by Alexander O. Onukwue

More than fifty days have passed without the return of six abducted boys from a secondary school in Igbonla, Epe, Lagos because none of them is the child of a rich man.

It is not a theory that needs verification, but a fact that needs to be voiced more.

Yusuf Faruk is unrelated to Faruk Lawan; Ramon Isiaka has no connections to any rich person named Isiaka in the Senate or House of Representatives; and Adebanjo Goerge is not the son of former PDP Deputy Chairman, Chief Bode George. The other three – Judah Agabaosi, Pelumi Philips, and Peter Jonas – do not have names that sound popular.

So the stories of these boys are not being championed by any persons because they are no bodies. Their wailing mothers are part of the “informal” economy – ordinary market women who do not own plots in Lekki and the Bourdillon area and do not contribute multi-millions to the economy of the Mega City of Lagos.

The State cannot devote all of its resources into finding these boys because their parents have no direct influence on leading to the re-election of the Governor in 2019; they may have voted in 2015, but Ambode did not necessarily need them to win, with the guarantee of the coverage of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s blessing.

The politicians of the state – Executive, House of Assembly and those in Abuja – have their wards secure in the best schools in Nigerian and overseas, where they will never be threatened by kidnappers. The fences in those schools are tall enough; there are no side fences or alternative routes by which bandits may barge through. At the slightest indication of insecurity, the Police have special commissions to immediately respond in record time.

They can see the parents of these boys cry and lament the absence of their sons, but they don’t feel responsible for it. They don’t feel responsible for not funding the repair of the short fences that enabled the kidnappers break in, and for not making adequate provisions for reforming the security outfits in the country to make for a more secure environment for all.

They do not feel responsible for the inequalities in the society, helped by the outrageous appropriations they make to themselves through exorbitant salaries and multiple pensions, which take away from what can be made available for the human capital development and youth empowerment. There is no guilt that situations such as that of LAUTECH may lead disillusioned young people into seeking out alternative things to do with their lives, rather than let it waste waiting for a school that will never open.

Save for those who have taken to speak against this anomaly, these parents are on their own. Like the Chibok parents have been on their own for three years, there is no motivation from the rich politicians to help.

They cannot bring themselves to see the lines of faults that make them guilty and their wards will almost never be in these situations; so they do nothing.

Editor