I am just wondering why we would whisper about kidnappers instead of pouncing on them and checking their brains. I think there should be some police inquiry into our own cowardly brains.
A story was told some weeks ago of how someone travelling in a car through a town in Kogi State found himself stopped by some gang or the other. The gang was courteous to him. They told him not to panic; they were not armed robbers, just kidnappers. And they took him away. According to the story, his family and associates had to ransom him with the sum of N1m or so. You can best imagine if his family could not lay hands on that sum.
Three things immediately struck me in that story. The first is the scary fact that freedom is costly. Can you just put a price on your being able to do your most hateful activity (going to work), visit your favourite restaurant (for your favourite meal) and receive your visitors (even if they are your enemies) in perfect freedom? I cannot put a price on the freedom I have to beg, coax or cajole my car to start in the morning. Come to think of it, I have never really appreciated the freedom I have to take my pittance to the market to haggle, sweet-talk or even quarrel my way through the stall-keepers to get something, no matter how small, to feed the family with. And there I was, thinking that not having enough money to do all the things I want to do was the costliest thing on earth; I now know that not having the freedom to not do them can be costlier. Get my drift? Most especially, not having the freedom to ‘go’ (you know where) without someone’s permission or without being watched is unthinkable!
The second is the scarier fact that some people have now decided to build their own industry using your freedom and my freedom as their raw material. It’s a vexing trade. I ask you, what is this world coming to that someone cannot build his industry around iron ore, coal, crude oil, tar, granite, marble, soil, yams, beans, flour, cow bones, etc., but must go after my freedom? The individual must be sick, I tell you. My worry now is that the number of those individuals is increasing alarmingly because incidences of kidnapping seem to be spreading. When someone said that kidnapping is presently the fastest growing industry in Nigeria, I said, ehn, all the while, I thought it was politics.
I tell you; it’s getting now that kidnappers should be taxed if we cannot send them to Hades. I told you a story I heard the other day about a man who put down a hefty amount of money at a launching. Everyone wondered where the money came from, until someone whispered, don’t you know he’s a kidnapper? I heard (don’t mind me, I am always hearing things!) the other day that someone was filling out a form and when he came to the column listing occupations, he was miffed to find that his had not been listed. He then complained to the official who asked him what his profession was, making ready to include it on the form. When the complainant replied ‘armed robbery’ boasting that he was even ready to pay tax, the official referred him to his immediate boss. I think I would do the same thing, coward that I am.
Third is the scariest fact that the state (and I mean the police) is just looking on as these things are happenings, doing little. Honestly, I find this baffling. The other day, I heard a news report on the radio that recounted how some vigilant people in a neighbourhood had apprehended a would-be kidnapper in the act of taking someone. Triumphant, the group had led the culprit to the police station to report the matter. Rather than investigate, however, the police were said to have informed the crowd that the culprit was a mad man and should be let go, and he was let go. I ask you!
As a matter of course, how many kidnappers have really been arraigned even in the face of overwhelming evidence? Very few; most appear to have got away with their loot, and have obviously trained others. Now, there are cells upon cells of this… this… horrible trade everywhere, even in the villages. In some Kogi State villages now, I hear that people don’t sleep with both eyes open anymore; they have now taken to shouting ‘My children are not rich, my children are not rich, don’t kidnap me, no one will pay you’ to passers-by. The reason is that many people are said to have been picked up from their homes, not by security men (then you know they are at least secure), but by fellow citizens who prefer not to work, yet want to have loads of money by depriving others of their freedom.
I think that was the thought behind a warning said to have been issued by the NUT. I heard a news item on the radio in which a functionary of the NUT was said to have issued a warning cry that kidnappers should no longer kidnap teachers; they would not get any money. Reason? Teachers are already living in penury from unpaid salaries and emoluments. I think this followed the story of a teacher who was kidnapped as he travelled to Abuja. I heard say that he was let go though when the abductors realised they had taken a teacher.
When I heard that news item, I immediately asked, should anyone be kidnapped at all, whether teacher or student or lawyer or physician or president or unemployed? What in heaven’s name has one’s profession got to do with one’s kidnap value? As a matter of fact, I did not know that anyone had kidnap value. I have tried to calculate my kidnap value as a freelance writer, and it is sadly not much; I guess I won’t even be worth the loaf of bread they will need to feed me with. Imagine that! What is this world coming to, that I can’t even command a handsome ransom with all my words, words, words?
Speaking of professional value; there was a time when doctors were being spirited away in Edo State by the minute and we all thought they were being taken away to help robbers with some medical problems. When it persisted, I honestly began to suspect that someone really had it bad to study medicine but failing to do so, had settled for just gazing at them. What better way than to kidnap them? Now, it’s sad to know that all this while, them kidnappers were really after the doctors’ supremo gelatos.
My worry now is that, for some unknown reasons, the once peaceful Kogi State seems to have become hot news, not just in the matter of the electoral confusion caused by a candidate’s sudden death but more now in the matter of people building an industry out of kidnapping. First, there was a justice who was kept against his will for many days by kidnappers until he was ransomed. Then there was the story recounted above, and many more. Now, I hear that even petty traders eking out a living among the rustics are made to part with their hard earned money to ransom their family members from the holds of these get-rich-quicks.
I know, people are kidnapped in different parts of this country for various reasons including instant money (it is no more in fashion to just ‘use people for money’) or being sold to be trafficked across the world. Busloads of people are said to be diverted to dens used by others for satanic rituals. I am just wondering why we would whisper about kidnappers instead of pouncing on them and checking their brains. I think there should be some police inquiry into our own cowardly brains.
