There has been an understandable nationwide expression of outrage at the death, in the hands of his kidnappers, of retired Major-General Rabe Abubakar, a former Director of Defence Information and spokesman of the Nigerian military. General Abubakar was abducted with his wife, Hajia Amina, on May 30, while they were travelling to attend a wedding in Katsina State.
He died in captivity on June 13, while, ironically, his wife was rescued in an operation by security operatives, barely days after the body of her husband was received by the Katsina State government.
Another death of a high-ranking Nigerian military officer at the hands of terrorists is justifiable cause for the anger that has been voiced across the country. While General Abubakar is retired, a number of other top officers had been killed in the heat of the ongoing protracted war against insurgents, particularly in the Northeast and Northwest theatres of battle.
These high profile military deaths naturally affect morale and breed despondency among the rank and file of the military personnel at the battlefronts, and also engender resentment and dismay on the part of both serving and retired senior military officers.
Furthermore, the sense of helplessness among civilians increases manifold when highly trained senior military personnel appear so easily vulnerable to rampaging terrorists, kidnappers and bandits.
The sense of outrage is further inflamed by the fact, for instance, that the school children and teachers abducted by terrorists from three schools in a community in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State are still in captivity over a month after their seizure, with the kidnappers reportedly making outlandish demands in exchange for their release.
The sense of collective helplessness leading to alienation between the government and citizens is exactly the motive of the kidnappers and their sponsors.
There are other sources of national unease and distress specific to the death of General Abubakar. One is the seeming ease and speed with which his body was released by his captors after over two weeks of his kidnap and unsuccessful efforts to secure his release.
Again, is the still cloudy circumstance in which his body was released to the Katsina State government by the kidnappers. Had there been intermediaries between the state government and the abductors all along, and, if so, why couldn’t his release have been achieved before his demise?
The claim of the Katsina State government that he died of complications from diabetes and hypertension, which the government strangely described as ‘natural’ causes, has also been baffling. For one, it is unlikely that any autopsy was carried out on the body before such a conclusion was reached. Beyond that, his son has indicated that his father had no such medical history and that he most likely died of snake bite poison.
In any case, it is unlikely that he had access to decent medical care in captivity. The state government could most certainly have been tidier and more diligent in handling the sensitive issue.
While the rescue of the General’s wife is welcome, it also raises the issue as regards whether such a salvage effort could not have been mounted before his demise. Even then, though anger at the escalating scale of kidnapping is understandable, as a people, we must go beyond outrage, which is ultimately unproductive.
Rather, we must allow such incidents to impress on us afresh the degree of the insecurity challenges we confront and motivate us to act with greater collective determination to triumph over the present evil. Thus, governments at various levels must intensify and accelerate ongoing initiatives to establish State Police to enhance security efficiency at the grassroots.
In the interim, local, state and regional security outfits, as well as forest guards, should be up-scaled and better armed to confront the very well-armed criminal elements that constitute a grave danger to our national stability and cohesion.
The intensified efforts by traditional rulers and community leaders across the country to mobilise their people to more effectively police and protect their communities is the right way to go. The efficacy of communal sources of self-preservation, especially by hunters’ and vigilante groups, cannot be underestimated.
The communities are the most important sources of critical intelligence as regards suspicious movements of people and unusual events around them that can enhance the capacity of security agencies to respond effectively to nip crime in the bud before these atrocities are successfully executed.