By Muhammad A. Adedokun

May 15 was just like any other Friday in Ogbomosho land. Before seven o’clock, the children took their baths, brushed their teeth, picked up their bags, and set out to join their colleagues at school. They had prepared all the necessary things. Some had their breakfast before setting forth, and others packed theirs in their lunch box. They don’t want to miss the morning assembly—a ground to learn and to reaffirm their love for their dear country through the recitation of the national anthem. They all came from different homes. They have different ambitions, but their uniforms make them look alike.

Builders of the future leaders from the Community Grammar School and the Baptist Nursery and Primary School, who have taken teaching as their dear profession are set. Ready to continue the lesson from where they stopped.

At about 9:30 a.m., just a few hours before they’ll take a short break to refresh, the school environment was visited by some masked gunmen. They came from somewhere still best described as nowhere. They were not security officers, they were not hunters, but they were just some set of people, who made it unsafe for kids to nap, not even in their compounds. Their presence interrupted the lesson. They did not leave until they took seven (7) teachers, including thirty-nine (39) pupils, and a toddler, along with them.

They were taken to the cold forest. Not for Excursions, not for Wildlife Observation, not for Insect Collection and Identification, not for Nature Crafts, and not even for Medicinal Plant Studies. Sadly, they were abducted. They are being used to threaten their families.

Children’s Day came just like before. Only to find some of the children it left jumping and playing in parks and recreational centres in the previous year to be in a place unknown to their people. This time around, they’re neither happy nor jumping Their families are in sorrow, clamouring for the release of their dear ones. Hearts melt, eyes shed tears, and the whole body struggles for a deep sleep. The taste buds on the tongue now only attach a taste to all foods. No matter how delicious the meals are, they all taste like unripe fruits on the tongues of those in grief.

What was the offence of Mr Michael Oyedokun, who was being beheaded in a viral post? He was decapitated because he was just a teacher at a school in Oriire Local Government Area (LGA). Has teaching become an offence? What message is being conveyed to his colleagues by those in the position of authority? What hope is given to teachers in a nation where their safety is not guaranteed?

Now, primary and secondary school pupils are at home instead of school. All because of nothing, but to show their displeasure at the condition of their colleagues: their friends, their mates, in fact their brethren. It’s the 21st day since the abducted children were taken away from their people. It is truly heartbreaking to imagine what these innocent children are going through. Thinking about the suffering away from their families remains deeply painful. It is difficult to comprehend what their feeding looks like. It even gets worse to imagine the condition of the toddler is among them!

About 39 pupils of the Oriire LGA went to school just like their colleagues. But who knows? No one had an idea that something unusual would happen. They did not return home. Citizens are in fear. Everyone is worried about how the community is now seeming unsafe for kids to nap. May alone, neither one nor ten, but over 100 students had been kidnapped—this is alarming! Why has it been difficult to secure their release? This is a question to governments at all levels, including all concerned office holders in positions of responsibility.

O the Creator of all creatures, we earnestly implore you to grant peace to our nation, make this a secure nation, help return the abducted schoolchildren and others in the hands of captors back safe, for You are over all things Competent.