Tears for 339 Students with Captors

Ring True BY Yemi Adebowale  Email: yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com  Phone 08054699539

339. As at press time, that’s the number of students from three schools languishing in the dungeons of bandits in Niger, Kebbi and Kaduna states. There are hundreds of others from unrecorded abductions, still with kidnappers. Hundreds of children are being abused in forests and all we get are rhetoric from a lame federal government that controls all the security agencies in the country. While we sleep in the comfort of our rooms, hundreds of our children are with beasts in the forests. The latest addition to the number of our children in the forest is the 121 taken from Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna State. The bandits strolled into the school, operated for over an hour unchallenged, and walked out with 121 children. It can only happen in Nigeria.

Then, it is followed with lies, damn lies by the Kaduna State Government and security agencies. Our well-trained soldiers claimed they exchanged fire with the bandits, but they still escaped with the Bethel students. Two security agents were killed by the bandits but our soldiers did not kill a single bandit in the firefight. This is absurd. It was later claimed that security agents rescued 26 of Bethel students. It turned out not to be true. The Proprietor of the Bethel School, Ishaya Jangado, sheds light on this: “After the exchange of fire between the bandits and the security personnel, we came to the school and we recovered 28 students. Some hide in different places. Some of them, in the course of taking them, escaped from the bandits and came back to the school.”

Also, midway into the case of the abducted 39 students of Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, Kaduna State, the Army reported that five of the abducted students had been rescued by the military. That was not the true story. The military was merely trying to take credit for a job not done. One of the five freed students blew the whistle on the Army and the Kaduna State Government by revealing that the bandits released them voluntarily.

The managers of Bethel Baptist High School have been told by the bandits to send food to the 121 students through them, so as to prevent the children from starving. The outlaws have started coming out to pick the food at an agreed location, yet, security agents are unable to track down these bastards. The gangsters communicate daily with the school and parents using GSM phones, yet, tracking them down is a problem for our security agents. What a country!

Another shocking thing about unending abductions and killings in Kaduna State is that this state is home to a large number of military formations, including the headquarters of 1 Division of the Nigerian Army. The Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) and the Nigerian Army school of Artillery, Kachia, are some of the elite military institutions here. Garrisons and military training schools abound in Kaduna, nevertheless, outlaws control this state. How can one explain the abductions at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, located near the NDA along the Kaduna International Airport road? It’s a big disgrace.

It will be a waste of time for the abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School to look towards Governor Nasir El-rufai for salvation. This man called El-rufai has never been there for anybody in this state. He enjoys showboating and persistently spins rubbish, without offering relief to victims of unending killings and kidnappings in Kaduna State. The other day, El-rufai openly rejected ransom to kidnappers. But he never followed up with anything positive to free victims. That was why five abducted students of Greenfield University were killed.

In Niger State, 135 pupils of Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School, Tegina, have spent 40 days in the forest without any serious effort to rescue them. I’m talking about kids as young as eight years. The kidnappers want N100 million and sympathizers of the abducted pupils have so far paid almost N20 million. Earlier, one pupil died in the prison of the kidnappers.

In Kebbi State, 83 students and seven staff of the Federal Government College, Yauri, have spent 24 days in the forest with bandits. Three of the students died during separate weird rescue operations. In one of the operations, the Army reported that the fleeing kidnappers ran into men of the Joint Taskforce of Operation Hadarin Daji in the North-West Zone, at a roadblock, and a firefight occurred. According to the Deputy Force Commander, Operation Hadarin Daji, Air Commodore Abubakar Abdulkadir, as a result of the duel, the bandits were forced to abandon five students and a teacher; “but sadly, one of the students died in the crossfire.”

So, there was a firefight and not a single bandit was killed or captured? The bandits abandoned only five of the students and crossed the road block with the others unhindered? How did they escape through the fortified road block, if indeed, there was a firefight? This story is outrageous. The army reported further that the land troops tackled the bandits in conjunction with elements of the Nigerian Air Force, who provided close air support, nonetheless, they could not gun down a single bandit during the rescue mission. With the aircraft, the Air Force could not track the location of the bandits. Commodore Abdulkadir’s men, who could not rescue the traumatised students, reported that they were able to recover 800 cattle from the bandits. What a country!

Last Thursday, bandits released the six students and two staff of the Kaduna State-owned Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, who spent 29 days in captivity. The abductees were freed after affected families paid about N5 million. This is Nigeria for you under Buhari.

Security glitches under this federal government are ceaseless and consuming too many innocent lives. The killings, kidnappings and destruction across the country in the last six years of the Buhari government have become a big embarrassment to this country. The Nigerian state has never been this weak. The need to bring committers of these grave human rights violations to account is pertinent. Nigerians desire improved security. I’m convinced that Buhari knows what to do to end this madness, but has refused to do the needful. Nigeria is in a big mess. Who will save this country? This is one big question begging for answer.

