We are all still coming to grips with the brazen terror attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) on Tuesday, August 24th, 2021.
Now that the Bandits have shown us they are not joking, that they can attack any establishment at will…and get away unscathed, I say, ranka dede!
Here’s the thing for me, whether we call them bandits or terrorists, they have got our full attention.
But I beg to say, they already have our full attention, in the last three years, in fact. They not only have it, they have ensured we go weak and tremble at the mere mention of their name. There is fear of them and a wonder at their audacity!
We trembled when travelers on the Abuja –Kaduna route were serially kidnapped in their tens, then hundreds, then on a daily basis, like three four times kidnap events per day…and huge ransoms paid every time and with many losing their lives in the process.
We noticed and trembled when they steadily began to go to our secondary schools and kidnap children in their hundreds;
Dec 2020 -300 Government Boys Science Secondary School in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State were kidnapped.
Same December of 2020, 27 students and 15 others at Government Science School, Kagara in Niger State were abducted.
February 2021-317 students from the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara state
Why rehash what you already know?
Greenfield university students in Kaduna?
ABU students in Zaria?
Let’s back track to Chibok and Dapchi?
Thing is, any person or group of persons be they terrorists or bandits, who have the audacity to carry out abductions this huge, this frequent, this successful…yes, they were successful even at NDA. They hardly record casualties on their part…they not only deserve our attention, they make us wonder.
Who next?
Where next?
…one more wonder, what the hell is the Nigerian government going to do about this?
But we aren’t looking to the Government to do anything, instead, I think we should start praying to the other lord of the land, the masters who have the ability to sack whole villages and communities Up North, Middle Belt, down South…they are the new masters and they are not happy we haven’t begun to call them so.
If they can go to NDA, they can go anywhere!
Why are we appealing?
When they killed farmers up-north and chased farmers out of their farmlands down south, we knew they meant business by steadily depriving us of food in the months to come.
When they kidnapped children and held communities’ captive, we know they are recruiting for the future.
When they are paid ransoms that run into several millions by government and individuals, we know they are equipping themselves for something even bigger.
Let’s not be fooled, there are two lords in this land; and the federal government isn’t even one of them; there’s the Lord Almighty and the terrorists we call bandits.
Who should we bow to?