Human beings and indeed, the human society, learn from past experiences and guard against harm and loss of lives and property. As individuals, we are in a life-long process of learning, adapting and refocusing of our antennas for survival. Any society or individual who fails to adapt and learn is bound to extinction. It is this learning context that institutionalises government and its apparatus of maintaining law and order and preservation of human dignity. The Nigeria society and government are not expected to be different.
Last week, about 105 girls of the Girls’ Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State were reported kidnapped by insurgents who have yet to identify themselves. The story line seems the same with the Chibok incident four years ago. Media reports indicate that insurgents armed with sophisticated weapons entered Dapchi, took positions and unleashed terror on the town and descended on the college where they stole food items and then made away with the students. This story line raises so many posers. Were there no soldiers, police or armed security personnel guarding the town, especially the school? If there were security personnel, what did they do to counter the insurgents? If there were no security personnel, why did the authorities not consider the school a high security zone for adequate protection after the Chibok experience? All the available reports on the incident indicate that the insurgents operated freely, unchallenged and without hindrance at a time the Buhari government had repeatedly reported at different times, to have either technically defeated, decapitated or decapitated them and their leader fleeing in a woman’s dress.
This writer holds the position that schools should have been adequately protected, especially within the context of the Safe School Initiative launched during the President Goodluck Jonathan era. According to the United Nations Development Programme Fact Sheet, the “Safe School Initiative entails a combination of (1) school-based interventions; (2) community interventions to protect schools; and (3) special measures for at-risk populations”. The initiative aimed at building resilience and promoting vigilance and awareness of threats and required that “schools demonstrate they are able to provide the minimum conditions to promote learning, inclusion, stimulation and a friendly environment to sustain children, students, teachers, school personnel, etc”. Evidently, this initiative must have been abandoned and no one followed up on this.
Media reports indicate that the insurgents operated for hours before eventually retreating. Is it possible that the residents of the town did not alert and inform the security agencies that an attack was ongoing in their town? What is the distance between the nearest army garrison or security post with a good number of armed men and Dapchi, where this kidnap took place? If it is one to two hours’ drive, why are there no media reports of the insurgents being given a hot chase? To load 105 girls into vehicles and take them away is not like loading goods in a pick-up and driving away. So, no one saw the direction they headed and they disappeared into thin air. Again, over five days after, no one seems to have a clue about where the girls were taken to. Even the locals did not see any strange movement of human beings after the attack? Again, if soldiers that reported to the scene after the attack had been told the direction that the insurgents left for, why is there no news of their interception so many days after?
My take is that something is not adding up in this story. Since there is a military garrison located in Yobe State and attacks of this nature cannot be hidden in this day of mobile phones, the refusal to intervene within one to two hours of the insurgents’ attack so as to give them a hot chase reveals fundamental flaws in our security operations. I am assuming that the telephone numbers, email addresses, Twitter handles and even WhatsApp contacts of the nearest military and security commands to contact in the event of any insurgency attack should be freely available in most communities in the North-East. If it has not been made available, then, it is a deep flaw. But if it has been made available, do we assume no one called or made contact in any other way? If the retreating insurgents were ferociously attacked, they could only seek to escape with their lives rather than carry the excess human baggage of 105 girls. If there were reports to the military high command, why were aircraft not deployed immediately for reconnaissance and to follow up on the fleeing insurgents so as to provide information to ground troops to effectively engage the insurgents? Modern-day military action combines air and ground forces for the achievement of strategic offensive targets. Why is the Nigerian experience different at a time when we are spending more on getting our security forces properly equipped and motivated?
It is not imperative for one to be a security expert or a military commander to have common sense and to know that what happened in Dapchi was a failure of common sense; it was gross dereliction of duty, incompetence at the highest level and a failure of intelligence. One of the principal lessons from the Chibok kidnap saga was the need to follow up and follow through immediately an attack of this nature happens. Waste of time running into days is a sure recipe for not finding many of the girls as happened in Chibok. In these circumstances, rights have been violated because duty bearers have failed in their primary assignments. Someone or a group of persons must be held responsible for this gross dereliction of duty; for the gross negligence and failure to respond appropriately in a matter that involves life and death or life changing trauma from which victims may never recover.
Did we learn any lessons from Chibok? I doubt. To imagine that this is happening under an administration that came to power on the popular anger over the handling of the Chibok kidnap is depressing and nightmarish. Yes, it is true. Since the beginning of 2018, the security failures of the incumbent administration have become aggravated; from the Benue, Taraba, Zamfara killings and now Dapchi. How do we explain this? To President Muhammadu Buhari, it is time to reconsider the security architecture he erected to serve Nigerians. It is not working and it has no prospects of working. This is the time for real change; not the political mantra but a change that will secure the lives and property of Nigerians. May God give him the wisdom to engender security in Nigeria.
