Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday when news broke out of a successful freeing of 344 students of Government Science Secondary School (GSSS), Kankara in Katsina State. The state governor, Aminu Masari, who made the announcement, said their release followed negotiations with their abductors with the support of his Zamfara State counterpart, Bello Matawalle.
Gov. Masari said no ransom was paid before the students who spent seven days in the hands of their abductors were released. On Friday, the freed students, looking haggard and traumatised, were brought to the state capital, Katsina, after spending a night in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, where they were later addressed by President Muhammadu Buhari who was on his way back to Abuja after a week-long private visit to his native town, Daura.
The abduction saga began in the night of Friday, December 11, 2020, when hundreds of bandits stormed the school and herded out the children who were preparing to go to bed.
According to the accounts of some of the students who earlier escaped and those who spoke after being freed, they suffered untold hardship in the hands their abductors, which included beatings and hunger.
However, despite the trauma suffered by the students, parents and concerned Nigerians, it was gratifying that all the students returned home without any life lost.
Indeed many Nigerians feared for the worst given the atrocities of the bandits who have held many villages and towns in the North West to unbridled killing, maiming and extortion.
This fear was further heightened when the Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram announced that it was involved in the kidnapping of the students. It followed up with the release of a video with one of the students begging on the authorities not to attack the abductors.
We commend the authorities and security agencies for their prompt actions which led to the quick resolution of the saga. It was quite obvious that the bandits were forced to agree to release the students when they realised they had little room to manoeuver.
However, there are a number of issues that need to be quickly addressed by the authorities in the wake of an increased threat to security in this region and indeed the whole country.
The abduction in Kankara was the third following that of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, and Government Girls Secondary School, Dapchi, in Yobe. Although the incidents were some years apart, it is becoming more dangerously obvious that schools are becoming soft targets for bandits and this is very dangerous. More worrying is that in all the cases, the bandits/terrorists took their time to operate unhindered, leaving security officials and authorities to react long after the incidents had happened. It is really disturbing how the bandits went away with about 400 school children unchallenged by any security outfit around the area which has been under siege for a long time.
Another worrying issue is the lack of coordination of information management in the wake of the abduction. This was obvious from the varying number of students that were abducted. Until their release it seemed the authorities did not have an official figure of the students that were abducted. While figures of between 500 and 600 were initially bandied, Gov. Masari said 313 students were involved, but at the end 344 students were released. Government must immediately take an audit of the students so as to ascertain the number involved and whether there are still some in the forest.
More importantly, it is time for the government to come to terms with the current insecurity situation in the country and take urgent and appropriate measures to stem the situation. Today, only few of us sleep with our eyes closed. Roads and farms are unsafe, which may lead to serious economic downturn and possible hunger as traders and farmers cannot operate freely. Villages and towns are raided daily by bandits who take away people for ransom and kill those who cannot pay. Many villages have been deserted for fear of bandits.
So far reaction of our security agencies have been token. They appear to be taking measures when there is an outcry only to go back to their sleep soon after. It is a pity that the only reaction by some state governments to the Kankara incident was to order the closure of their schools. This is not tenable in a country with a very high number of out-of-school children.
So far, in the wake of this incident, the president could only come with the usual statement of being unsatisfied with the performance of our security agencies and appealing to their conscience to do more. We strongly believe the President, as the Commander-in-Chief, should go beyond that. What Nigerians expect from the government is to take drastic measures to secure their lives and property. After all that is the primary duty of government. Needless to remind the president that this was one of his major campaign promises.
