Ten years later, about 98 of the 276 school girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists from Chibok, Borno State, have not been rescued. Nigerian governments and most citizens appear to have forgotten them.
On February 19, 2018, another set of 110 girls was effortlessly seized by the same insurgents from a secondary school in Dapchi, Yobe State. About one month later, all but one of them, Leah Sharibu, were released.
The whereabouts and fate of Leah, who stoutly refused to renounce her Christian faith, remain unknown. Till today, her tragic story is mired in controversy and conspiracy theories as these militants who pervert Islam and give it a bad reputation continue to hold her captive.
Unfortunately, there is no shortage of such gory tales in today’s Nigeria where human lives have become worthless and expendable. On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, it emerged that Islamist insurgents had once more abducted about 200 internally displaced people, mostly children and women, from Ngala, Gambarou-Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State.
They had gone into the surrounding bush to gather wood to sell to augment their difficult circumstances.
This was double jeopardy for these helpless, traumatized, citizens. They had already lost their husbands and fathers, homes and all sources of livelihood to the same outlaws that had now come after them at their last, make-shift, sanctuary.
And barely 24 hours later, bandits invaded the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. They abducted 187 students from the secondary and 125 pupils from the elementary schools.
Although 25 pupils subsequently returned, the remaining 287 children and their principal are yet to be rescued.
As these and such other acts of lawlessness spike all over the country, the Federal Government seems to have forgotten that its most hallowed constitutional duty is the protection of the lives and property of Nigerians. As usual, both the federal and state governments have come out to condemn these crimes, vowed to rescue the victims and bring the perpetrators to justice.
But this has become an all too familiar body language of governments in the face of these unrelenting atrocities. It is the silence that follows and the lack of political will to tackle these armed gangs that have continued to embolden them.
For instance, what action did the Buhari administration take about the six Nigerians the United Arab Emirates fingered in September 2021 for sponsoring terrorism? While the United States of America promptly sanctioned them and their business entities in March 2022, Nigeria’s Justice Minister at the time, Abubakar Malami, continued to dilly-dally until the end of that dispensation.
That recurring pattern of secrecy and ambivalence, which many Nigerians saw as acquiescence, was the hallmark of the Buhari government’s fight against insurgency.
In fact, security chiefs that had failed to rein in terrorists and armed herdsmen who literally pillaged the country were rewarded with ambassadorial appointments when they were, finally, reluctantly, dropped.
Also, because the appointments of these security chiefs were largely informed by religious and ethnic considerations, loyalty and patriotism in the armed services were seriously watered down.
This, security experts say, contributed in giving the terrorists and bandits a huge leverage which effects can be felt till today.
Therefore, has the Tinubu administration factored some of these disturbing scenarios into structuring its own security strategies? Has this government critically examined the nuances of the Buhari Security Doctrine which failed to stem the tide of these atrocities?
We must ask some hard, disturbing, questions if we must get rid of these never-ending nightmares that have made acquiring basic, life-changing education and engaging in life-sustaining subsistence farming life-threatening pursuits in our country.
As the administration appears to be somewhat disposed towards restructuring the country, it should start from decentralizing the security framework of the country to give states a greater leverage in that respect.
That will give Nigerians the much-needed assurances that, at last, something has strategically changed in the strive to tackle the scourge of insecurity in this country.
Doubtless, the latest spates of mass abductions of IDPs and school children have become symbols of the reign of terror and brutality that have turned into a norm rather than the exception.
Citizens hope that never again should the unfortunate events of the last few days turn out to be another re-enactment of the Chibok and Dapchi abductions – with all the attendant pain, apprehension and misery. All caused by the failure of state actors to live up their responsibilities of rescuing the victims and bringing the criminals to book.
Certainly, these should not become another Chibok nightmare.
*(AN EDITORIAL OF THE NIGERIA STANDARD NEWSPAPER, March 13, 2024)
