WHEN the news of Chief Oluyemisi Falae’s abduction broke, a feeling of incredulity pervaded the land. But it took no time for the reality to hit us all as his abductors demanded N100m ransom, which his family could not raise – for obvious reasons.
As they dragged the elder statesman through bushes and creeks, threatening to kill him if the ransom would not be paid, the family regretted that they could raise only N2m. Then the abductors, in a strange exhibition of magnanimity, reduced the ransom to N90m.
President Muhammadu Buhari, just before he flew out to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, ordered the police to rescue Falae. As if that was all that was needed, from the blues, the old man showed up on the Owo-Ifon Road, got picked up by the police and hussled off to the Government House in Akure to be presented, like a big trophy, to Governor Segun Mimiko. Excited police chief Solomon Arase, his face wreathed in smiles, announced with hysterical glee, that his men had wrested the chief from his tormentors. No ransom was paid, we were told.
The former Finance minister and presidential candidate has spoken of his ordeal. “We all slept on leaves. Unfortunately, it rained in the night and I was drenched. One of them brought a small umbrella to cover my head, but the rest of my body was not,” Falae said.
He went on: “They offered me bread but I told them I could not eat it. I demanded for a bottle of Coke, which was what I drank everyday to have energy and to continue with the march because we were always moving.”
To Falae,77 – he was actually snatched away on his birthday – the ordeal he underwent should not be allowed to go on. “It is not because of me. I am a very humble person, but by virtue of what God has made me and the status He has given me, it is an insult to our race that a man like me could be abducted by a bunch of hoodlums,” he said.
But the abductors did not let go until they fired a warning. One of them told the old man: “Baba, if you leave us, you talk nonsense, I will come and catch you again.”
Falae was said to have been abducted by Fulani herdsmen who had been troubling him on his farm. When did Fulani herdsmen become abductors? Is that part of cattle rearing for which they are famous? Are these criminals truly Fulani herdsmen? Will they ever be arrested? Can the police see the security implication of this incident, which could turn innocent people into targets of hate actions? Will the Fulani community come up to clear their name?
If the victim said his family paid ransom, why are the police arguing that they rescued Falae without anybody shelling out some cash? Why couldn’t somebody just be honest and consistent? Now the police are going to investigate how the ransom was paid – through the bank? By hand? Who paid? Funny.
This is not the first time abductors, who are never caught, have got cash to free their captives. The victims and their families would keep quiet, perhaps because they have lost confidence in the ability of the police to protect them and are scared the abductors could return to grab them again. This fear is the oil that keeps the wheel of this odious crime turning. Why are abductors not usually caught and taught the lesson of their lives?
Before the Falae abduction shock could subside, the news of the Saudi Arabia calamity hit the airwaves, tearing through our hearts.
No fewer than 244 Nigerians have been declared missing in the stampede in which 64 are said to have died, trampled on by desperate fellow pilgrims struggling to stay alive or got suffocated. The Nigerian toll is part of the global 1,100. This is not the first time pilgrims have died at the hajj, but this year’s figure is the highest since the 1990 disaster that took 1,426 lives.
The Saudi authorities have launched a probe into the incident, the second in Mecca in less than two weeks. A crane collapsed on September 11 – what a date – killing 111 people and injuring 394. Nigeria lost some of its prominent citizens, including Justice of the Court of Appeal, Abdulkadir Jega, renowned Islamic scholar Prof Tijani Abubakar El- Miskin, foremost journalist Hajiya Bilikisu Yusuf, a traditional ruler, Alhaji Abbass Ibrahim (Panti Zing) and his two wives.
Niger State Accountant – General Alhaji Shehu Kontagora and a member of the state’s Assembly, Mr Faisal Musa, also died in the stampede.
The incident occurred as the pilgrims were performing the ritual of stoning the devil. This provoked some morbid jokes back home in Nigeria. One goes thus: “If Buhari would not release money for hajj, Nigerians should not worry. There are many devils waiting to be stoned here at home. Don’t ask me who they are. Barka de Sallah.”
Another tells of a man calling a member of his family who was on pilgrimage after learning that the Saudi authorities would pay the family of each victim N70m. When the pilgrim pick his call, he hissed and said: “So you are not dead? Yeye man; we have just lost N70m.”
It is worrisome that the Saudi authorities are yet to evolve a foolproof crowd control system. Iran, which is said to have the highest number of pilgrims, is angry. It insists that the Saudi authorities should take responsibility for the bloody show. An eyewitness spoke of people dying of thirst. Why was water not enough? Were the emergency services actually prepared? What measures were taken immediately to stop the disaster? Could there have been some laxity all because it is a privilege to die and be buried in the holy land?
As we mourned these compatriots of ours who died on their journey of faith, my mind went to Boko Haram, the evil sect that has been killing and maiming in the name of Islam, a religion it obviously abuses – to the consternation of the truly knowledgeable.
A new Boko Haram video has hit the social media. It shows a huge crowd of people worshipping on Sallah day and interviews of supposed leaders of the terrorist sect, glittering AK-47 rifles in their hands, boasting about their grip on the Sambisa Forest. Could that be real? Will such a huge crowd of insurgents gather anywhere within Nigeria and be safe? Were the Chibok girls part of the worshipping crowd? Are the military authorities aware of the video? Are they studying it?
These terrible events were enough to make us all sober. We were, in fact, hobbled and humbled by them. But, as they say, different strokes for different folks. As we nursed our wounds, a strange kind of protest broke out at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where students were up in arms against the authorities on Monday. Reason: there are bedbugs – yes, bedbugs – in the hostels. As from 3am, they shut the gates, stormed the homes of some principal officers and laid their mattresses on the road leading to the campus. And what a spectacle.
One of the students had been bitten by a bedbug while he was asleep. He screamed, as the story goes, and his colleagues felt they could no longer take that after they had reportedly complained to the authorities that their hostels needed to be fumigated. The bedbugs, said the students, had developed resistance to their commonly used insecticide, Sniper.
The students demanded that all their mattresses be replaced, the fittings removed and the hostels fumigated. All in seven days. But Deputy Registrar Olagoke Oke absolved the management from any blame, saying: “Are we supposed to be telling university students to wash their clothes and clean their rooms? The students need to take care of themselves, otherwise, no amount of fumigation would eradicate the bedbugs.”
This bedbug protest raised many questions. Is a bedbug bite strong enough to send a sleeping adult screaming? Is it more painful than a mosquito bite? If Sniper can’t keep the pesky pests in check, which insecticide can do the job? How about that for a research? Will UNILAG fund an academic giant’s intellectual probe of these matters of bedbugs, mosquitoes and old mattresses as their breeding grounds? Wouldn’t that be some groundbreaking exertion for a foremost centre of learning?
To many social scientists, the big bedbugs tearing away at the heart of our nation are security and economic challenges. As a corollary of these are unemployment, decaying infrastructure and corruption, which have made Nigeria, the black man’s hope, a mystifying paradox of a country.
We, however, have not lost it all. No. So, it is fitting and proper to wish ourselves a happy 55th independence anniversary. Cheers!
