It was so elating, so touching seeing and listening to Major-General Chinedu Nnebeife hand over the freed Oriire school children and their teachers, victims of kidnapping, to the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde. It was at a gathering comprising some senior officers from different arms of our security forces and senior state government functionaries. It was even more exceedingly delightful to note in his briefing on the operation he described as complex that he, as the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2 Division, Nigerian Army Headquarters, Ibadan, personally led the rescue operation and was there in the forest for the 56 days the efforts lasted. He did not send his second-in-command, or even a subordinate officer of lesser rank. He took the operations seriously. A total of 44 children were involved with nine of their teachers, including a principal of one of the three schools the kidnappers raided.
The raid was carried out by the gunmen on 15 May. The ordeal ended last Friday evening, 10 July, 2026. As was later to be revealed, a one-year-and-three-month-old child was among those carted away. Also among the others there were those whose ages range from two, five and six-year-olds! Such cruelty! Such callousness!! These were all exposed to rains and sun and the elements in the inclement weather, cold in particular that characterises the rainy season, more so in a thick forest. Added to these was the galling horror as painted by Mrs. Alamu, the Principal: The children were tied in the mouth with clothes to stop them from making noises—something that is natural with children, even in the hide and seek condition they found themselves; especially in a forest with ample swinging facility, called pandoro, all of which make children to be children and keep them happy. The abductors feared the attendant noises of the kids, some loud, would reveal their location to the security forces on their trail! They beat the children and sealed their lips. The male captives were blindfolded, had their hands tied and legs chained! They moved from one area of the forest to another walking distances for hours. The toddlers were carried.
General Nnebeife gave a moving account of how when he received the signal about the abduction during an event which was being conducted in the barracks, he rose to the challenge. He immediately assembled his men; they jumped into vehicles and raced at breakneck speed, headed for Ogbomoso-Oriire axis in the hope they would intercept the abductors, but the kidnappers had gone deep into the National Park Forest with their victims. The principal’s car used in carrying some of the children was abandoned by the abductors. They organized a search team which also comprised the local vigilantes, hunters and Amotekun. A tactical Air Force team joined from Kainji.
Why did the rescue team elect ground operation instead of air operation? General Nnebeife said it was because the aircraft and drones would not have been able to spot the camps of the kidnappers. So thick was the forest that its shade was such that it was difficult to even see the rays of sunlight. He spoke glowingly about the support he received from his bosses. He said it was overall the operation of the Chief of Army Staff. National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu sent in National Counter-Terrorism Unit and assured him that should he at any time need anything he was on standby; the General should not hesitate to let him know. He spoke also proudly and reassuringly about support from the Chief of Defence Staff, from Defence Headquarters special forces; the Nigeria Police; the Department of State Security (DSS); the Nigeria Air Force team from Kainji; Troops from Operation Savannah Shield from Kwara that did a blocking from the Northern side of Oyo State coming from Ilorin. He lost some of his men. A fallen officer of lieutenant rank was being buried in his home state of Adamawa when the children were being released. Another was shot and wounded gravely. Some local vigilantes, Amotekun and hunters were on the rescue mission. Some of them along with some Amotekun crack men were lost to the operation as well. Two of the teachers were gruesomely killed, one of them immediately they reached the forest! It was confounding to hear revealed how far the link of the kidnappers to other parts of the country stretched—to members of their team; members of their families in Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, Adamawa, Kano, Oyo and in different parts of the country. Nnebeife’s men looked for them and got them. That put pressure on the terrorists.
In the General’s words: “During the last phase of the operation, we blocked their major logistics hub in Ashamu, and it finally made them to willingly release the school children and teachers unconditionally, but we insisted that it was not only about releasing the children but seeing to end of the terrorists operating in the Region.” Nnebeife also spoke with such delight about the encouragement and support he received from the President, Bola Tinubu, whom he said called him every day. According to him, the Governor, Seyi Makinde, did the same, but kept so dignifyingly quiet about it that his efforts were hardly known and appreciated. He came under a barrage of criticisms. The Press said he was more pre-occupied with politics than the rescue of the school children. The state commissioner of police regularly sent food to the troops in the forest, indeed every day! Nnebeife said the police commissioner provided critical support throughout the rescue mission. He helped to arrest a suspect following an Intelligence report from the military. Nnebeife said a helicopter was dispatched to pick the fellow and fly him into the forest. The valuable information he provided enabled the forces to locate the kidnappers’ camps in the jungle.
The skills, the professionalism, the commitment, the application and drive so self-evident in cooperation, collaboration and pronged co-ordination of our security forces brought to bear on the rescue efforts at the Old Oyo National Park were impressive. What a sigh of relief the nation heaved and the confidence our security forces have given to Nigerians and the nation anew in the face of seeming intractable reign of terror by bandits, kidnappers and terrorists in several parts of the country. We must salute their courage and gallantry. The daringness of the rescue mission can never be forgotten and cannot be in vain, going by the Laws of Nature.
There are other areas of our beleaguered nation in need of attention. The school children abducted in Borno about the same day undoubtedly require such operation. There are still 86 Chibok girls the nation owes undreamt-of miracle of rescue and freedom. They are those that remain out of more than 300 of the Chibok school girls seized from their boarding school and driven into captivity since 2014. The case of school girl Leah Sharibu from Dapchi in Yobe State remains a national embarrassment. She has been the lone student from among her set still in captivity since 2018. She was about 15 at the time and 23 this year.
