More than six years after the abduction of 276 students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School
(GGSS), Chibok, in Borno State, in April 2014, Ruth Ngladar Pogu, one of the abductees, returned home last year with two kids. Ruth and her husband were reported to have surrendered to Nigerian troops on July 28, 2021, at a location in Bama, Borno State.
Nigeria’s troops also found two kidnapped former Chibok schoolgirls, Mary Dauda and Hauwa Joseph. The two women each carried babies on their laps as they were introduced by the military. Major-General Christopher Musa, the military commander of the troops in the region, told journalists that the girls were discovered on 12 and 14 June at two different sites. During the 2015 abduction, 57 of the girls bolted, while 80 were freed in exchange for certain Boko Haram commanders detained after negotiations with the Nigerian government.
After the abduction in the Chibok School, jihadists executed several mass kidnappings and deadly incursions on schools in the North-East. In 2018, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters captured 110 students of Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, in Yobe State. All the schoolgirls were emancipated a month later, except for Leah Sharibu, the only Christian among the girls, who was held in custody by the group for refusing to give up her faith.
President Muhammadu Buhari reacted to the Chibok abduction saga: “How can 219 girls be missing in our country, and our leader appears incapable of action?” He had asked in January 2015 while criticising then Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan over the abduction of the Chibok girls. Seven years later, five times as many students were kidnapped under Buhari’s watchful eyes, a blow to the goodwill on which he rode to power. Nigeria’s future is at stake, as children are not safe, even in their schools, and that is a major concern.
No fewer than 881 students have been kidnapped since the current administration assumed leadership in 2015, findings by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) have shown.  Buhari had floundered to win the presidential seat three times until he eventually earned it in the 2015 presidential election. The thrust of his campaign to Nigerians was to tackle insecurity, apart from combating corruption and boosting the economy. Unfortunately, those promises proved unavailing.
According to a distinct report, at least 3,478 people were abducted across the country between December 2021 and June 15, 2022. The figures were encompassed in the daily incidents recorded by the Nigerian Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, a United States think-tank, during the reporting period. The data captured included people extirpated by non-state actors like terrorists, bandits, armed men, armed robbers, cults and security agents, among others.
The data also demonstrated that as of December 2021, as many as 342 innocent Nigerians were exterminated and 397 kidnapped. Among the people annihilated that month were 45 farmers in Nasarawa State. As well, 34 women were abducted from Zamfara. In January, more than 844 persons were killed and 603 kidnapped by non-state actors. Incidents during the month included the bandit attack on communities in Zamfara, killing over 200 people. Besides, suspected bandits reportedly murdered 220 persons and kidnapped 200 others in Niger State.
In addition, last February, at least 495 people were gruesomely slaughtered, while 326 were kidnapped. Still within the month, bandits attacked a Zamfara community for failing to pay a N40 million levy and killed 33 victims. The terrorists also slaughtered 44 people and abducted 31 others in Niger State. In March, 606 innocent people were extinct and 450 were abducted. The incidents included the murder of 63 vigilantes in Kebbi State by terrorists and attacks by suspected herdsmen in reprisal which claimed over 26 lives in Taraba. The list is endless.
In the South-West and South-South, the perpetrators were identified as cultists, suspected herdsmen and gunmen, while in the South-East, the number of deaths and abductions was mostly imputed to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militia wing, Eastern Security Network. Terrorist attacks, kidnappings and all forms of insecurity are on the rise and have abruptly become an appealing endeavour. Recent reports have revealed that from June 2011 to March 31, 2020, at least $18.34 million was paid to kidnappers as a ransom.
Even more bloodcurdling is that the larger segment of that figure – just below 11 million dollars – was paid out between January 2016 and March 2020, indicating that kidnapping is becoming more financially rewarding. In March, this year, hundreds of passengers were carried off, and several others were injured in Dutse, Kaduna State, by bandits who allegedly bombed an Abuja-Kaduna-bound train. About 970 passengers were reported to have been taken into the forest by the rampant bandits.
The failure of the government to rescue the remaining passengers of the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train, months after their abduction, validates the growing enervation of the Nigerian state in the face of an existential challenge from non-state actors. Emboldened, the terrorists posted pictures and videos of their victims online, taunting family members of the kidnapped and the government. Buhari should acquiesce that the Nigerian state and its security forces have been exceedingly weakened and require radical reform.
Some inexorable facts glower Nigerians in the face – the security agencies are over-stretched, ill-motivated and uncoordinated. A number of agents are compromised. They cannot be used (as former Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma said) to protect citizens against buccaneers. Secondly, Buhari’s modus operandi in dealing with insecurity has waned miserably. Dysfunctional and corrupt delinquency among political and general leaders keeps Nigeria infallibly on the path of state failure. An effective new counter-insurgency strategy is thus imperative.
While Buhari was issuing unavailing rescue orders and holding otiose meetings with security agency heads, the terrorists were sure-footed. Boko Haram acknowledged responsibility; the bandits issued glowing videos and photographs demanding ransom and threatening to kill the hostages. Covertly, they uploaded photos of a baby born in captivity by one of the two pregnant women amongst the captives. Nigeria has never had it so bad.
With less than a year left, Buhari must use the remainder of his term to assuage the pains of Nigerians on many fronts following poor governance. He must reverse “abnormal and deviant political practices” that keep preventing the nation from progressing. Importantly, he must ensure the release of all kidnapped persons across the country, in keeping with his 2015 election promise. Specifically, he should ensure the timely rescue of the remaining 51 passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train and Leah Sharibu, the Dapchi schoolgirl. That is the only way the President can guarantee a dignified exit.