Tears usually depict painful or sorrowful situation a person is involved or is passing through. The cumulative agony that results in the shedding of tears can break down the human emotion.
Most times, when people are overwhelmed by terrible circumstances, this can trigger off emotional shedding of tears. Like the loss of loved ones.
Men hardly shed tears but not so with the female folks. Unfortunately as the women folk all over the world especially their counterparts in Nigeria are supposed to be celebrating their coming of age in the world scheme of things, the women in Nigeria are still grieving in shock and in tears over the abduction of 110 female students of the Government Girls secondary School, Dapchi in Yobe State.
Though regrettable that the same scenario is playing out four years after the abduction of the Chibok girls with no visible solution in sight.
When God formed the woman to assist the man in all his life endeavors unfortunately, some men have decided to put restrictions around the woman thereby pegging her down. When a woman is pegged down, her liberty is curtailed and her freedom is completely pegged.
It is on this basis that the United Nations resolved to set aside every March 8 as the International Women’s Day which is a global day that is meant to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. The question is: how has the Nigerian woman faired considering her security?
Nigeria has produced great women leaders like Mrs. Margaret Ekpo, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Queen Amina and many other notable women intellectuals but never in the history of Nigeria have they been so harassed and abducted like slaves as it is recorded in recent time in Borno and Yobe states. When the terrorist group known as Boko Haram emerged, its main anger was that the government allowed girls to acquire western education, which would free them from mental slavery. They were angered that girls were being allowed to acquire western education that would eventually emancipate them and be empowered to free themselves from religious, political and social restraint. Among their first operational actions was the abduction of market women and young ladies found in homes they invaded. It got to a climax when on the night of April 14, 2014, about 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State. By this single action, Boko Haram was reintegrating its earlier position and affirming its mission against western education especially for the female child.
They were carted away like rams and till date, only few percentage have either regained their freedom or were exchanged as pawns for captured commanders of the Boko Haram. Many frowned at the new trend of paying ransom for the abducted girls, yet from all indications, it seems the sect is more advanced in strategic security planning. Or how else can we explain the scenario where the terrorists who dressed in military uniform and carted away the Chibok girls have returned after four years using the same tactics to abduct another set of 110 girls from another secondary school, also a boarding school using army uniform as camouflage.
What this implies is that, the government, security and members of the public were completely careless about their security. Does it mean that there was no elementary security education in all the northern states especially in boarding schools? Does it mean that there was no alarm security system installed in all the girls boarding schools and connected the police Area commands and the military battalion in these states? Unfortunately, the country’s loss is the gain of the terrorists who have vowed that western education is a taboo and girls must be restricted from obtaining it.
If Boko Haram is succeeding in actualizing its objective, are there politicians in the north who at one time or the other spoke against girls’ education? Such persons should be further questioned, hoping that they are not the seen faces of Boko Haram members.
Today, as the entire world join hands to celebrate the joy and feel the pains of the girl child, who are usually victims of war, victims of terrorists and tools in the hands of human traffickers, one hopes that our security agencies would step up their games in rescuing these girls that are either abducted or trafficked. The story of the Yobe abduction should not be allowed to repeat itself in this country.
What we’re not getting right
Security practice evolves just like a girl matures into womanhood as she evolves over the years. Her approach to issues as a baby are completely different from when she becomes a woman. So is security. In the early fifties, not many buildings had fences and the method of security in such buildings has changed with time. It is very painful that our security operatives are not ready to develop the art of security in the country. All over the world, security evolves faster than any other sector of the society. It becomes a misnomer when the criminals have an edge over those that are constitutionally empowered to secure lives and property of the citizenry. There are some factors that impede the progress of security in a country. Funding, training, inter- agencies co-operation and rivalry, and weak leadership. These clog in the wheel of security progress in a country would be expansively discussed next week. When any of these clogs are noticed in security administration, criminals then have an edge over the practitioners this can be disastrous. We experienced such situation with the invasion of armed robbers from neighboring countries, and today we are witnessing the invasion of terrorists also presumably from neighboring countries.