Week by week we are faced with new atrocities. Two weeks ago, we saw the beheading of the 70 farmers in Zabarmari. This week, yet another unthinkable incident, this time in Kankara.
Only in Nigeria can militants walk into a high school, abduct the whole student body and get away with it. One unbelievable tragedy after another. One colossal failure following another. One massive disappointment atop another. Every single week arrives on the horizon pregnant with ominous cloud. Every weekend is spoilt by some monstrous heartbreak. There has never been a more exhausting time to be Nigerian.
We have by now resigned to our miserable fate that our rulers are incapable of showing even an iota of leadership. The Kankara schoolboys were abducted within 24 hours of President Buhari’s arrival in Katsina for a one-week holiday. That break was too important to be interrupted for Buhari to visit Kankara – in the same state – to comfort and reassure the hundreds of distraught parents. He didn’t utter a single word. If Buhari would treat his home state this uncaringly, what more of the rest of the country? If he can’t protect Katsina, how can he protect other states?
In the meantime, the government Buhari leads wasted no time to swing into damage control, which always ends up inflicting more harm to a battered image. His spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, announced a day after the incident that the army had located the enclave of the bandits and that a gun duel was underway. A day later, he said soldiers had surrounded the area waiting for a command to exchange. The next day he claimed that only 10 children were missing even as the Katsina State government announced that over 300 remain unaccounted for. The following day, he told us that Governor Masari had assured President Buhari that the boys would be returned unharmed. Four days, four mutually contradictory statements.
His final explanation did not only deny the facts, but also the responsibility. As Garba Shehu should know, all security, law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Nigeria are federally controlled. They report to the president, not any governor, especially in monumental tragedies like this. But apparently, the president’s leave is too important to be interrupted by trivial issues like the lives of at least 300 children.
Garba Shehu’s claim of ongoing negotiations for the boys’ release was soon punctured by a chilling development. Abubakar Shekau – the self-appointed terror king of the world – released an audio in which he claimed responsibility for the abduction. This means that, according to Garba Shehu, Governor Masari was either negotiating with Shekau or no one. The revelation of Shekau’s involvement kept me awake on Monday night because I know the victims would be in a much more precarious situation if that was true. If they were kidnapped by the bandits, they would likely spend a couple of miserable weeks before a ransom is paid and they are freed. But if it was Shekau, the Chibok memory sends shock waves through everyone even remotely concerned. Six years on, over a hundred of the girls remain in the horrible grip of their merciless captors.
Quite a few people, including parents of some victims, doubted or challenged Shekau’s claim. I do not. I have spent this whole year telling all who will listen that Shekau has been making inroads into the northwest and northcentral by establishing cells in Niger and Zamfara states. If this warning had been taken with the seriousness, urgency and tact that it required, Shekau’s footprints would’ve been stemmed and this incident would’ve probably been avoided.
Furthermore, the Kankara attack bears the hallmarks of Boko Haram. A short audio recording of the attack made by a neighbour sent to me a day after the incident captured someone screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they attacked the school. Days later, some escapees interviewed told journalists that the attackers kept shouting “Allahu Akbar” even after they had taken them to their enclave. Bandits do not claim to fight for a deity. That’s why I posited in an interview with The Telegraph and Sky News a day before Shekau’s claim that Boko Haram could be the culprit.
And then Shekau’s claim came in. In the light of the above, I wasn’t surprised at all. Those who do deny it – unless they have access to information that we lack – are likely to be exhibiting the first stage of grief as understood by psychologists. Garba Shehu has remained quiet since Shekau’s announcement. Perhaps he too is in shock, as all his explanations fall apart almost before he has finished speaking.
But let’s not be derailed. Debates and denials benefit none but the abductors. Every single hour we spend doubting, dithering and delaying makes a rescue harder. Thus, be it Shekau or some unknown gunmen, the safety and freedom of these boys should be the focus of every stakeholder. If Buhari and anyone in government has any priority, it should be the safe return of the victims to their families. Nothing is as urgent, important and serious as this.
Finally, Shekau did not mince words in his claim of responsibility that the attack on Kankara was orchestrated to discourage Western-style education, which he said is disbelief. Northwest governors quickly handed him victory. Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa have all shut down all secondary schools or boarding schools in the states. Katsina and Zamfara cited security concerns. Although the remaining states cited the coronavirus, it is likely that the rising insecurity also weighs in their minds. While taking preventative measures is wise and laudable, shutting down schools is unsustainable and can’t be a solution to the insecurity raging in the land. Closing schools is holding hostage Nigeria’s future, and it is submitting to the demands of terrorists.
The right way forward is to mobilise everything in our power to rescue these boys and then to confront Boko Haram and other criminal groups. The only way to stop them from destroying us is by destroying them.
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