While growing up, kidnappings for ransom were fairytales from sci-fi movies and thriller novels. Then, there were no inklings that those stories could be real considering the complexities, conjectures and cameo-like executions.
When what looked like mirage was introduced in northern Nigeria, the incipient assumption was that it was just a dot in a circle with no capacity to thrive. This postulate was given oxygen because the heinous crime came to Nigeria at a time when fintech had become the backbone of financial transactions. With bank as the major source of ransom payments, it was safe to conclude that the criminals would be traced real-time.
All the hitherto permutations that kidnapping was going to be ‘dead on arrival’ with positive collaborations between the security agencies and banks, have melted away like water off a duck’s back. Kidnapping appears to have become a legitimate trade as media space is no longer given to the menace.
Initially, community leaders and stakeholders proffered collaborations on tackling the upsurge. Various governments churned out fanciful laws but without the political will to implement them. The main preoccupation of politicians is what to or not to do to ensure electoral victory. This is entirely true in Nigeria where democracy and governance were given strange meanings.
In the last few years, the frequency of kidnapping in Ika increased, making crop farming a deadly venture. It has now reached a crescendo where people are kidnapped from their bathrooms, living rooms and kitchens effortlessly. There are reports that some kidnappers reached out to the children of hostages who domiciled overseas for ransom payments. There was a specific incident where a kidnapper audaciously mentioned names of some people surrounding the chief negotiator inside a room. He reportedly mentioned the names of their children and the foreign countries they were living.
In another gory incident, a hostage was told to specifically reach his son in the Middle-East to wire the required fund as he was aware that his(hostage’s) son recently got illicit money.
The two incidents above clearly brought to bear that kidnappers are now our nextdoor neighbours. We no longer have to be sanctimonious that herdsmen and adherents of other faith are the kidnappers. The long-held position that our tormentors are northerners does not wholly fit the narrative. The pinpoint incidents of kidnapping is worrisome. It seems to me that the armed northerners in our bushes and woodlands have become agents of our people if the narratives of hostages are given relevance.
It is therefore necessary for us to seek local solutions. The police and other conventional security apparatuses can no longer guarantee our security. The traditional rulers, village heads, community-based organizations and youths should be brought into the fray in a new resolve to protect us all.
The procedure to protect us should be open-ended and we must not be clever clogs. Technology and unorthodox skills should be employed. We should all be spy chiefs such that our collective safety ranks ahead of blood relationship. The vigilante groups should consists of men and women with some level of education as well as untainted moral values. People with criminal records should be far away from membership of local security outfits. With insinuations that some traditional rulers are benefitting from the activities of criminals, it will be needless to allow them to unilaterally constitute local security groups.
It will be foolhardy to retain the notion that there’s someone somewhere to protect us from these evil people. Our communities have become less communal with mixed migration. We need the data of everybody without much emphasis on ethnic profiling. In data collection, premium should be on residency rather than indigeneship. The solution lies with us. Let’s not fail ourselves.
#EOB
