By Comfort Obi
His heart is broken. And he now has a faraway look. He is going through pains unimaginable. The burden is too much for him to carry. How does he explain the brutal murder of children put under his care? Or that of his staff who tried to protect them from the devils who snatched milk bottles from the mouth of babies?
His name is Simon Nwakacha, an Engineer. He ventured into the provision of education for our long suffering youths.
In January, 2019, when the National Universities Commission, NUC, approved a license for him to establish a University, he celebrated and walked like he was on springs. He walked with swagger. Deservedly too. Founding a Private University is no mean feat.
Say what you would about Private Universities – they are expensive, they are for the children of the rich – you are correct. But they have come in handy.
There is an almost 100 % guarantee that their students will graduate within the stipulated years for the duration of their courses. That cannot be said of Public Universities. Most of them are definitely more prestigious, more high profile, than Private Universities. But what’s the use?
A course with a duration period of four years could keep a student for as long as eight years and counting. Between the Federal, State Governments and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, they have made nonsense of Nigeria’s education system. They have made it boring and unattractive. For over 75 % of the period students should be in school, ASUU is on strike over one disagreement or the other with a Government that never keeps promises. As soon as ASUU calls off its strike, the Non-Academic Staff Union would start its own. It is like a competition. Students are a pawn in their chess board. Plus the Hostels that are no better than a pig’s sty and more scary than grave yards.
This other day, Saturday Punch carried a heart-rending story of a student of the Oyo State- owned Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Bernard Asefon. While trying to fix a faulty electrical device in his hostel, he fell off a pole, smack into a depleted septic tank. He had been in that University for eight years. On his death in such a horrifying manner, his devastated father lamented: “After eight years at LAUTECH, my son was brought home dead.” His course was probably a four year course. The corrupted system added four more years for him. He died in the process.
When parents consider the number of years wasted in Public Universities, they hardly consider the amount of money paid in Private Universities. And they no longer worry if a couple of the Private Universities are glorified Secondary schools. As one funny parent put it: “Degree na degree!”
So, Engr. Nwakacha walked with a swagger on the day he got the license to establish Greenfield University. A believer in one Nigeria, even though he is from Anambra State, he chose to site Greenfield in Kaduna State, along the Abuja – Kaduna road.
Now, for Nwakacha, the joy is gone. And so is the swagger. Deep pain, sorrow and regret are his constant companion. And, he is as helpless as the hopeless situation he has found himself in. Nobody can even imagine what he is going through. To worsen his pain, a couple of people from his South-east zone are mocking him. They say he is a foolish man for abandoning his Zone, to set up a University in Kaduna.
His misery started on the night of Tuesday, April 20, 2021 – barely two years after the take-off of the University.
A group of heavily armed gunmen stormed the premises of the University. They came on a mission to abduct and/or kill. They succeeded in both.
Attacking from all angles, their first victim was a Hostel Porter, who made to shut the door of the hostel as soon as she noticed the invading gunmen. To show how serious they were, they shot her dead. And you wonder why. Even if she had succeeded in shutting the door, it was not going to stop them from fulfilling their mission. The door is not bullet proof. They could easily have brought it down. But they were blood- thirsty – replicas of a Country soaked in wickedness and spilt innocent blood.
By the time they were through, they took along with them a number of frightened students – aged between 17 and 19 years. They also took three staff members of the University.
Mission accomplished, they set the price for their release at N800 million. That, or they would embark on a killing spree of the students. Both the Federal and Kaduna State Governments made some initial noise. But nothing more. The abductors laughed.
To show they were serious, they slaughtered three of the students three days after the abduction. One of those they slaughtered was the Proprietor’s niece. Was she pointed out to the devils by somebody? No matter. Afterall, they killed two others with her.
Neither the Federal Government, nor Kaduna State Government was horrified. Nigerians, we have all become shock absorbers. These days, when one reads that three people had been killed, one sighs wearily, says “only three”, and overlooks the story.
Two days after, and with no strong showing from the Government, they slaughtered another two. And, as a final warning, said they would embark on the slaughter of their remaining captives. They set a date for the horrendous blood feast.Thank God that has not happened. Instead, on that date, they released one of the students.
His parents, reportedly, paid the sum of N20 million to secure his release. As a precautionary measure, they have refused to talk to anybody about the circumstances which led to the release of their son. It is, however, gathered that it is thanks to the self-appointed negotiator between bandits and the families of victims and/or Governments that the bandits have not sacrificed another student.
Nwakacha is in a fix. He is confused. On a visit to the families of the murdered students, he was full of lamentations. He bemoaned his fate. He wondered how his joy suddenly turned to deep sorrow. And he asked nobody in particular:
“What did I do wrong? Was it wrong of me to establish a University in my country What do I do now?”
A number of his people have since told him he did wrong to establish a University in Kaduna. They say he went to school in Anambra, but that when it came to investment, he went to Kaduna. We have become that cynical. That is what Nigeria has reduced us to. We laugh at the misery of others, and mock the dead and the bereaved. That is how divided Nigeria has become. Everything now boils down to ethnicity and religion.
There is nothing this man can do. Nothing, except, as is our usual in Nigeria, pray, and pray and pray. In case he does not know, or has not understood, he is on his own. He is carrying his cup alone. Neither the Kaduna State Government, nor the Federal Government gives a hoot. Of course, they have made the right noises, but that is where it ends. Something else has since occupied their thoughts.