The Oyo National Park that could easily pass for a tourist centre for its historical connection to rekindle memories and the naturalness of its tall and huge trees and foliage of leaves to calm nerves and which enthrals the minds for reflection, for poetic contemplation and to bow the spirit in worship; where animals wander, reptiles crawl and birds fly freely and unmolested; nature beings manifestly at work providing fresh air and regulating climate; with beauty of the forest seen from afar, an enchanting spectacle for Nature enthusiasts, has been violated. Its sanctity has been dragged down. It is not for nothing that the Park has for centuries been called Igbo-Oba, the Royal King’s Forest watched over by Awogbo, forest guards. It is abutted by three major local government headquarters, Igboho, (Orelope); Kishi, (Irepo); and Igbeti, (Olorunsogo) and villages around them.
We can’t but give all the kudos to our gallant and daring security forces for their sacrifice. We remember the fallen heroes in the course of the rescue mission. Their service cannot be lost in all annals and cannot go in vain. The President and the Governor deserve fulsome laudatory salutation for their alertness and wakefulness, maintaining unceasing communication flow directly with the GOC Nnebeife. Nnebeife and his team drawn from all the security services are, indeed, our national heroes at this moment.
THE CYCLE OF BENEFICIAL AND JOYFUL SERVICE
And the foregoing brings back to memory the essence of reflecting on the Cycle of Beneficial and Joyful Service, and the assurance that no service is lost in the annals of life. No help, no service is rendered in vain. Go to the ant and learn, so we are admonished. When we reflect, we say to ourselves: Come to think of it, is it from the ants’ sense of duty, their demonstrable organisational skill and abilities, their attitude and application to work? See their columns. If we reflect just a little, we find there is a lot to learn from that tiny creature, the ant, to which man pays scant attention, if at all. What about the Nature Beings that provide the air which we breathe unceasingly for 24 hours that make a day, for 365 days or 52 weeks that make a year, 2,160 earth years that constitute an Age—thus the Age of the Father, the Age of the Son and the Age of the Holy Spirit!! We are wont to then say the Lord Christ departed this earth more than 2,000 years ago, and that we have entered the Age of the Holy Spirit. The beings are in dedicated, loyal and untiring service in the 26,000 years that make the Platonic Year also called the Great Year.
Working with plants, the beings turn carbon-dioxide, through photosynthesis using sunlight, into oxygen without which there can be no human or animal existence. We are oblivious of their work, and we take the availability of air for granted. The modern man is closed to them after paralysing the faculty, the hind brain that provides the link for their recognition, being the spiritual receptive part of our brains. Only the uncorrupted children see and relate with them. Consequently, because we are hardly conscious of their existence and work, we do not relate with them, how much give thanks for their invaluable service. Air is taken as given until our breathing is hampered and we are unable to breathe in clean air or exhale used-up air and doctors say we may have inhaled polluted unfiltered air. They arrange to pump air into the afflicted. The beings give their all in the service of the Most High without first reconsidering and without fore-thought.
For us human beings, what is service? Because service by man is a forlorn hope, hardly genuine even where a semblance of it is rendered, borne largely out of calculation, craving for fame, self-aggrandisement as well as for public acknowledgement. A great many seen from Above, may have alienated themselves from the cycle of beneficial service which is loaded with rewards and blessings.
Everything in which we are engaged is by definition service. However, to come to a proper understanding of the meaning of service, we must first understand its constituent parts: The doer/giver; the recipient and the deed, that is, the one performing the duty or work, the work or duty performed, and the beneficiary. The doer is the active agent, the beneficiary the passive agent and the deed the nexus which links the active with the passive. If service is properly conceived and properly executed as well as properly received, it involves motion which is not linear but cyclical. It leads to a situation the active agent soon becomes the passive agent and the active agent even if all he sends out is an expression of gratitude.
A good service is generated in the recipient’s gratitude, and the cycle of actions engendered by the service closes, having lifted the two agents concerned to a new plane of being which can indeed serve as a starting point of a new cycle of service. In other words, it can be seen that when we render service, we are cooperating in the cyclical service of life and the entire Creation which is unceasingly mediated.
Grasping the rendering of service that moves in cycles takes us to another level. Service requires knowledge of a higher kind. Are we not told that in these times, we would be availed knowledge that will lead mankind to further Truths? I hasten to state that a person rendering service may wish to note that he is taking from the rich storehouse of Creation and passing it on in order to relieve the beleaguered neighbour. We use the Radiations streaming down from the Throne of Grace for all activities, for thoughts, speeches and action. It is this knowledge that should make one realise his smallness and become humble. It should indeed make the person realise that he must not demand gratitude as of right since at best he is only an agent passing on to another what belongs to the Source of All and Being. Finding himself in this blessed position of being used as an agent, he in turn owes a debt of gratitude to the Creator Who owns that which made the service possible and Who chose him as an agent of fulfilment. In other words, all praise and gratitude go to the Most High, the Author of all life as He is Life and Power—Life that requires nothing to make Him Live. He is Life from and in all eternity!
