By Abdu Rafiu

It is getting to three weeks now since 39 schoolchildren and eight of their teachers have been in captivity, exposed to inclement weather and the rains. The parents are subjected to psychological trauma of hope upon hope, anxiety and hopelessness.

How are the little kids and their teachers fed? Where do they get water to drink in the National Park? Where do they sleep? It is a matter to concentrate minds of all men of conscience and of those who are sensitive.

It is a matter to preoccupy the attention of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde. Nothing else should matter to him, day and night, as of now until the children are out of the dungeon and callousness.

You would have thought a Makinde would enlist the help of the traditionalists, mainly the hunters who say they know the terrain in their communities and the National Park and are gifted in their own ways. They have the prowess. They said two weeks ago that they were ready, and are only awaiting the governor’s nod.

Surprisingly, not even a body language has he allowed them to read. Here was the same governor distancing himself today from those regarded as non-state actors as he did over Igangan rescue operation in Oyo North by Sunday Igboho, who was content going for herbal remedies, ginger, garlic and all of that when afflicted by COVID-19 and was healed. He announced his victory himself and the herbal remedy.

Some others who settled for orthodoxy in sophisticated medical centres in Lagos did not survive the pandemic. There are beings that are at work in the forest and out of the forest. They tend flowers. It is the unspoilt children who still see them even in this age of the modern man.

The wise thing is for Governor Makinde to invite and register these volunteers so the grain would be separated from the chaff, the genuine from charlatans! OPC, Agbekoya and Sunday Igboho say all they are waiting for is the governor’s permission so that later, not being state actors, they are not roped in as bandits or terrorists. They are not asking that the security architecture on ground be dismantled. Each party will work independently while the objective remains the same.

All said, the solution to the seemingly intractable and escalating insecurity lies in the establishment of state police. There is already a national consensus on the imperative of bringing it urgently into existence! What is the footdragging about?