WAKE UP: Tale of two school teachers in Northern Nigeria

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From Left: Abdulmalik Tanko and Mallam Mukthar Gulma.

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By BASHIR ADEFAKA

 

“Above are two contradictory circumstances that life just threw up in a weird society. While no one has said little or nothing about Kebbi’s Gulma’s act of courage – indeed, the type that merits a national award – the entire social space, has since been mourning the mindlessness of Kano’s Tanko and others, who just cut short a promising life as a result of their personal greed.”

 

The two pictures  used in the illustration of this story are correct images of Abdulmalik Tanko (in black t-shirt) and Mallam Mukthar Gulma (in white agbada), who are both teachers, Muslims, Northerners and, above all, entrusted with the studies, care and guardianship of children being who and what they are.

I have adopted the story now being told by many around in my opinion article column, WAKE UP, by way of providing it a vehicle to carry it far and wide.

Whereas Tanko is proprietor and a teacher of Noble Kids Primary School, Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State, Malam Gulma is a teacher at the Federal Government College (FGC), Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State.

Thus, while one (Tanko) is a minder of children, the other (Gulma) deals with teenagers and they have different attitude towards their pupils and students, respectively.

And their stories here:

Bandits recently invaded the college in Birnin Yauri, where Gulma was teaching and they abducted some of his students. But, in displaying a rare courage, he took himself to the bandits and said they should either release his students or take him along with them and the bandits did as he said and took him along. He was only released with his students, precisely 8 January, 2022 after spending six months with their captors.

But in the case of Noble Kids Primary School in Kano, Tanko, the proprietor himself, kidnapped one of his pupils, Hanifa Abubakar, 5, demanded a ransom of N6,000,000, part of which was already paid, but ended up poisoning the little girl, cut her into pieces and buried in a shallow grave. Tanko and his accomplices were later arrested and they confessed to the crime, saying he killed her, because she recognised him.

Above are two contradictory circumstances that life just threw up in a weird society. While no one has said little or nothing about Kebbi’s Gulma’s act of courage – indeed, the type that merits a national award – the entire social space, has since been mourning the mindlessness of Kano’s Tanko and others, who just cut short a promising life as a result of their personal greed.

Perhaps, society needs to encourage the like of Gulma to prevent other animals in human skin like Tanko from traveling the inhuman route as frequently as they now do. Hanifa was a totally innocent child, who probably trusted the animal called Tanko, like every child would anyone, who showed them love and care. But he exploited that and sent her to an early grave.

These two examples must be dealt with, seriously and deservingly, by the leadership, so that while rewarding good deeds on the one hand as Gulma did by standing up for his students, the leadership and society must also sanction and punish the deliberately callous choice by Tanko as some form of deterrence to evil doers in the society. While congratulating and thanking Gulma, it’s important the full weight of the law is brought down on Tanko and his gang of criminals.

*WAKE UP is opinion article column of Alhaji Bashir Adefaka, a Lagos-based Journalist and Media and Publicity Consultant. Reach him via his his email: omope72@gmail.com or phone: 08163323906.


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