Hanifa Abubakar, a 5-year-old pupil of Noble Kids Academy, a private school in Kano, the capital of Kano state, was killed last week allegedly by its proprietor Abdulmalik Tanko. He confessed under questioning that he kidnapped the girl for ransom and afterwards murdered her and buried the body in the school’s premises.
He confessed that he abducted Hanifa while she was returning from an Islamic lesson and took her to “my family house” where he detained her for two weeks. “She stayed in my family house for about two weeks before I killed her. I killed her after some teachers in my school came to my house,” he said. “I became suspicious. I thought they came to investigate me because they said the girl had once mentioned my name. It was after that visit that I gave her rat poison. I then contacted my friend and asked for his help to dig a hole where the girl would be buried. I had demanded the sum of N6 million from the parents. I contacted them through the phone number they gave the school.”
Tanko was taken to a magistrates court the following Monday, according to police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa. He said the suspect and two others, were being charged with “criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and culpable homicide.”
Hanifa’s murder has generated intense public outcry. Angry youth set the Noble Kids Academy ablaze. They had earlier tried to burn down the school building but were prevented by security agents depolyed to prevent a breakdown of law and order in the wake of the killing.
In its first official reaction, the Kano State govermnment announced it had revoked the operational licenses of “all private schools in Kano State”. Commissioner of Education, Muhammad Sanusi-Kiru, told journalists that “The decision was as a result of ugly and disturbing incidents recorded in the state of recent, all perpetrated by private school proprietors. We have had issues of raping and kidnapping all coming from private schools … We received complaints against a private school proprietor who raped his students and he confessed to the crime. Recently, we recorded another disturbing case of this proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko, who kidnapped, killed and buried his student, the late Hanifa Abubakar.”
The commissioner added, “We have established Zonal offices for private and voluntary schools across Kano State and we have received so many disturbing reports about the emergence of so many mushroom private schools without registration. All these put together informed government’s decision; we cannot sit by and fold our arms while all these continue. We cannot condone these happenings in Kano State. We will review and revalidate their operational licences. We will shut down schools that fail to scale the exercise. The ministry of education will set criteria for their revalidation. A panel has been set up comprising of the Ministry of Justice, Department of State Service, (DSS), Civil Defense and other security agencies to look into the revalidation of all private schools in Kano State,” Sanusi-Kiru stated.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) had said Abdulmalik Tanko was not a member. Its president, Chief Yomi Otubela, described Hanifa’s killing as “:gruesome” and demanded that justice be done “in this matter”. He said, “To us, the news of incessant abductions and killings of school children has become worrisome. We, therefore, urge both the state and federal governments to put machinery in place to ensure the safety of school children in the country. In the same manner, we implore the security operatives to carry out a proper investigation of this killing to arrest other perpetrators connected to this dastardly act who may be at large.”
The general indignation kicked up by Hanifa’s killing by no other person than the owner of her school is justified. The innocent little girl did not deserve the painful, agonizing death she was put through. This is why we demand justice for her and her parents. However, we take exception to the posturing by the governor of Kano state, Ganduje who Monday said that he would not hesitate to authorize the death sentence for Hanifa’s self confessed murderer when, not if, the court gave it. This is forcing the hand of the court and it is wrong. The governor should allow the judicial process run its full course.
This said, the government, in all honesty, cannot it has no hand in the proliferation of private schools. The reason is that the government has failed to invest in public schools to provide the quality education private schools are wrongly believed to give. It is also negligent in implementing its own guidelines for the private schools.
Parents also are at fault. Sending a child to a choice school is only the beginning. They should take an interest in what happens in school by asking the wards relevant questions and demanding true answers. For instance, the child should be asked what subject she likes or doesn’t like and why. His or her answer may be quite revealing, prompting further inquiry.
Yes, government has a social contract with Nigerians to provide services such as good education. But society must also do its part, otherwise it is no contact at all.
