Justice for Hanifa Abubakar

THE outlook for the country in terms of value orientation and moral armament is incredibly unsettling. With respect to upholding moral principles and operating within the precincts of the law, the indicators are becoming increasingly unequivocal that the society is inexorably and dangerously sliding into the abyss. Or what can any decent human being make of a school proprietor kidnapping his pupil for ransom and killing her with rat poison? When teachers, the major stakeholders in the arduous task of  moulding character and inculcating moral values in juveniles and young people,  turn around to be criminals and exemplars of warped and twisted morals, then the society is doomed. It is a revolting development that no decent society should take lying down. There is danger when the ultimate arbiter in the certification of character and learning  becomes an epitome of moral decadence.

It is terrible enough that school children are being abducted en masse and traumatised by bandits and Boko Haram terrorists in the North-West and North-East: adding criminality by unscrupulous and felonious teachers to that can be really weighty and devastating to students, parents and of course the society at large. By every standard, the abduction for ransom and gruesome murder of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar by  Tanko Abdulmalik, the proprietor of Noble Kids Academy, Kano, Kano State, is a perfect example of criminal abuse of trust. Truth be told, the ease with which the society is becoming more and more bestial by the day is frightening. Citizens are no longer their brother’s keeper. Rather, people take advantage of others for pecuniary gain.

Expectedly, the school proprietor’s motivation for abducting and killing the impressionable girl  is also sickeningly selfish: Hanifa had to be kidnapped and killed in order for him to raise money to meet his financial needs. He could not spare a thought for, or be bothered by the irreplaceable loss that the death of the poor girl was going to represent, the eternal grief he was going to  throw her parents into, and his own fiduciary responsibility  as a proprietor/ teacher to the parents of the girl and the society.  We strongly call for justice for Hanifa. Her killer and his accomplices, if any, must be thoroughly investigated and made to have their day in the law court. The prosecution of the culprit(s) should be diligently pursued to  underscore the gravity of the offence and to ensure that the objective of  deterrence is achieved.

There have been a superfluity of emotions, and understandably so, from citizens and government officials, including the First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, following the chilling incident. However,  we urge that any  actions, especially those of official nature, on the unfortunate abduction and  killing of Hanifa be based on reason so that other problems are not created indvertently while attempting to resolve the instant case. For instance, the decision of the Kano State government to withdraw the licences of all private schools in the state is counterproductive. The proper thing to do is to treat each case on its own merit. The state government may, however,  insist on having the dossiers of owners of schools and their teachers in order to review their precedents and antecedents so as to avoid a situation whereby robbers are being made  the custodians of valuable assets. Regular monitoring of the activities of private schools should also be prioritised by the relevant agencies of the government.

Again, the vow by Governor Umar Ganduje  not to hesitate to sign the death warrant of the culprits is clearly emotive. How is the governor even sure that he will still be in the saddle to sign any warrant by the time all the legal options are exhausted, especially in a clime that is reputed for slow delivery of justice? It is sufficient to ensure that the case is properly prosecuted and justice allowed to take its course. As a means of reining in the spate of  criminal and aberrant behaviour in the society, we have consistently advocated the official prioritisation of the moral rebirth of society and the imperative of leaders steering  clear of all forms of illegality so that they can be seen as truly leading by example. The kidnap and murder of Hanifa Abubakar and the circumstances surrounding the hideous incident are a blight on the citizenry’s collective humanity which must never  be allowed to recur.