Nigeria, March 26 -- On 7 March, we all woke up to the bewildering news that students of LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, and at least one of their teachers had been abducted in Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state. The figure was put at 287. About the same period, 16 students had been abducted in Tsangaya, Sokoto State. Still in Kaduna state, just about a week earlier bandits attacked the Gonin-Gora community, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis and abducted 16 residents. We are in a situation in Nigeria today, marked by creeping anarchy and full-blown impunity whereby abductions, banditry, and terrorism no longer constitute any special news. What confounds is the seeming helplessness of the Nigerian state an...