Oke-Odo 42: When a nation fails its children
April 6, 2012 by Seun Adesida
As
a youth corps member serving in Awkunawnaw Secondary School in Enugu,
to get my monthly allowance at Umuchinemere Microfinance Bank, I must
pass in front of the Holy Cross Rosary College, Enugu both to and fro,
which from inside and outside represents a foremost educational
institution, which till date offers pious comportment as curriculum
coupled with quality educational environment for these wonderful
children to grow up into responsible adults.
This is one school that
protects its own jealously. However, far away from the watchful eyes of
its progenitors, an avoidable and unfortunate tragedy occurred at
Oke-Odo, Ogun State when 42 pupils of the school were reportedly
waylaid, robbed and raped by armed robbers on their way to Lagos on
Saturday, March 31. The attack on these children represents a grievous
assault on our collective sanity and sanctity of human life; one attack
too many on the foundation of this entity called Nigeria and the faith
of millions of Nigerians.
In the final analysis,
we have all failed them; we failed a generation of innocents; we failed
at the breaking forth of a blossoming destiny; we failed 42 legacies
that would probably become Okonjo-Iwealas, the 42 female students of
Holy Cross Rosary College.
The Presidency has
failed them, the National Assembly has failed them, Ogun and Enugu state
governments have failed them; the Nigerian Police, Federal Road Safety
Corps, and other state security apparatus have all failed.
Up till the time of
writing this piece, President Goodluck Jonathan has not found his voice
to condemn in strongest terms the perpetrators of this heinous act; the
Governors of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, and Enugu State, Sullivan
Chime, carried on as ostriches with heads in the sand on the
development, none has called for the arrest of the perpetrators of this
evil.
It has been nine years
since young Adeife and Akinola Sodipo-Akindeko were killed during an
alleged robbery attempt on the convoy of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello in
2003. Pronto, state apparatus were deployed to arrest the culprits,
which led to a brief closure of the border with Benin Republic.
Adeife and Akinola would
have been nine years older now had they not been brutally murdered.
What nation wastes its young population like Nigeria and expects
prosperity? I know none.
The ordeal of these 42
secondary school pupils was not enough to draw the attention of any
member of the Federal Executive Council not even the Vice –President,
Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Not
even the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly in whose domain
this tragedy took place has thought it fit and proper to take a position
on this evil and deploy state apparatus to bring speedy justice.
Do politicians move
around in the night? If they do, have you observed the retinue of
security apparatus that is deployed to secure them? The luxury bus in
which the pupils were travelling was held in traffic, no thanks to bad
roads, which our leaders would not fix year after year. Above all, they
took the few well equipped security officers to guide themselves at the
expense of 42 innocent schoolgirls.
So I ask, what is
government for? Could this have happened to the children of our
legislators and governors and they would have been silent? This argument
of travelling at night which makes the victims and drivers culpable
stands logic on the head.
Does the constitution
not guarantee safety of lives and property? The Nigerian Constitution
states clearly in Section 14, subsection 2(b) that, “the security and
welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” The
primary purpose of all forms of governance from Local Government to
Federal Government is to provide security and welfare.This was what
every government swears to uphold at every inauguration. Is this the
case with the “Oke-Odo 42″? So does this constitutional provision
exclude travelling at night?
If the roads were good
would the vehicles be breaking down intermittently? It is the collective
failure of us all, Nigerian citizens, that have so far failed to call
our rulers/leaders to question on governance; failure of the respective
local government chairmen to secure their parts of that treacherous
portion of Sagamu/Benin Expressway.
It’s the failure of the
Ogun State government to tinker with its internal security apparatus to
secure its domain. It’s the greater failure of the Federal Government,
who failed to provide adequate security for the 42 schoolgirls.
The constitution states
clearly that “…it shall be the duty of the State to provide adequate
facilities for and encourage free mobility of people, goods and services
throughout the Federation.”
These are the provisions
of the Nigerian constitution that guarantee the safety of these
children wherever they may be travelling to within the Nigerian
federation. It’s therefore not tenable to explain it away that they were
travelling at night made them or the driver culpable. Robbery on that axis of
the federal highway has been on the rise in recent times and what has
the Nigerian Police and SSS done to secure victims?
This is one serial
failure that ought to induce a total overhaul of the state security
apparatus. Is it not shameful for the Ogun State police spokesman,
Muyiwa Adejobi, to allude the escape of the culprits to the mastery of
the terrain? You mean over the past 60 years, the Ogun State Police
Command has yet to have knowledge of its terrain?
So, if you don’t know
your terrain, why and what are you policing? After reading from parents
and victims that the girls were violated, all our police spokesman told
Nigerians was that “the police were not in the know of the rape as the
students only complained about the robbery attack and not rape.” Did
Adejobi conduct diligent investigation before arriving at his conclusion
just because nobody reported?
Adejobi’s advice, though
wise on the surface, lacked constitutional backing because the Nigerian
constitution did not create movement dichotomy between daylight and
night travel. It is stated clearly in Section 41, subsection (1) “Every
citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to
reside in any part thereof….” I am not a lawyer but I am informed of my
rights which are constitutionally guaranteed but we have collectively
accepted that we could live by being denied our basic rights.
Adejobi’s philosophy of
‘no night travel’ is just begging the question, because robbers operate
in broad daylight on that same axis. Therefore, it means we should also
avoid travelling in broad daylight. In another report, he told us that
the police arrived and dislodged the hoodlums, so you dislodged them and
not one was apprehended (Haba! The Ogun State Police Command you can do better).
Three days after the
incident, the Police Command gleefully announced the arrest of the
driver of the luxury bus and about four others. The question remains,
are these real culprits or is it one of those public anger management
antics of the police?
Ogun State has suddenly
become the den of armed robbers yet its governor is busy chasing shadows
while his state burns. He should refocus and learn from his closest
neighbour, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos. Though Lagos is not
totally crime-free, one can see that the Lagos Police Command
demonstrates good policing strategy. I have observed that once a car
breaks down on any major road at night, you can be sure that police
patrol vans will park and possibly tow your vehicle to the nearest safe
spot. This is not without the support of the Lagos State government and
the Private Public Partnership with financial institutions.
Like I said earlier, in
the final analysis we have all failed the Oke –Odo 42. Nothing will
assuage the pain and anger of these young ones other than quick
dispensation of justice through the arrest and prosecution of the real
inglorious men.
The best justice to this
sad commentary on our national psyche is to provide special emotional
rehabilitation for the girls; provide for their education through a
special scholarship scheme to the tertiary level and finally ensure the
robber-rapists are apprehended even if it takes five years; they must be
made to account for the event of March 31, 2012.
•Adesida wrote in from Lagos, via picazy@yahoo.com (text only: 08058230994)
