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“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
—Albert Einstein
By Cosmas Omegoh
Global attention is on Kebbi State and its governor, 60-year-old Mohammed Nasir Idris.
Idris is in a fix at the moment and having a rough patch, his dilemma borderless.
Elected governor on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) on April 17, 2023, for the first term, Idris is currently having his baptism of fire.
The watching-world is waiting to see how he navigates the recent kidnap of secondary school girls in the state he governs.
It is still fresh how before dawn on Monday, November 17, rampaging bandits swept down on Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, and in one fell swoop, snatched no fewer than 25 students, killing two staff members. Two of the students later managed to escape and return home.
It was another incident that followed tradition – a known pattern long settled as a burgeoning trade up in the North with its many intrigues.
Since the mass abduction of students turned into a trade, every now and then, hordes of felons operating unfettered, take away students – particularly girls and head for the wilds.
Those insisting that last week’s Maga school malady has its roots in the past are spot-on.
Birthed on the night of April 15, 2014, when Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, it has long weaned to a monster that now trudges through the savannah landscape with gusto, forcing the high and mighty on edge.
After the Boko Haram progenitors had savoured that sweet wine to the dregs, on February 19, 2018, they struck at Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, in Yobe State, kidnapping 110 schoolgirls, killing five.
A part of that debacle that still haunts and hurts the nation now is the failure to rescue Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl who refused to convert to Islam. She is still in captivity even after late President Muhamadu Buhari vowed to the world that she would be freed.
Across the northwest region in particular, there has been a series of coordinated abduction of school children. In December 2020, for instance, bandits abducted 344 schoolboys from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
Then on February 26, 2021, no fewer than 279 female students were also abducted during a raid by armed bandits at the Government Girls’ Science Secondary School, a boarding facility at Jangebe, Zamfara State.
Kaduna State had its own share of the menace in March 2024 when more than 200 pupils were seized from a school in Kuriga.
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Then, under former Governor Atiku Bagudu, Kebbi State in June 2021 faced the heat for the first time when bandits attacked Federal Government College (FGC) Birnin Yauri, and kidnapped lots of girls.
When the same bandits returned to Kebbi State, last week, their action did not depart from the path everyone knows. Rather, it pointed at a broader scheme which seems to suggest perfect coordination and collaboration. Some might want to add outright laxity in treating serious security issues which eventually turn around to torment everybody.
Perhaps, a look at how the two Kebbi abductions unfolded will provide a better context.
It was reported that weeks before the FGC Birnin Yauri abduction, the locals noticed an upsurge in bandits’ influx and activities. Expectedly, they knew something untoward was in the air. Probably they raised an alarm; and probably no one or the government of the day did not take an appropriate action.
It is in the media space that even the bandits wrote a letter in Hausa language, though in an illegible handwriting threatening to attack the school on Thursday, June 17, 2021. They even went on to specify the names of 12 female students they targeted. But they were not taken seriously.
Although the authorities were said to have managed to invite the police, when the bandits eventually struck, they overpowered them and went on to abduct over 112 students and eight teachers, losing two of their members in the fire fight that ensued.
Governor Idris had admitted that before last week’s Maga abduction, the Department of State Service (DSS) gave him a notification that an attack on the school was probably imminent.
He said he took the DSS report very seriously, intent on preventing a repeat of Katsina State experience in December 2020 when more than 300 pupils were kidnapped from a school in Kankara all because the authorities there at that time did not take decisive action.
There were unconfirmed reports that the security agents who were invited to secure the Maga school had, earlier in the day, even conducted simulation drills for the students and staff in apparent readiness for an attack. But that probably turned insufficient when reality dawned.
Although the said security agency left some of its men behind, the officers were no match to the bandits who always go prepared with even more men large enough to make an army battalion.
When, therefore, the terrorists arrived, they rampaged their way through the school and quickly established their dominion and bragging right.
Governor Idris was livid when he arrived at the school on the evening of Monday. He further gave his emotions free rein, doing so unapologetically, just as he did not mince words in declaring what went down as “sabotage.” In one breath, he accused the security agency which manned the school of rubbishing his administration’s effort at starving off the sad incident that was anticipated would happen even in the scale it eventually did.
He was quoted as saying: “This is clear sabotage. We received credible intelligence from the DSS that this school was likely to be attacked. The DSS further advised that we convene an emergency Security Council meeting, which we did. The decision was that we would provide round-the-clock protection for the students.”
Based on what he saw, he announced the establishment of a special investigation panel to unravel why things turned out the way they did. He wants to know if there were external influences that contributed to helping the bandits in what they did.
He said the panel he announced would be headed by the director of DSS in the state, who would work with other security agencies to ensure safe return of the girls.
The police said they would deploy “additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and vigilance groups” to assist in the rescue operation. But those assurances appear to sound gaseous to Governor Idris, a former national president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers and deputy president of the Nigeria Labour Congress before emerging governorship candidate in May 2022.
For now, everyone of goodwill believes that all efforts must be concentrated on rescuing the poor girls in captivity. Governor Idris is a big factor in the matrix. He has to lead on all fronts.
