Tag: Kidnap

Temitope Oladipo Fayehun must be passing through hard times. A native of Ilesa in Osun State, Fayehun’s ordeal started on March 2, 2021, when he, alongside others in his vehicle, fell into the hands of some Fulani kidnappers along Osogbo-Ibokun-Ilesa Road in the state. While some of the passengers were killed and had their corpses dumped in the forest, others were immediately hauled into a thick forest. Fayehun fell into the latter group. But then, that marked the beginning of a journey that eventually lasted 16 days in the kidnappers’ den; as expected, under hellish conditions.

Hear Fayehun, in tears: “as part of the torture, the kidnappers used their boots to stamp on, and  mess my eyes up daily. They also sealed them with plasters. My left wrist was dislocated, with other most inhumane treatment that had better be left unsaid in the open. After my release, following the payment of N4 million ransom, I could neither see objects nor do anything without being aided; and this made my life a living hell. On the almost-severed wrist, I was advised to go for Plaster of Paris (POP) immobilization, to re-correct the fractured bone. I have yet to do it.

“I have sold all my property to regain my health, especially, my vision. The last diagnosis suggested that I must do urgent surgical operation on my left eye or risk losing my sight forever, which is never an option. In order to escape this damnation, I need urgent assistance from public-spirited Nigerians so that I can use my two eyes to see clearly again. The first surgical operation on the right eye was performed at the Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife in April 2022, at a cost of seven hundred and twenty thousand naira only (N720,000.00). It remains the left eye. But I am at my wits end. So, I pray Nigerians would come to my aid.”

Of a fact, Fayehun is not the only one in this unfortunate mess that has pathetically enveloped Nigeria, our dear Native Land. On Friday, September 29, 2023, no fewer than 25 choristers of the Christ Apostolic Church, Oke Igan, Akure, Ondo State, were reportedly attacked and kidnapped in the Ose Local Government Area of the state. Their abductors placed a N50 million ransom on them before they could smell freedom. On October 4, 2023, gunmen also kidnapped 5 female students of the Federal University, Dutsinma in Katsina State.

And the list goes on and on!

Well, like a furious cyclone, insecurity distracts. When a state fails in manifestation in terms of its stately attributes, insecurity becomes an addendum. It is like bread and butter: they go hand-in-hand. Take, for instance, when a thug discovers that he is beyond the reach of the security agents’ handcuffs, those who may wish to whip him into shape will only be labouring in vain. When this happens, one major adverse effect is the initiation of hitherto innocent guys. After all, in a lawless society, being a law-abiding citizen is a taboo.

With a specific reference to Nigeria, the plight of kidnap victims is given. Since they are always subjected to powerlessness, and are in powerless situations, everything horrible is possible, for the victims lack absolute control. The tragedy of our system is that society is becoming increasingly callous. Impliedly, our world is in trouble, should we fail to reconnect with humanity, for no matter how good or fantastic a policy or programme may be, if humanity is missing, then, we a’int seen nothing yet!

Martin Niemoller’s famous post-war quote, which begins with “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out …”, aptly captures the complicit nature and the uneven texture of our world. When the central issue of what to eat has taken over 90% of the society, society won’t have any excuse again. When everybody wakes up and the normal concern of food for the stomach takes pre-eminence, it becomes a social problem so serious even for those in leadership positions to comprehend. But, since  they have cold drinks to sip, they’ll simply go to their refrigerators to satisfy their thirst  while the gathering storm extends its phalanges to other untested areas; and this continues until there are deliberate government interventions.

An assessment of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will show clearly that, objectively, Nigerians are not one, because the issue was never addressed. Unfortunately, we are all gathered from one corner of the country only to live together without addressing what made us to gather. The image or focus changed; it’s the ‘Certificate of Clearance’, that ‘you have done your bit.’  That’s what has represented the entire scheme. Unconfirmed reports even have it that many corps members get their certificates of participation without physically partaking of the mandatory programme as required by the Act establishing NYSC. Arguably therefore, if a prospective female corps member is going to sleep with a man to get her that certificate, she will just do it. If her male counterpart is going to pay, using his ‘chop money’ to get it, he won’t hesitate to do it. Many reportedly get their certificates from the Orientation Camps without getting to their places of primary assignment. In fact, school is the best: without going to the Orientation Camp, and without knowing anything about its drills, thrills and frills, one just comes at the end of the service year to collect one’s certificate and go away. This has been the trend, year in, year out.

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, “peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at the goal.”  Regrettably, while the scheme gulps billions of naira each year, nobody has come open with regard to the measure of its achievements beyond the usual rhetoric of ‘I served’, ‘you served’, and ‘we served’; nothing beyond the debatable socialization and inter-ethnic marriages. In other words, what the Scheme has done to genuinely address the critical issues surrounding our Nigerianness remains to be seen. For God’s sake, who says Nkechi cannot come from Anambra and meet her destined heartthrob in Bukkuyum without the infusion of NYSC? Surely certainly, until these issues are addressed, the good Lord, we pray: ‘save us from a point of no return!’

