Nothing could have gladdened the heart more than the video of released students of Greenfield University online over the weekend to see parents hug their children after they had been in captivity since April 20th.
I can’t pretend to understand their emotions, their relief; their gratitude to finally be able to hold their loved ones up close.
I can’t imagine the pain, the hurt and devastation parents of the remaining students still in captivity will be feeling. Nor can I begin to think I can console them or offer help; hope or comfort that their children would make it home someday. What of the parents of the five who were murdered and their bodies thrown on the road like road kill?
Who can fathom their thoughts when they hear others have been released but theirs are dead and buried?
The released students were ransomed for N180milion! These parents said they raised this sum without the help of the government. In the video, a parent can be heard lamenting that there was no single policeman sent after the bandits to release the students…
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This is Nigeria.
With four more still in captivity and a hundred more still unaccounted for from Kaduna to Niger state; Adamawa to Katsina, Plateau to Ogun states; how many more do we need to remain in the captor’s den before our government becomes responsible?
Asking for someone, will these students go back to Greenfield University to complete their studies?
Will their parents be able to afford to send them abroad because the trauma of being abducted within the “safety” of their school cannot be wished away? How will the parents who raised money for ransom pay back those who helped them raise the N180million?
Who says the students can’t be kidnapped again?
We have read reports of the same, haven’t we? JAMB question, huh?
But you see, in another development; Abubakar Malami, the nation’s Attorney General is most concerned about preventing a recurrent boat mishap in Kebbi. In another news development, Police have gunned down the suspected killers of former Presidential aide, Ahmed Gulak; less than 48 hours after he was brutally murdered.
Reports say, “Having established the identity of the assailants and description of the vehicles used in carrying out the attack; the teams further got details of the direction the hoodlums have taken. The team was able to establish the location of the suspects.’’
In another news, “At least, 200 students of an Islamiyya school located at Tegina in the Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State have been abducted.”
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This is Nigeria!
And the cycle continues.
Are we asking why the rest of the students of Greenfield University are still held captive? Their parents weren’t able to raise shinshin from the N180million collected so far?
The banks didn’t lend them the money?
They had no relatives to help them raise the impossible ransom?
They are still running around looking for the money?
We may never know because it just so happens that these are “insignificant” Nigerians. Their lives do not matter. For all we care, their children could well be murdered like the others…Who is crying out for them? Even if anyone cries out, who will they cry to? Government?
You and I?
Let us pray we never become victims of the evil going unabated in our land.
