The Traumatised Children of Tegina

For the families of the kids seized from their school by bandits in Tegina, Niger State, and finally released after 89 days in captivity, the terror was real, raw and rasping. They were all over the place for months trying to scale the mountain put before them by ruthless criminals. It was heart-wrenching to note that some of those children were as young as four. Finally, after three months, there is a nationwide sigh of relief.

As the children remained in captivity, Nigerians could relate. Even Nigerians yet to become parents themselves could relate to the indescribable anguish of parents who had to go through interminable days and nights without knowing the whereabouts of their children. For many families life lost its meaning. It became difficult to eat or even sleep.

Yet for months, it appeared that the government of Niger State and the federal government were content to do only little. Or perhaps, they were petrified of the ruthless bandits closing upon the rest of Niger State and the Federal Capital Territory from impenetrable forests.

The banditry in Niger State has been unsparing. A member of the State`s Executive Council was abducted and subsequently released to tell harrowing tales of the blood curdling tactics of the bandits. The Niger State Government subsequently struggled to dispel accusations that it paid ransom to get the commissioner released while the children abducted from Tegina were left to languish in the lair of their tormentors.

As the days passed, the criminals who were holding the children perfected the art of coining outrageous and outlandish demands. Millions were paid yet they had the cheeks to ask for millions more and even means of transportation to facilitate their criminal enterprise. To salt the wounds, they crafted a bucket list of demands complete with the chilling warning that unless their demands were met, the children would face an unimaginable fate.

Belongings were sold to raise money even as parents lamented that there existed omniscient and omnipotent informants who fed the criminals critical information. It is humiliating for Nigerians that right in the forests of Niger State, such an elaborate criminal enterprise was allowed to go on with the government appearing lost and helpless. It is no coincidence that something similar is afoot in Kaduna State with the captive students of Bethel Baptist High School. The unfortunate incident in Tegina was not isolated. For years now, there has been a method to the madness of these bandits. They kidnap kids for ransom and in return for their sweat they rake in millions of naira. Their schemes run so smoothly and seamlessly for months that no one in their right senses can discount complicity in high places.

The questions are endless: Where do these bandits keep their victims and who are those that facilitate their indescribably malignant missions? Surely, the bandits and those who facilitate their heinous crimes against innocent children have no place here.

But they would not have been so audacious and ruthless were it not for Nigeria`s extremely porous security situation. While Boko Haram holds its own against Nigerian soldiers in the North-east, other criminals studied Boko Haram`s manuscript. Being crass and criminal opportunists, they have invested their criminal energies into terrorizing Nigerians. They have perfected the act of storming schools and abducting students to force terrified families to raise millions in these days of austerity.

Nigeria`s pathetic security situation which gravely imperils the education of children also ironically emphasizes the power of education to transform the country and carry out the most important form of disarmament – that of the mind.

The trauma experienced in Tegina must not be allowed to be repeated anywhere. It is why every school in the country especially in Niger, Kaduna, Kebbi, Borno, Yobe and Katsina States must be secured.

It is why those who unleash terror on schools and innocent school children must be put out of business immediately. The threat they pose is not just to school children, it is to Nigeria. It is to posterity.

While Tegina and the traumatized kids must now proceed on the path of recovery, Nigeria must now preclude the ominous telltale which the events represent.

Kene Obiezu,

Abuja