The Mubi Murders: What were we doing?

By Msonter Anzaa

It was 10:00pm that night. Nigeria had just become 52. It was not their fault that they were Nigerians, or students, or human beings, or resident in the town of Mubi, or indeed, anything that made them the focus of attack by the night monsters. Yet, 40 of them; right in their rooms, in the land of their fathers, within the vicinity of their school, were murdered in cold blood. Students who had left their mothers and fathers, their beloved, serene homes to study; not in an enemy land, but in the country they call their own; their fatherland. It happened in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Why has the Nigerian state become so insecure and unpredictable? Why also, do we seem unable to predict when security breaches are likely? What must we do to restore security and order and enjoy peace in the land of our fathers?

At moments like this, one can hardly find words to express oneself. We keep asking questions that never seem to be answered. At this moment, we ask, who were the gunmen and what did they want? There are speculations that there could be cultists on rampage in relation to Students’ Union Government elections held about three days earlier. The rector of the Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, is quoted as telling newsmen hoodlums have been invading the school from a broken fence shared with a Police barracks. “We have complained again and again, time without number, to the police authorities in Yola, to intervene, as the security breach is now reaching an alarming rate,” he told The Nation newspaper yesterday. Now, from the rector’s statement, it is clear that similar incidents have been occurring in the institution. What had the Police authorities done to forestall future occurrences? The trouble we have in Nigeria is negligence. We are slow to act. We take things too casually. We do not take our jobs seriously, and sometimes we do this because of corruption. We have certain selfish interests to pursue by delaying or not performing our official duties. Once in a while, something horrible happens, and everyone is shaken to the reality of our recklessness. Soon, it dies down and we get used to it. Business as usual. Again, what did the Police authorities do when they got complaints from the institution that hoodlums have been invading from the barracks. Is it possible that these hoodlums are police officers themselves? Or are we again, experiencing corruption at the height of authority where these cultists – if they really are – collaborate with the State Police’s hierarchy to have a free reign? Why is it so difficult to do our jobs the way we should?

Supposing the gunmen were cultists as some have insinuated, where did they come from? Were they also students? If they were, did these institutions not know about them before now? Has the Police never been alerted to the presence of cultists in the town? What security measures did the school put in place regarding its SUG elections if they have a history of being violent? Why do we wait until so much life is wasted? Now, while the killings were going on, how long did it take security agents to respond? We may never get to know. The truth is, in our negligence as a people, we complicate issues that ordinarily shouldn’t have presented any serious challenge. We then make life unbearable and unliveable for ourselves. Imagine the relief we would have if the news we are reading is not that 40 Nigerian students got murdered that night, but that an attempt to do that was foiled by Police. It is not to be in Nigeria. We wait for things to happen. Mubi has recently become notorious for security breaches. Early this year, there were series of gun attacks in that town. Mubi is a border town. What security arrangements should exist in a town of such status? Is it excusable that with all its history, Mubi is still left free enough for hoodlums to perpetrate an atrocity of such magnitude?

Now, there cannot be any remedy for the lives that have been wasted needlessly. It hurts that calamities that need not have happened keep occurring in this land. It is hoped that in reaction to the Mubi murders, the security agents will not just move in and react, but that it will become our national security policy to be proactive, careful, diligent and serious with our assignments. If caution had been taken, the Nigerian state and the families of those murdered would have been saved this needless agony. God save Nigeria. Amen.