The release of the kidnapped students and teacher from Oriire community in Oyo State is a welcome relief. However, their freedom does not mean life has returned to normal. Many kidnapping survivors become slaves to psychological trauma—fear, humiliation, violence, uncertainty, and helplessness. They must receive emergency, ongoing, and professionally coordinated psychotherapy upon returning home.
Immediate Psychosocial Support Needed
The emotional agonies suffered by many, especially following the wicked slaughter of a schoolteacher, are unimaginable. Many are careless about understanding trauma and its scars. What is now urgent is immediate therapy. Kidnapped students and teachers must receive long-term psychosocial support immediately after release. Survival does not end physical captivity; it begins mental captivity.
Common Trauma Symptoms
After trauma, survivors may feel afraid, anxious, depressed, ashamed, jumpy, have bad dreams, feel unable to trust others, shut down emotionally, or have trouble concentrating. They may experience repeated memories of violence and threats. Children can act out by being unusually quiet, aggressive, clingy, fearful of school, or unable to sleep. Teachers may feel guilty for failing to protect students or themselves, and may experience severe post-traumatic stress.
If teachers do not receive professional care, trauma wounds can fester, impairing students’ ability to learn, family life, social integration, and future wellbeing. Surviving kidnapping is traumatic; victims can experience nightmares, panic attacks, depression, anxiety, emotional numbness, constant fear, suspicion, insomnia, poor appetite, trouble concentrating, and flashbacks. Some relate experiences repeatedly; others avoid people, places, or activities that remind them of the event.
Risk of PTSD
If freed students and teachers experience these symptoms, they could have post-traumatic stress disorder and should not be dismissed as weak or overwhelmed. Religious support and family love can help but should not substitute for proper mental health treatment. Special attention should be paid to students. Children may not have the vocabulary to express feelings; they may suffer in silence or become aggressively violent. Others may wet the bed, become overly dependent, get poor grades, fear strangers, or refuse to return to school. Behaviour can change drastically. Dumping them into the classroom without psychological evaluation will exacerbate trauma. Their return to normalcy must be gradual and guided by trained professionals—psychologists, counsellors, social workers, and doctors.
Communal Therapy for Oriire
Kidnapping traumatises victims but also harms families, friends, classmates, colleagues, and neighbours whose lives are upended by fear and uncertainty. Community meetings, memorial services, thanksgiving celebrations, mental health education on security issues, and spaces for communal reflection can foster resilience. Released teachers deserve special attention. They may experience guilt for failing to keep students safe; anxiety about returning to work; fear of another attack; or uncertainty about careers. As parents and authority figures, they may struggle to ask for help or show emotions. Confidential counselling services and peer-support initiatives would help them work through their ordeal without stigma.
Comprehensive Health and Counselling
Trauma-informed health practitioners should conduct urgent examinations for injuries, infections, malnutrition, dehydration, and other ailments. Survivors need one-on-one counselling, group counselling, family counselling, and long-term mental-health support. Parents and families should be counselled on how to support survivors without pressuring them to talk, blaming them, subjecting them to media attention, or infantilising them. Ideally, the government should collaborate with school administrators, community leaders, religious groups, public health agencies, and civil-society groups to create a coherent rehabilitation programme. Survivors’ privacy and dignity must be respected; their names, photographs, and testimonies should not be traded for political points or clickbait headlines. Recovery takes time, safety, confidentiality, and trust.
Therapy as Integral Component of Rescue
Until the psychological needs of students and teachers are addressed, their freedom will be diminished. Therapy should not be seen as a privilege or a sign of weakness; it is an integral component of rescue, relief, and justice. The government and security forces’ job will not be done until survivors are physically healthy, emotionally informed, securely reintegrated into communities, and able to return to daily life without being haunted by what happened.
