Kankara Abduction: Who directed the movie? -By Jen Jibrin

It looks like a movie as impractical as inevitable. Any attempt to squeeze the twists, turns, scandal, farce, outrage and horror of Kankara Schoolboys kidnapping into a reasonable runtime would be an effort in hubris. Yet there’s something different about the characters in the movie, the role played by each character left the viewers inundated with the entire movie.

While Kankara made a movie explicitly about counterterrorism in Nigeria, it followed the logical progression of African best-known crime films in Nigeria. From the hustlers of Ransom, the gang of Abubakar Shekau, to the millionaire mafiosos of collaborators and conmen of Nigeria.

This movie has traced the ascending arc of negligence and lack of enough will across the Nigerian security divide to do more to secure the country from terror. It also makes it terrible that the schoolboys abduction in this cycle take place within the highest echelons of Buhari’s hometown, Katsina State.

In the movie, there is no better character at wrangling this type of hyperreal chaos into something shameful like the presidential spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu. The initial claim that only 10 students were missing became the biggest scene in this movie.

The statement by Garba Shehu in the wake of Kankara schoolboys abduction was a spot-on casting and top-shelf production values rendered in the service of entertaining, but ultimately memorable re-enactment.

Taking a backseat to watch this movie from another lens, Kankara school registry shows a total of 839 students before the abduction while Gov. Aminu Bello Masari confirmed that 333 students were missing after the incident occurred.

The plausible definition of Kankara is that at first, the abductors were portrayed to be bandits who demanded ransom from the Katsina Government. Until another video released by Abubakar Shekau claiming responsibility for the abduction.

Just yesterday, the abductors released the students to reunite with their families in Katsina. But the Gov. Aminu Masari said he did not pay a dime to anybody to secure the release of the students. He claimed to have a successful negotiation facilitated by Miyatti Allah in Katsina State.

Meanwhile the APC spokesperson, Yekini Nabena alleged that a governor from the northwest region was behind the attacks by bandits in the region. And even though he has refused to mention the name of the Governor based on his claims.

What is clearly seen from Kankara schoolboys abduction is the public outcry from Buhari’s refusal to sack his service Chiefs and his misunderstanding of the dynamics of insecurity in the country.

Buhari’s presidency has not done enough to Nigeria but further allowed Abubakar Shekau to grade him with Zabarmari and eventually Kankara. Suffice it to say, Buhari has failed the basic principles of democracy by preserving life and property of citizenry as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.

For the subject of Kankara movie, it’s a story Nigerians cannot resist in the media, different headlines in editorials, opinions and columns. A tale of megalomania, contradictory and surreally absurd incident, with a supporting cast of colourfully extreme characters.

No doubt, Kankara was a bad arena for this ironic satire but also too laughable, seeing as how the characters had recently orchestrated each other in the media.

If Nigeria is really a stage as the Kankara movie portrayed, there is a reason to believe that the presidency makes a great movie subject. Since Buhari’s path to power has been paved by media attention that presented him as good content owing to his military background and the circumstances that brought him to power in 2015.

Unlike the Dapchi Movie, Kankara seems like a foregone conclusion. It stands to reason that the Kankara movie became one of the sharpest and briefest in the history of Abubakar Shekau or whosoever. It’s fair to assume that both Dapchi and Kankara movies share a taste of conspiracy theories

Unless President Buhari intends to follow the trajectory of his predecessors, it will be surprising if Kankara did not turn his presidency into a theatre.

Jen Jibrin

Public Affairs Analyst

Asokoro District, FCT, Abuja.