Zulum is Clearly a Muddled Governor
Watching Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State on a television interview last Wednesday left me depressed. How can this man be the governor of a traumatised state like Borno and nonetheless, refuse to be truthful about its plight? Zulum was economical with the truth during the interview. On the one hand, he admits that a large number of his people can’t go to their farms because of raging insecurity, stating: “The Nigerian military should create the enabling environment for farmers to go to their farmlands so that they can cultivate their lands. It is no longer sustainable for our internally displaced persons living in IDP camps and host communities to receive food and non-food items from donor partners. People must earn their livelihood if we want this insurgency to come to an end.”

On the other hand, Zulum said peace was gradually returning to the North-East after over 11 years of Boko Haram: “The Nigerian Army should not relax by our statement that there is peace in Borno State, that there is gradual return of peace in the North-East.” Which peace is this governor talking about? If peace is gradually returning, close to a million people will still not be living in IDP camps in Borno State. In this state, you will find people struggling for a meal a day in the IDP camps. Why would they remain in these camps if their towns and villages are now peaceful?

During the same interview, Zulum lamented: “The Nigerian Army does not have the lethal weapons, fighter helicopter and numerical strength to fight aggressors. The Nigerian Army of last 30 years, of last 40 years is better than the Nigerian Army of now a day. It is sad, it is very sad. We are supposed to have gone far in terms of development but if you look at it, the equipment we have in the last 40 years are still in existence.”

So, how did this poorly-equipped Army dismantle Boko Haram as earlier claimed by Zulum? Was it with bare hands? The truth which Zulum is being economical with is that the Nigerian Army has not degraded Boko Haram. The terrorists are roaming freely in 20 of the 27 local governments in Borno State. Just last Wednesday, 24 persons were killed by Boko Haram in Dabna, a farming community in Adamawa State. Zulum’s peace in the North-east is obviously an imaginary one.

On open grazing, Zulum said its prohibition won’t work until insecurity as “well as the socio-political and economic dimensions of the crisis are addressed.” Was he not part of the Northern Governors Forum that banned open grazing? How can an educated man be defending open grazing in the 21st century?

Zulum said an enabling environment must be created for herders before a ban is placed on open grazing. The only enabling environment is ranching. Herders don’t need eternity to cuddle ranching. This can be achieved in months by government of affected states before the herders return to base. Zulum should do his research properly. Any forward-looking governor would support a quick end to the persistent clashes involving nomadic herdsmen and farmers in different communities across our country. These clashes have assumed a frightening dimension under the Buhari administration, resulting in hundreds of deaths on both sides.

Human lives are sacred as ordained by Allah and we must all work very hard to preserve them. The only way forward is ranching. Multiple industrial boreholes, powered by solar energy, can be erected to pump uninterrupted water to sustain artificial lakes all year round for the ranches. Zulum needs to read about how the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, turned thousands of miles of desert into arable land. He should also read about Gaddafi’s “Great Man-Made River.” If the Libyan wonder is replicated in Northern Nigeria, there will always be hays and water for cows in ranches all year round. My dear Zulum, ranching is the magic wand that will turn around the economy of Northern Nigeria.

Kanu and the Duplicity of the British Government

The role of the British Government so far in the Nnamdi Kanu saga leaves me wondering if the UK is truly a bastion of the Rule of Law as being promoted. The IPOB leader, whose Nigerian and British passports were impounded in 2016 by an Abuja court, as part of his bail condition, jumped bail and escaped to a neighbouring country, where he was issued another passport by the British Government. He escaped to UK with this and to other countries until his re-arrest last month. Of course, the British Government knew Kanu was a fugitive running away from justice in Nigeria. UK’s new passport to Kanu shows disdain for the Nigerian court that impounded his passports.

Now, let’s juxtapose this with the British Government’s role in the Julian Assange case. This will help us understand the UK government’s duplicity. In 2002, Assange, Wikileaks co-founder, faced a case of extradition to Sweden in a British court over a sexual assault allegation. He was granted bail by the court but he jumped bail fearing likely extradition to the United States over another case. The US Government wants him extradited to face charges of massive leak of classified government data. So, he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012.

The Ecuadorian government later withdrew Assange’s asylum and threw him out of its embassy in London in 2019. The British Government quickly grabbed him, took him back to court and was found guilty of jumping bail. Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks imprisonment and has been held there ever since over the extradition case to US.

The point I’m making here is that when Assange jumped bail granted by a British court, the British Government went after him with so much venom, got him and ensured he is returned to court and jailed for his action. But when Kanu jumped bail granted by a Nigeria court, Britain provided him a new passport to escape justice. UK deliberately undermined the Nigerian court after a bench warrant was issued for Kanu’s arrest. The British Government should be ashamed.