By Asabe Bitrus

There has never been a more trying time to be Nigerian.
That sounds cliched, but there are simply no words to convey Nigerians’ horror at the endless cycle of national grief. Our country has so far been spared the worst of the covid-19 pandemic, but extremist violence, communal clashes and rising criminality are producing an epidemic of insecurity.
The latest alarming trend is a wave of mass kidnappings of students, endangering millions of children’s futures. At the end of May, dozens of kidnappers on motorcycles stormed a school in north-central Nigeria and whisked away 136 children aged 5 to 14 and three teachers, after killing one person. Two mothers collapsed and died upon receiving the news. The kidnappers have demanded 200 million naira (almost $500,000) for their young victims’ lives.

This follows the seizure in December of 344 schoolboys in the northwest of the country from their dormitories. Their release after six agonizing nights evoked a collective sigh of relief from a nation sunk in sadness and anger.
The episodes conjured disgusting memories of the April 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their school dormitory in the northeast town of Chibok. At the time, the mass kidnapping shook Nigerians to the core and triggered international outrage and activism. More than 100 girls remain in the brutal grip of Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group that has been involved in the killing of an estimated 40,000 and displaced more than 3 million.

Source: Global Opinion