The release of 23 hostages

AFTER languishing in captivity for over six months, the 23 hostages about whom many Nigerians had nursed apprehension were released last week amid palpable relief and joy among their long-suffering family members and Nigerians in general. Like millions of Nigerians, we are really happy and relieved and share in the joy of the families whose members have been recovered safely from the terrorists’ enclave although, sadly, one of them was reported to have been murdered on the way home by the same terrorists who have made the country their fiefdom. Nigeria of this moment is so unsafe that being alive can no longer be taken for granted. The dangers that stalk the streets are manifold and death and destruction literally dot the landscape.

Usman Yussuf, the secretary of the Presidential Committee saddled with the responsibility of negotiating the release of the hostages, said inter alia: “I am pleased to announce to the nation and the world that at 4pm (last) Wednesday, the seven-man Presidential Committee assembled by the Chief of Defence Staff, Leo Irabor, secured the release and took custody of all the 23 remaining passengers held hostage by Boko Haram terrorists following the attack on the Abuja-to-Kaduna train on 28th March, 2022. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the Nigerian military under the leadership of the Chief of Defence Staff who conceived and guided the operation from start to finish.” Yusuf thereafter made allusions to the unwavering support of President Muhammadu Buhari, which he said had made the rescue possible.

Naturally, the president himself exuded excitement at the rescue effort, congratulating the entire nation and the military as well as other security agencies for the safe release of the hostages. In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, the president said that the nation owed the military and all other security and intelligence agencies a debt of gratitude for the successful conduct of the operation leading to the release of the hostages. According to him, these agencies had shown outstanding capabilities over the period that the whole world would not fail to acknowledge. While expressing satisfaction with the successful deployment of both kinetic and non-kinetic processes leading to the eventual safe release of the remaining hostages, President Buhari also congratulated the families of the victims for having them back alive. He averred that the relief that had come to the nation arising from the closure of the unfortunate saga must be sustained at all times all over the federation. He credited his government with resolving the issue and the de-escalation of the terrorism, banditry and kidnapping that surged recently, giving assurances that the efforts would be sustained.

To be sure, the release of the 23 hostages is a positive development. If anything, it showed that the security agencies and the government took more than a passing interest in the incident and deployed every tool they had to reunite the hostages with their traumatised families. However, we are miffed by the gratuitous self-adulation of the Federal Government and its unreflective attitude to the embarrassment which the entire incident represents. In the first place, it is the job of the government to guarantee the safety and welfare of the people as the country’s constitution provides and if errors arise in the course of carrying out this core duty, it is still its duty to make amends, and in an atmosphere of sobriety. Certainly, it is a negligent administration that will endorse the violation of its own citizens’ rights. When the administration made moves to rescue the kidnapped passengers, it was merely performing one of its statutory functions. It can therefore not use this case as a template for making vainglorious statements, particularly given the fact that thousands of Nigerians abducted by terrorists and with no publicly known identities remain unaccounted for. They are being held in dehumanising conditions in terrorists’ enclaves around the country and may not survive unless conscious efforts are made to rescue them. Even among those whose identities are known, Leah Sharibu and some of the Chibok Girls are still in captivity.

A government cannot foster an atmosphere of widespread insecurity and then congratulate itself on rescuing citizens from the same insecurity. The Nigerians rescued last week certainly deserve every attention they get, particularly by way of moral support, as they may have become devastated and demoralised by their ordeal. For all that they did was to use a form of transport that their own government created, and about which it was supposed to guarantee adequate security. Regrettably, this administration may wind up doing nothing about its serial acts of dereliction. If it continues basking in self-adulation over the case under reference, it might not even have the presence of mind to consider those still in captivity. That’s not good enough. Besides, although the administration denied that ransoms were paid to secure the release of the hostages and that some prisoners were swapped for the returned kidnapped victims, there are counter-narratives. The administration must therefore clean up its act. It must address insecurity so decisively that rumours of governmental failure would have no prospect of gaining traction among the citizenry.