“We need a resolution. We have so much confusion.” – Aaliyah
It’s another week, and another shameful, avoidable tragedy. After all, it’s Nigeria. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This time, it’s Kaduna, at the popular School of Forestry Mechanization, in Afaka, a little after the area called Mando. Many students were taken by armed kidnappers, most of them female. At the time of writing this, there’s been no contact with the terrorists who took the poor, innocent students. This is not quite long after the Kagara mass abduction in Niger State, and that of Jangebe in Zamfara State, all with bloodthirsty ‘bandits’ invading schools and forcefully taking away students, and even staff.
Of course, all the usual theatrics were employed, all after the fact. The remaining students were whisked to a military facility, and a new spin to the story was deployed, with the police keeping mum all the while. Business as usual, one might say. But for how long can we continue to be a nation of reactionary people? When can we begin to be proactive? I say this because the school in Kaduna has been wide-open prone to attacks for a while now. I say so because three years ago I was attacked by armed ‘bandits’, or would-be kidnappers really, as I plied the road beside the same school as a shortcut. After I survived that attempt, and lived to tell the tale, I understand many other incidents followed, prompting military checkpoints to be set up on the road.
What happened to those checkpoints? I don’t know, but it would be interesting to know why such an important presence at a place proven to be dangerous, is not maintained. While it is ridiculous that a school within close proximity to the city – or the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) for that matter – is being attacked, we should avoid a narrative I see slowly creeping up. That’s the one that suggests that attacks like that shouldn’t happen so close to the NDA. But let’s ask: Is it the academy that’s tasked with securing the area, or the police? In any case, the attack didn’t happen in the academy. But I digress.
This is the kind of failure that triggers people to declare all kinds of things against the government. Misguided as they are – sometimes even silly – you can’t help but empathize with them. People are tired, especially when something as basic as security is not available, for whatever reason. It is quite obvious, that the powers-that-be need to sit down again, more seriously this time, and brainstorm a resolution that will have us feeling safe once more. We need all of the answers, and none of the questions.
Speaking of questions, one that I should be pardoned for having is, where is the good Sheikh Gumi? While his weird comments about the Nigerian military and his angling for negotiations and amnesty for the terrorists finally began to rub me the wrong way, I don’t think it would be out of place to involve him in getting back the victims in one piece. That’s the kind of thorny position one is bound to find himself when one sticks his neck out for groups like those of the ‘bandits’. As weird as that is, there’s even more ridiculous stuff happening elsewhere, in other states. I won’t mention Zamfara, because what’s going on there is like a complex movie script, and material for an entire column, on another day.
That means I have to look at other places, like my very own Niger State, where the governor is offering to arm ‘vigilantes’ with pump action rifles. The solution to arms proliferation, apparently, is to give more arms to people not officially engaged or trained by the government for law enforcement, or protection of lives and property. I don’t want to believe I’m the only one who thinks it’s all rather harebrained to even think of doing so, no matter how desperate the situation is. It’s a bit like having a fire problem, and pouring kerosene on the fire in a bid to quench it. Fine, the governor is in dire straits, but let reason prevail. There already are too many gun-wielding psychopaths in the state, kidnapping and terrorizing people. No need to add to their number.
The amount of epic buck-passing that follows any similar national tragedy is almost as tragic to observe as the main tragedy itself. I want to point out that it’s the duty of the police before anyone else to secure lives and property of Nigerians. But they’ve gotten complacent since the military has picked up the slack regarding the ongoing insurgency, hence the narrative that the Kaduna incident shouldn’t have happened ‘right in front of the NDA’. So what? Don’t the police have checkpoints nearby? All of us Nigerians need to take responsibility when it’s time to do so. Whether it’s the Army, Air Force, Navy, Police or even Civil Defence: Do your job. What this country needs is not the much-touted – and frankly ridiculous – revolution. What we need is a resolution.
