The graphic images of concerned, hurting and traumatized parents being tear-gassed on the streets of
Kankara, Katsina State the other day, is a dramatic advertisement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
callous insensitivity, incompetence and failure to live up to his responsibility to protect the lives and
welfare of the Nigerian people. Feelings were raw on the streets and the request was unmistakable: the
nation and the parents want a reunion with the 333 unaccounted students of Government Boys Science
Secondary School (GBSSS), Kankara who were kidnapped by bandits last Friday. The pain was deepened
by the fact that the president, who was visiting his home state of Katsina failed to even visit the school
to show support and solidarity with the grieving parents. Rather, he sent a delegation led by Defence
Minister, Maj-Gen. Salihi Magashi (rtd.), to commiserate with the state government and people of
Katsina over the abduction. It is indeed unfortunate that Nigeria has found herself in this quagmire but
Buhari’s faux pas and the police brutality that attended what unarguably is another national tragedy is
most unconscionable and unacceptable.
It is just as well that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement by its national
publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it was sad that instead of going after the kidnappers and
terrorists, the state apparatus of power was being abused to inflict further pain on the victims. “Such
display of insensitivity further foregrounds the lack of empathy by the Buhari-led All Progressives
Congress (APC) administration and serves as a sad reminder of how it also blamed the 43 farmers
recently slain by terrorists in Borno State, instead of taking steps to apprehend the assailants. Indeed,
our party shares the pains and sorrows of these parents who have been under serious torment since
President Buhari arrived Katsina for his needless holidays.” The PDP called on the president to apologize
to Nigerians and the parents of the kidnapped students as well as take steps to ensure disciplinary
actions against those who ordered the tear gas attack on the parents.
It is unfortunate, as well as embarrassing that the incident occurred when President Buhari and his
security apparatus were present in Katsina. The barbaric incident is also an indication that the federal
government had not learned any lessons from the unfortunate incidents of the abduction of 276 girls
from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State in 2014 and another 110 girls at the Government Girls’
Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State in 2018. Following the two previous incidents and
other occurrences of the kidnap of students in boarding schools across the country, the government
ought to have put in place, adequate security measures to ensure the safety of children in boarding
schools, especially in areas susceptible to attacks by kidnappers and terrorists. Incidentally, in the wake
of the Chibok kidnapping, Nigeria was one of the first 37 countries to endorse the Safe Schools
Declaration on May 29, 2015, when governments expressed commitments to ensure protection and
continuation of education in conflict situations.
Kidnapping has clearly become a national malaise; both the federal and state authorities should face the
challenge, bearing in mind that many cases go unreported for fear of victimization by the perpetrators.
It is sickening that no answer has been offered anxious and tormented parents to the debauchery;
further raising public apprehension and adding to the alarming wave of insecurity and criminality
ravaging the country. This is strongly condemnable. Relevant government institutions too had none to
offer than a lame plea for time by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu; who told the BBC that military
commanders on the ground have located the kidnappers and surrounded the area where they are
believed to be holding the abducted students. Shehu said the president, who was on a private visit to his
home state when the kidnappers struck, was being briefed hourly on efforts to rescue the boys. The
Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has reportedly relocated to Kankara to supervise the rescue
mission after a hurried attempt by the Nigerian Army was embarrassingly bungled on Saturday. The
Director-General, Department of State Security Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; Director-General, National
Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Rufai; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ekwe Ibas; Inspector-General
of Police, Mohammed Adamu and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, have all deployed to
Kankara. Katsina governor, Aminu Masari confirmed 333 of the 839 pupils of the school remain missing.
However, notwithstanding any behind-the-scene activities, a rising wave of anger and frustration across
the land is justifiable.
At this crossroads, there should be no rest for President Buhari and everybody
down the security chain of command, until the boys are rescued and returned to their distraught
parents. No excuses or explanation will obviate the official incompetence and public embarrassment
that such an incident could take place when the president was visiting his home state. Nigerians have no
faith in the government, giving the lackadaisical and lackluster response to the Chibok kidnapping six
years ago. Inferences of internal sabotage or even suspected limitation by the armed forces can no
longer be waved aside. When will Buhari begin to take responsibility for his failures?
If the military claims to have located the kidnappers and cordoned off the area; that should be the first
step towards what inevitably could be a highly risky adventure to rescue the boys from the den of the
kidnappers. Abductions as witnessed in Kankara should bring out the best in a proactive security
network. As kidnapping spreads like wild fire all over Nigeria, the refrain is that it is no longer safe to
presume anywhere or anybody is safe. And that is bad for governments at all levels. If the primary duty
of a state is to safeguard the lives and property of citizens, the kidnappers have successfully called the
efficacy of the country’s security apparatus to question.
This government has a lot of explaining to do. How true are reports that rumors were rife on the street
of an imminent attack on the school before the boys were kidnapped? Are their captors indoctrinating
and planning to use them as child soldiers? Three days in captivity and counting is agonizing, and the
official insensitivity on display is befuddling. Curiously, as father of the nation and Commander in Chief
of the Armed Forces, President Buhari’s ill-advised failure to visit the school or addressed the nation
indicates he has not been moved to view the kidnapping of 333 teenage boys as a national tragedy.
This raises a number of posers: With the failure of presidential leadership, is Buhari merely playing for
time for Nigerians to find something else to occupy their attention and leave the boys to their fate like
the girls of Chibok? Is the military serious about its claim that the kidnappers have been located? What
is the true capacity of the military hardware available for use in any rescue mission?
Are the soldiers
well mobilized and trained for such a delicate task of hostage rescue? Are there fifth columnists in the
military, who aided and abetted the kidnappers to force the president to fire the service chiefs as is
being argued in certain quarters? What is the level of intelligence gathering and how effective is the
coordination and control of the intelligence agencies on the ground in Katsina?
Either way, all kidnapping victims deserve the kind of prompt or serious attention given to the
kidnapped Katsina students because kidnapping has become an uncontained national tragedy. The
malaise has assumed epidemic proportion, which should no longer be tolerated. And government
should be proactive rather than merely reactive. If security agencies had functioned optimally,
kidnapping by now should have been curbed.
The time has come for concerted action on the issue of
kidnapping. Government cannot continue to give the impression that it is clueless on issues of threat to
lives and property of its citizens. A government that watches as ransom is being paid to kidnappers
defeats its essence. It exposes its authority and legitimacy to question. As a matter of urgency, the
government should empower the security agencies to combat crime. Not only must they be properly
equipped, their morale should be boosted to make them less susceptible to complicity. In addition, the
systemic unemployment must be addressed. There is a nexus between the crime rate and spiraling
joblessness in the country as too many idle hands are making the whole country a devil’s workshop.
Furthermore, the political class must ensure optimum and equitable utilization of the nation’s resources
in a way that makes no one feel arbitrarily deprived by reason of not belonging or connected to people
in the corridors of power. They should do a self-appraisal to see whether they have been just to the
people who voted them into office and whether they have not built a mass of discontented and
disoriented people who find different ways of expressing their discontentment.
Above all, corruption
has occasioned a level of anger within the populace hitherto unknown in this country. The Boko Haram
insurgency and the rising wave of kidnappings for ransom, armed robbery and assassinations are
manifestations of disenchantment with bad governance. However, this is no justification for criminality.
Kidnapping, whatever the motive, is a serious crime. Nigeria must be rid of it. But, there should be no
rest for President Buhari until the abducted Katsina boys are found and reunited with their families.
