AWKA— Parents and guardians had dropped
their children in their various schools in
their usual routine and left for
their places of work for the day and had looked forward to picking them after
school. But around 10.00a.m that day, there was commotion in the zone. Through
the social media, information began to spread that some people in Army uniform
had invaded schools in the region and were injecting pupils with Monkey Pox virus
for the purpose of depopulating South-East and South-South. Without verifying
the authenticity of the information, most parents rushed to their children’s
schools and demanded to take them home.
THE incident that occurred on
Wednesday, October 11, will remain a lasting memory in the minds of many school
children, their parents and teachers in the South-East geopolitical zone for a
long time.
Drama in schools: In many schools,
bewildered teachers tried very hard to explain to the parents that there was
nothing like that in their schools and refused to allow the parents take their
children, only for the parents to create scenes, thereby forcing the school
authorities to give in to the demands. Army’s medical outreach: Indeed, the 82
Division of the Nigerian Army with headquarters in Enugu had planned a medical
outreach for Anambra State that Wednesday at Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local
Government Area of the state. It had earlier conducted similar exercises in
other states in the zone without hitches.
In fact, the Army medical outreach
had formed part of its social responsibility and communities selected for it
had always considered themselves lucky, considering the fact that while people
from other communities would have to transport themselves to the venue, they
(the host community) would merely walk to the place and take vantage positions
before the arrival of people from neighbouring communities. This came as the
Deputy Director of Public Relations of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army,
Colonel Sagir Musa, explained that the medical outreach was part of the ongoing
Exercise Python Dance II.
The outreach South-East Voice
gathered that Ozubulu was chosen to rewrite the community’s recent ugly
experience in which unknown gunmen swooped into a Catholic Church in the area
and killed many worshippers during an early morning Mass. Besides, the venue
for the exercise, St. Michael’s Catholic Church, was centrally located and
close to a market to ensure that many people with various ailments could
utilise the opportunity to obtain free medical service provided by the Army. It
was not in a school compound. Also, before the exercise, there were elaborate
consultations with the local government authority and the traditional
institution in the area and approval was said to have been granted.
This could be seen in the large
number of canopies and seats set for the comfort of the beneficiaries. The
exercise was already underway when the bubble burst. A tale of two reactions
While many parents besieged the schools to pick up their children based on the
rumour of the alleged presence of people in military uniform injecting pupils,
the benefiting patients were busy receiving treatment from the medical
professionals at the venue of the exercise and unaware of the brouhaha going on
in most communities in the South-East. A parent, Mrs. Maria Okeke, whose two
children are in a public school at Nnewi, said she got the first call from
Nnobi in Idemili South Local Government Area to find out if the soldiers were
also in schools in the area. She said though the people she called did not
confirm seeing any soldier anywhere, she still joined other parents to pick her
children from their school.
Several other calls from parts of
the state and even from neighbouring states of Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu also
filled the airwaves with inquiries about the incident. Even when they were
assured that there were no soldiers anywhere, parents still rushed to the
various schools and there was chaos in the entire zone. Anambra govt steps in
Worried by the frightening level the rumour had taken, Anambra State Government
waded into the matter by urging the military to suspend the medical exercise
for the time being.
Despite appeals to parents not to
force school authorities to allow them pick their children, most parents
mounted pressure on school authorities until they had their way. By noon that
day, most schools in the zone were shut. Secretary to the Anambra State
Government, SSG, Professor Solo Chukwulobelu, had to appear in a live radio
programme to urge the people to ignore the rumour to no avail. The Army was
also put under pressure as its magnanimity was misconstrued, thereby forcing
its image maker, Col. Sagir Musa, to issue a statement to clarify the situation.
However, the exercise had to be called off and was yet to be resumed.
Reactions: But many parents said it
was shameful that they had to fall into such deceitful situation. Mrs. Grace
Ndianofo, a teacher at a primary school in Ihiala said it was unfortunate that
she ran for what she did not know about. She said: “It was as if everybody was
possessed. Once we heard that soldiers were going to schools to inject people,
we started running out of the school. Children were immediately asked to go home
even when there was no soldier in sight. We behaved foolishly, I must say.”
Foolish behaviour Mrs. Maureen
Chiadi, who dropped her four children in their school in Awka before travelling
to Nnewi for a workshop, said she ran away from the venue of the workshop and
was constantly calling the headmistress of her children’s school to know what
was happening until she arrived at the school at about 12.20p.m. and picked up
her children. She said she was among the last set of people to take their
children. Little Miss Njideka Nwafor, 9, said when many parents came to pick up
their children, she ran away from school since she was not used to anybody
coming to pick her as her parents were traders in the market and could not
leave their business to come and pick her from school. She, however, said she
did not know why they had to go before closing time.
No comments:
Post a Comment