.
The answer may not be farfetched as evident in the recent abductions. Schools are not safe!
Over half a thousand students have been abducted in Kankara, Katsina State, Kagara, Niger State and Jangebe, Zamfara State in two months.
When absurdity persists, it becomes stupidity and serious people want to have nothing to do with what doesn’t make sense.
Abduction after abduction, assurances are given and hopes are high that it would be the last but before you can say Jack Robinson, it happens again.
When Boko Haram started, the aim was to outlaw Western education. Now, the ones we call bandits are abducting students for ransom. This is a twin assault on education in a region that already accounts for the highest numbers of out-of-school children.
However one chooses to look at it, the terrorists, bandits, criminals, whatever name you call them, appear to be winning the war waged against Nigeria. They have Nigeria right where they always wanted.
If anyone was in doubt that the state was losing the war, the call on citizens to stop being cowards and defend themselves against bandits by the minister of Defense, Bashir Magashi, cleared it.
We lost it when it became okay to negotiate with criminal elements. Abduction for ransom has become a lucrative business with all manner of gang leaders controlling different forests of the North West, each looking for who to abduct for ransom. Every criminal wants his share of the cake and the centre can no longer hold.
President Buhari, though belatedly, has strong words for the terrorists and all other criminals – government will not negotiate with them and the full force of the law will be visited on them.
The president may also wish to let Nigerians know how the Kankara, Kagara and Jangede abductees were released.
Amidst all this, self-appointed peace negotiator, Sheik Ahmad Gumi says abducting children from school is “less evil than going into a town and ransack it (sic).” This is the real shocker!
Now that Matawalle’s shocker has failed to shock us, as rather than tell us those behind the kidnappings, he made a blanket allegation that it was some politicians behind it, I join the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in asking that the governor be treated as an accomplice if he fails to name the abductors.
The way I see it, a big snake has bitten Nigeria on the neck. Difficult as it may seem to find a place to tie, to prevent the venom from spreading, we must find a way out and fast too, lest we die.
