Kidnapping: A New Scourge
The other day, the cousin of one of my dearest friends was kidnapped. The boy, a student of University of Jos, was kidnapped around Bauchi Road Jos. Luckily for my friend, her cousin escaped from the kidnappers hands by dint of luck. Today, in my area, as well as in most communities in Jos town, we don’t sleep at night. Gunshots every night because hoodlums are trying to break into homes to take away kids from their parents for ransom. My friend, Rev Dido, chaplain of the Plateau State Polytechnic, went to the gruesome experience of having his 10 year old child kidnapped by armed people who broke into his house in the night. The child returned to them after payment of ransom.
I am sure that the extravagant lifestyles of our elites in the face of crippling poverty in the country would come back to bite all of us one day. At some point in our recent history, kidnappings were a “Niger Delta thing” as militants agitated for resource control, but am afraid today we have “non-oil” kidnappings. It is now too common and sadly to frequent. The Nigerian elites – politicians, Top military, Police, Custom officers; bereaucrats etc – must get the message that they cannot continue in their ways and expect peace and safety. There is a lot of frustration, anger, bitterness and resentment in the land.
It is now a clear sign to the elites that when the blood relations of wealthy people are being kidnapped in exchange for ransom that we are no longer safe. You have a driver. You have a cook. You have a security guard. You have policemen guarding you. They are all human beings. They see things happening around them. They hear your phone conversations as you conduct your mindless transactions. They are hearing the mind-blowing figures. They see the movements of Ghana-Must-Go bags. In an attempt to ‘redistribute’ the loot, they will resort to kidnappings and demand ransoms. It is happening already. And it won’t stop soon (I dare say!). What with the classic case of super rich people like Evans and Wadume who made millions out of kidnapping! These is serving as a motivation for the growing army of jobless youths – educated or not.
Sadly, the anger in the land has made kidnapping so common that even the poor are being kidnapped as well.
I am only forewarning us on a disturbing development with the sole aim of gingering our leaders to act. Growing criminality is a product of our broken social system that deprives the majority of Nigerians the basics of life such as roads, water, healthcare, education, security and jobs. I am here fighting for social justice. I am warning the elites that they are not safe in their fortresses no matter how many police escorts they have.
As a philosopher said, all I am doing here is to hold up a mirror for the society to look at itself. Breaking the mirror — as many would do — would not change the picture. The inequality in Nigeria has been too much for too long. In a country where people lose their lives because they cannot afford drugs of N1,000, you have people buying private jets and flashy cars not from some hardwork but by feeding on the commonwealth. Our hospitals are rejecting poor patients because there is no bed space. Pupils are sitting on the floor to learn mathematics and English language in schools the governor or moinsiter cannot allow his children or relatives to attend. Such a society cannot escape doom. And no thanks to APC, Nigeria is now the poverty headquarters of the world.
What are our politicians thinking and doing as a way forward to this ugly menace? More policemen for them? More bullet-proof SUVs? More private jets? More Banana Islands? More signs of ‘military zone, keep off’?” I don’t know, but I have a hunch that more equitable management of resources could be of help. I suspect that more jobs, more housing, more medicine, more books, better roads, and better power supply would be of use. I suspect that less looting, less waste of resources would go some way. But if things continue the way they are, there is no doubt about it: one day, the long-suffering people of this country will react. They will rebel. I don’t know when, it might not even be in my life time, but they would rebel. And am not being a prophet of doom here.
The rebellion seems to be in full motion today as Nigerians groan under the pandemic of kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, internet fraud and all kinds of criminality. Worse still, the security system cannot protect either the rich or the poor. We should ask ourselves how we got here.
Sometimes back, I watched with amusement, as some members of the house of Reps took turns to lament the state of insecurity in the country. One speaker after the other complained that they can no longer travel to or sleep in their villages because of insecurity. They are overwhelmed by the army of criminals. However, they just cannot see a link between their greed — their obscene allowances, their extortion-driven oversight activities as well as the padded budgets — and the poverty and insecurity in the land. That is the problem with Nigerian politicians: they think Nigeria is like this by mistake. They think if we are able to deploy more troops, kidnapping will stop. If only it were that simple!
Let me say this yet again: the Nigerian ruling elite need to have a meeting, perhaps a “meeting of minds”, and agree to change their ways. We cannot continue to run a system of an overfed elite minority and a malnourished majority and expect to keep travelling to the village in glittering SUVs without consequences. How can a Governor or Senator have over 200 aides feeding on the scarce resources they have been entrusted to distribute and expect peace? No. It won’t work. We cannot run a system where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and expect peace. We have been living a lie for too long. Commonsense tells us that inequality comes with a price. We cannot sustain a system that ruins the lives of the majority of 200 million Nigerians and hope to sleep and snore at night.
A word is enough. Let us act now before it is too late
MiddleBelt Reporters 