Wrath of a Nation: Redeeming Leah Shuaibu on Screen (Watch Trailer below)

Safiu Kehinde

It is six years down the lane since the kidnap of the Dapchi school girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group. The extremist sect led by the late Shekau grabbed international attention when they kidnapped 300 Chibok girls in 2015 before repeating the same feat on Dapchi girls three years after. While the Chibok girls kidnap propagated the #Bringbackourgirls campaign nationwide, the Dapchi girls pulled global attention all for one reason, Leah Shuaibu- a young lady who traded her freedom for her faith. Unlike the Chibok girls who spent several months as hostage, the Dapchi girls regained their freedoms couple of weeks after their adoption but with the exception of Leah whose fate no one knows up to this present moment.

However, D’ Theaterpreneurs decided to revive our hope on Leah through this thrilling movie titled “Wrath of a Nation”. Set in Borno State, Nigeria, the plot of the movie rallied around the lead character, Sarah- a young and ambitious female student whose dream was suddenly eclipsed by nightmare following a raid on her school by a group of dreaded bandits. Sarah was among the female students abducted during the raid and was ushered alongside her colleagues into the Usman Abubukar’s camp at the Buruntu forest. Usman, the leader of the armed group, held the girls hostage in his camp in an attempt to foster his demand from the state government.

In the long run, Usman fell in love with Sarah which compounded her challenges and made her quest for freedom a Herculean task in this action packed and suspense filled movie.

According to the movie Director, Lanre Kosoko, Wrath of a Nation, written by Ibrahim Nurudeen, depicts the insecurity challenge facing Nigeria as well as the vulnerability of the girl-child who often fall victim of this challenge.

“When I saw the script, I realized that it is talking about what is going on in our country. We need to show it out and make people know that this is the kind of thing we have to treat. We need to correct this insecurity challenge as a nation.” Kosoko said.

Similarly, the producer, Aladegbami Adeniyi, lauded that the movie speaks volume of the state of insecurity in the country, but also portrayed optimism on resolution of the crisis soon or later.

“The movie is a reflection of what is happening around us which is the agony of insecurity. It had been stage-acted at Lasustech’s 700 seaters auditorium. But we decided to put it on disc so that people that are very far from us can have access to watch and make comments about it.”

“We included how the abductors were later captured because I know that they will soon be apprehended. Everyday is for the thief, but one day is for the owner.” He said.

Meanwhile, the writer of the movie, Mr. Ibrahim Nurudeen, affirmed that movie was originally a stage play that has been performed thrice before the producer sought his permission to put it on screen.

“The Wrath of the Nation is based on true life story, that is Sarah. We’ve staged it thrice and Niyi (the producer), who was also in drama, saw the play and decided to turn it into movie. We staged it thrice at the 700 seaters auditorium.” Mr. Ibrahim said.

On the fate of Leah Shuaibu, Mr. Ibrahim admitted that her fate still remains uncertain as the last interview he learnt was granted by the girl’s father revealed that she already has three kids for Shekau’s Second-in-Command.

“On Leah, we can’t say. We can only pray for her. Everything we say about her are just speculations. The parents are still begging the Federal Government for her release. The last interview I had that her father granted about three months ago was that he learnt Leah has given birth to about three kids to the terrorist’s second-in-command who broke away from Shekau’s camp.” He added.

Watch trailer