Nigeria is an extremely busy country. There is no dull moment. Don’t be surprised that not a few people in Government could ask: “Oh, those students, are they still there?” That’s us. While innocent blood flows on our streets like a river, most of our Leaders are thinking of 2023. That is all they care about. But, do they know tomorrow?
Who would believe that for almost 40 days, those students are still held captive Abandoned. Forgotten. The burden left for their families. And the Proprietor. Nobody even knows which group is holding them hostage – Bandits or Boko Haram. What’s the difference, anyway?
The only contact we have with them is through Sheikh Gumi. Those who abducted the students call him. He speaks to them. So, you ask: With which phone numbers? Who registered the numbers for them? How come nobody can track them? They pass messages mainly through Gumi. Once, he assured us that the students would soon be released. We smiled wryly, yes, wryly, but a smile still – better than the agony, the heartache, and the far-away looks that have become our lot in Nigeria.
Most Nigerians no longer look forward to a new day. They are afraid of what it will bring. Every new day greets us with a worse situation than the previous day. We welcome it with thumping hearts and despondency.
But even the wry smile elicited by Gumi’s promise has since been wiped away.
His messages are no longer heart- warning. This other day, he let it slip that the group holding the students captive has a connection with Boko Haram. Meaning, perhaps, the students have been sold off to Boko Haram. But he seems to know what we don’t know. Gumi insists the FG should pay the Bandits. He tells the FG to look for N100m for the bandits to get the students released. He seems to have forgotten the 10 motorcycles the bandits are also insisting on. For good measure Gumi told the FG from where to get the money. Ask the CBN to provide it, he said. And why not? To the CBN, that’s nothing. Or didn’t Governor Godwin Obaseki tell us that the CBN printed about N50b to augment the March Federation Allocation for States? Gumi must have had that in mind when he directed the FG to CBN.
Not tidy. But I am in support of that. Nothing compares to the lives of those students. If my calculations are right, the hoodlums have already received the sum of N80 million. The parents of the boy, earlier released, reportedly paid N20 million. In an SOS to the Federal Government, parents whose children are still in captivity, revealed they had already paid the sum of N60 million, but that the bandits insist on an extra N100m and 10 motor cycles. Their appeal is for the FG to please pay the N100 million, and save their children. “Do the same thing in the case of our children like you did in the cases of other kidnapped students in Niger, Zamfara, and the College of Forestry, Kaduna”, they plead. There has been no response from the FG in that direction.
A couple of weeks ago, President Buhari, warned Bandits not to take him for granted. He said he is capable of dealing with them. He said they should not push him to the wall. How much pushing does the President need so we can all help to push him into action?
His party, the APC, aligned with him. The party said the Government has the capacity to deal with them. Of course, we know. But for how long? How much more blood needs to be shed before we see and feel the capacity?
The criminals must have had a good laugh at us. They knew the threats were empty. They knew nothing would be done. They were right. Proof:
A few days later, the President made an about-turn from his tough stand and appealed to them to, please, release the students. The bandits are laughing at our unseriousness.
Here’s the most confounding: It is not that the Leader of the gang is anonymous. Or unknown. He is very well known. A heartless, fearless God- forsaken guy, a couple of weeks ago, he granted an interview to the BBC, Hausa Service, where he reiterated his demands.
Question is: How did the BBC reach him? How does Gumi reach him. How do the hapless parents reach him? With all the hassles the Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami has put us through over the registration of SIM cards, over NIN, these bandits are still twisting us round their murderous fingers? Who, and what brought us to this sorry situation?
In the instant case, the main culprit is Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai. He is the one whose careless, undiplomatic utterances have hardened the criminals the more, and reduced us to grovelling jellies before them. Cold-blooded, El- Rufai, from day one, made a song and dance of his resolve not to pay any ransome to the abductors. Good. But what other diplomatic channels has he used to try and get them out?
In deed, El-Rufai has unravelled beyond recognition. Is this the same guy who, during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, pilloried former President Jonathan for not paying for the release of Chibok girls, many of whom, unfortunately, are still held captive by the murderous Boko Haram sect?
He has, suddenly, become a master of about-turn. Many of his beliefs during the Jonathan Government, he has since discarded.
Yet, El-Rufai’s stand on ransome pales in the face of his revelation of his plans to get the students out. In a blood-curdling comment, he revealed he planned to storm the location of the students with the Military. Then he, unfeelingly, added that some of the students would be lost during the rescue mission, and some saved. Just like that? As if he was discussing the fate that could befall some animals somewhere in the forest.
The questions, since then, from not a few people are: Would El-Rufai have said that so carelessly if he had a child among the abducted students? Did he consider the state of mind of the parents when he uttered those chilling words? Did he consider that the Bandits could slaughter the students knowing he was planning a rescue operation using the Military? Does El-Rufai know what his I-don’t-care statement has done to the blood pressure of the parents?
For the records, if any parent of those students dies of cardiac arrest or hypertension, Governor El-Rufai should be held responsible.
What to do? I suggest the Federal Government bends over backwards to effect the release of those students. If it pays ransome, it will not be the first time money would exchange hands for the release of student-captives. We ought to have learnt from the Chibok experience.
The Government should not give any kind of confirmation to beer parlour talks. Already, with what Nigeria has been sadly reduced to, the general talk is: The students are still there because the Proprietor is an Igbo man. A stupid comment, no doubt, but they are saying: “Good for him. Why did he not build the University in Igboland?”
Such lousy talks should worry a Government eager to present a one-Nigeria face. One of the ways to do it is to get the students back to their parents, and school. Don’t allow more of them to be killed.
Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com. Email: [email protected], [email protected]
