Reckless statements made by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai are now haunting him. He had controversially and insensitively declared that his administration would never pay ransom to rescue any kidnapped person, including his family members, arguing that payment of ransom had not stopped kidnapping. He said the wrong things at the wrong time, as the state faced cases of kidnapping for ransom, including mass kidnapping of students and others.
Now he has been forced to withdraw his children from a public primary school because he feared they would be kidnapped by kidnappers who were ready to test his stance against payment of ransom.
He grabbed the headlines in September 2019 when he put his then six-year-old son, Abubakar, in a public primary school, Capital School, Malali, Kaduna. He did not publicise it when he put his daughter in the same school.
He explained why he withdrew both of them from the school in an interview with the Pidgin Service of the BBC. According to him, “my son and also my daughter are registered in the school, because his (Abubakar-Sadiq) sister also clocked six and we registered her in the school. But we had to temporarily withdraw them for the security of the school because we received a security report that three groups were planning to attack the school and kidnap my son.
“I don’t think they (kidnappers) would have succeeded because there is enough security in the school to prevent them, but it would expose other pupils of the school to danger. We didn’t know the kind of weapon they would have brought. I had taken a stand against payment of ransom and we had report that, three groups were planning to kidnap my son from Capital School to see whether I will pay ransom or not if my son is kidnapped.”
El-Rufai claimed that there was adequate security in the school, but also suggested that the security might be inadequate, which shows his confusion. He presented the situation to make him look like a governor who also cared about the safety of other pupils in the school, apart from protecting his own children. But he didn’t say how security in the school has been strengthened to prevent the abduction of other pupils who are still attending the school. Perhaps nothing has been done to further protect them.
“Both Abubakar Sadiq and Nasrine will go back to the school when there is the confidence that their attendance will not put the school at risk,” he said. It remains to be seen when that would be. In the meantime, he has to live with the consequence of his reckless utterances.
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