, Kankara, Katsina State, was another grim experience of the insecurity that plagues our country. A ‘grimmer’ experience, however, is how officials who should’ve been instrumental to forestalling such incidents in the first place jostle for credit over after-the-fact remediation, like the release of the schoolboys last Thursday after seven days in captivity.
Were these innocent youngsters ‘rescued’ from abductors or ‘released’ following mutual negotiation between government agents and the abductors mediated by stakeholders? This is a question whose answer is somewhat beclouded by code-switching accounts of how the boys regained their freedom. Zamfara State Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle led the narrative that the schoolboys regained freedom after a protracted negotiation in which he personally invested some 100 hours. Speaking shortly after the pupils were released, he told a newspaper that he enlisted the leadership of Miyetti Allah and repentant bandits to identify the group responsible for the abduction, and then initiated the negotiation process.
In a parallel account, the Defence Headquarters said troops of Operation Hadarin Daji successfully rescued all 344 abducted students following credible intelligence and in demonstration of high degree of professionalism.
However it happened, it was highly welcome that the boys returned in one piece. But it is curious that no attempt was made to bring the perpetrators to justice, even though a security personnel was killed and another injured on the night of the abduction. Was that an inevitable trade-off for the boys’ safe release, and how helpful is that for future deterrence?
This is the question that has been bothering me.