A Country Of Victims -By Kene Obiezu

In a country  awash with delusions and  dysfunction, everyone is a victim in some way. There are direct victims and there are also those who are victims because they are related to the direct victims. Put together, the victimhood is a national one with everybody affected in one way or the other.

It has now been more than a month since daredevil terrorists attacked a train travelling from Abuja to Kaduna, killed many, and injured many and abducted others. The attack  which happened on March 28,2022 took about nine Nigerian lives and sent shockwaves rattling through the  entire country.

The chilling premeditation that went into the painstaking planning of the attack soon became apparent when the terrorists holding on to more than six dozen passengers they abducted during the attack began to make demands of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Among other things, their principal demand has been for an exchange involving some of the victims and terrorists  held by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Predictably, the Federal Government balked at the demand. So, the victims have remained with their captors who occasionally send out images to mock the Giant of Africa.

The voices of  the victims` frustrated family members and loved ones have since grown  hoarse from   asking  the Federal Government  to secure the release of their loved ones  from what remains  an unimaginable fate. Yet, as has previously been the case, the Nigerian government appears helpless in the face of yet another forceful demonstration of terrorist audacity.

As Nigeria`s security edifice has continued to disintegrate stone by stone, the country has borne painful witness to the extent to which life suffers in the grip of terror. People stay in their homes in communities and are attacked. People are attacked while they travel. In these days of great anxiety, many Nigerian hearts have taken up permanent residence in Nigerian months.

The most frightening thing yet appears to be that a situation that is supposed to get better is progressively growing worse.

 The Federal Government recently directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation to resume train operations on the Abuja-Kaduna corridor which were  suspended since March 2022. The announcement of the NRC that in compliance with the directives of the Federal Government, operations will resume on May 23,2022 was keen to stress that the abducted victims had not been abandoned.

The measures being taken to secure their immediate and safe release are not immediately clear. Again, in a country where history gleefully rinses and repeats itself many  times, it remains highly doubtful that adequate security measures have been put in place to secure the trains and passengers.

In a country where all of us are victims of insecurity, how long will it take for the victims abducted on that dark night to be rescued? What Nigeria has become since 2009 when Boko Haram  began full operations in the Northeast and especially since 2015 simply beggars belief. It does not take clairvoyance to know that those who will choose to travel to Kaduna from Abuja by train as from May 23, 2022 will no doubt be reminded of the attacks of March 28 2022 at each station of their journey. For a long time, the attacks will remain bad for the rail business in Nigeria.

The grave attacks also remain bad for the Nigeria`s feeble security. More than anything, it shows that terrorists can operate freely and audaciously within the country without consequences. It also shows that they can strike anywhere and anytime.

Nigeria continues to unravel by the day. The Nigerian military is battling terrorism valiantly in the country. But with things hardly improving security wise, perhaps, it is time Nigeria sought other solutions to the seemingly insoluble problem of insecurity.

Kene Obiezu,

Abuja.