Niemoller was right: things don’t just happen; they must be addressed. To simply sit down and begin to think that all things will suddenly become bright and beautiful can only amount to jokes taken too far. The more reason Nigerians don’t have strong support for, or belief in government policies. They don’t have reference points or examples of policies that work to fall back on. Many other instances have followed but the results have been similar: creeping frustration and helplessness. What we are saying is that, with the situation on ground, security is no longer seen as a responsibility of the government, not because it is not but because it has not been objectively tackled; and people are getting used to it. So, once you allow yourself to be kidnapped, you are on your own. It is as simple as that!

Read Also: We’ve ample evidence against Naira Marley, Sammy Larry over Mohbad’s death – Police

When former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s family was attacked, it didn’t take much time for Nigeria’s entire security apparatchik to respond with the fierceness and the swiftness that the situation demanded. But for the deadly attack on the then Nigeria’s First Daughter’s convoy, nobody would have known that there was a cross-border robbery kingpin called Hamani Tidjani. But who will do that on behalf of a poor man? So, every citizen must come up with his or her own security measures, or anything that works, whether it is Ogedengbe Agbogungboro that one will need to wake up from his eternal sleep, or conjure the spirit of Moremi Ajasoro to come to one’s rescue. Depending on where one’s faith lies, something needs to be done to watch over one’s household.  It is now that bad!

The brightness and the future of communal togetherness expressed is given meaning and intelligibility that government policies are analysed, vis-à-vis, the benefits of the people. Since those benefits are meant to address the plights of the people, when one juxtaposes the benefits with the policy content, one will know how far the government has gone to provide governance to the people. Without doubt, the Nigerian evil, where it came from, was the ignorant elite who foolishly pushed for modern ways of life without the people’s local, inner and moral strengths. They are the driving force of a stable society. For instance, once there is instability in communal living, it spreads like a virus, limited only by the distance covered by the people or the interactions they have all over the world. When selfishness begins in a community, it takes over the country in a jiffy. So, it’s no longer an Ijebuman who lost money. It’s now a general saying for all the tribes. That’s why one can say: for Ijebu-Jesa, it is double per Diem!

Callousness in society chiefly comes from the responses of the government to public issues as they affect individuals and the collective. Take, for example, in 1980, there was Ogunpa flooding. It was a terrible tragedy, with millions of naira worth of goods damaged and/or carted away. Lives were lost. Expectedly, government’s response was swift, but only in terms of jingles and advertorials; not that foodstuffs were given to the people; no clothing and no physical interventions as in what would touch the people. Instead, eloquent words were in excess of expectations – that government would see to the sufferings of the people. The late Bola Ige, who was the governor of the old Oyo State at the time, was on hand to mitigate the perceived energy of the enemy, notably Richard Akinjide and Adisa Akinloye, who were not only indigenes of the ancient city but also rubbing and defending the ego of Shehu Shagari, the then president of Nigeria. To the victims, nothing came; unfortunately, so!

Somewhere along the line, something important happened, but not in the public glare. The Federal Government intervened with N30 million; and the money was shared. Friends and colleagues watched as government workers of specific calibre started building houses; and they were careless with their mouths. As fate would have it, the masses documented what Ogunpa took away from them, but it was just an exercise in futility. When money came, which took several months due to shape and size of Nigeria’s bureaucratic palaver, the people had moved on, obviously without any assistance from anybody. But their children in the government service saw what happened and news went round. As at that time, Ige was no longer in government. People saw all those anomalies but there was no way they could push their aggression other than to bottle up the resentment they had for the government and government policies; and it’s freely discussed among the people. But that’s where it ended. After all, there’s no sympathy for government money, more so as it belongs to no one. Sad therefore that the leadership has shown sufficient callousness that nobody pitied them again. That policy has been what’s responsible for the depravity in the system, which makes nobody to care. It is interesting to note that it subsists till date, because nobody has attempted to address it.

Look at the parents of the Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu who are still languishing in the terrorists’ enclave. Talking seriously, that is sufficient enough to take their faith away from them because, if one has a God that cannot actually save one while one is here, it is useless believing in the afterlife. If one calls on God while one is on earth, and, indeed, He heard but cannot save one, then it is as if one doesn’t have a Saviour! With this sad expression staring us in the face, isn’t it time our religious leaders called on God again – if, truly, they know how to call on Him – to come down and rescue those who trust in Him? Isn’t it time we beheld His real power, because, for those who truly believe in Him, at no time is His power limited?

Tragically, those who are leading us on the religious path in Nigeria are unperturbed. Pastor Adejare Adeboye is fine; Pastor W.F. Kumuyi is fantastic while Bishop David Oyedepo keeps acquiring jets as if he’s buying motorcycles. Former President Muhammadu Buhari also rode to Aso Rock on the promise of recovering the Chibok girls. PMB has done his 8 years and gone back to Daura, leaving the girls at the mercy of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists. Yet, nobody remembers poor Leah who is wasting away in the forest for knowing the God she served, or her parents who continue to wonder their fate. Still, our spiritual fathers continue to use this same God to make money! And we ask: isn’t ours a terrible tragedy?

May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!