Still on Ribadu’s ‘sympathy visit’ to Niger

Hundreds of traumatised parents whose children were abducted from St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary School, Papiri, Agwarra Local Government Area of Niger State on November 21 had gathered at the school site one week after to plead with the government to look into their case.

They had all reasons to make the plea: more than 250 children had remained in captivity after gunmen stormed the school in the early hours of the day, snatching away more than 300 students and staff, although, according to the school authorities, 50 of the children managed to escape to safety.

“Some of the students the kidnappers took away are still of tender age and they took a good number of them from their sleep,” one of the parents had said as she wept uncontrollably. The fear on the faces of the parents was palpable, especially as there were some of them who singularly have two or three children among the kidnapped children. But the fear was not unfounded.

There have been several mass abductions of school students in Nigeria since 2014 and findings revealed that nearly 2,000 students have been kidnapped between then and now, even as some of them are yet to be rescued.

Naturally, the parents would expect to reunite with their children, considering the efforts being reportedly made by the Federal Government and other security agencies to secure their release. Nothing else could assuage the frayed nerves of the parents.

But on December 1, some eleven days after the abduction, there was still no clue as to where the children were taken and when they would regain their freedom.

The best effort, as it were, was a visit by the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to Bulus Yohanna, the Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese in Niger State who is also the school’s proprietor. It was every inch a mere sympathy visit that left so much to be desired.

Ribadu told his astounded host that the kidnapped children were doing fine in captivity and would return home soon. Such assurance posed a totally new dimension to kidnapping in Nigeria, leaving many to wonder how comfortable children could be in a strange place, let alone a place where their lives are at the mercy of infernal killers.

It was difficult to determine how much relevance Ribadu attached to the visit that left his guest wondering if the government had not entirely lost its sense of purpose. But the NSA still kept rubbing insult to injury.

“This is a very solemn and difficult moment for us, especially after hearing from some of the parents and all of you,” he said, adding, “we take responsibility because it is our duty to protect you.” Is it really about taking responsibility or being responsive? Only Ribadu could have answered this question.

Yet, Ribadu continued to wax lyrically. Hear him: “This is a directive from Mr. President that we must come and visit you. Mr. President is in pain and sorrow, just like all of us. He stopped everything he was doing; he was supposed to travel but he suspended his journey.”

No one could have thought that Ribadu would over-flog the president’s travel schedule while meeting with the Bishop. For the fact that Tinubu is a father himself, in addition to being president, what else should have occupied his thought than how to get the children rescued, if only for Nigeria’s image? And how was the president to proceed on his scheduled travel when as many as 300 school children had been taken away from where they were supposed to be most safe?

Ribadu went further to regale his host with the “enough is enough” cliché that the previous governments had deployed to offer timid responses to acts of terrorism in the country.

“The government will no longer tolerate the activities of criminals terrorising Nigerians and we will not be relentless in our efforts,” he said. Then, he veered off course, playing victim: “We are all under attack. Let us not allow bad people to divide us; let us not allow evil to get into us.”

It must be that the “evil” he referred to are ghosts that can neither be arrested onward prosecution nor brought to justice or at least used to serve as deterrence to would-be criminals.

The NSA turned the session to an educative and informative one, saying: “Many good people from all over the world are coming to support us in the fight against terrorism and banditry, including the United States of America. We appreciate everyone, especially European countries like France, the United Kingdom and a couple of others. The whole world is coming together to stop and defeat this evil which has been going on in Nigeria for two decades.”

After all was said and done, the best assurance needed, that is, the release of the kidnapped children did not come as Ribadu left Bishop Yohanna back to Abuja. It was as much to concede control to the non-state actors as it was to surrender the unfortunate children to be used as cannon fodders. It was also worse: a top security official had gone to Niger State to talk like a typical politician who says everything but ends up saying nothing. Even if the kidnapped children would regain their freedom as “Christmas gift” to their parents and other citizens who have been equally traumatised, it would still leave the following questions trailing Ribadu: Could this be the same man who rode on widespread public acclaim some two decades ago as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chief, whom the media branded “anti-graft czar”? Or could he have been simply overrated? Thankfully, he would still have time to redeem himself by extricating politics from his security brief. But would he?