She was just another citizen minding her own business until Nigeria, as they say, ‘happened’ to her. When people say Nigeria ‘don happen to you’, they are saying in effect that, that person has become victim of a system that does not work. Indeed, every sector is in dire straits.
Is it the economy? Is it oil and gas? Is it banking? Is it labour, that is talking in terms of employment? Is it manufacturing? Is it security? Ah! Now, that is the real problem. With everything revolving around security, successive administrations’ inability to tame the tiger of insecurity is compounding the nation’s woes. The land is ailing today because of insecurity.
Nobody prays that Nigeria ‘happens’ to them or even their enemies, but when it does, it is the nation and not the victims and their families alone that suffers. We all bear the brunt. This is what is happening today with the unfortunate Nabeeha Al- Kadriyar incident. Nabeeha came to national consciousness after she was killed by her abductors over ransom payment. She was kidnapped with her five sisters and their father on January 3.
The new year had just dawned when they were abducted from their home around the notorious Abuja-Kaduna Road. The road has become a commuter’s nightmare. Whether in the day or at night, the road is unsafe yet there are checkpoints on the highway manned by a combined team of military and policemen. How these abductors operate under the nose of the security men and escape is inexplicable. What is the use of those checkpoints if they cannot come to the aid of residents and commuters when in distress?
Six girls and their dad falling into their hands in one fell swoop, the abductors would have thanked their stars and done a quick arithmetic of what they will
get. Without wasting time, they released the girls’ father, Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, to go and look for a N60 million ransom. Meaning that they are demanding N10 million for each girl. Sixty million naira is not N6 or N60 or N600 or N6000. It is not chicken feed. The ransom is not an amount that Al-Kadriyar could have gone home to pick up and return to the kidnappers to get his girls back.
He needed time, ample time at that, to get the ransom. But, the blockheads, the animals in human skin that the kidnappers are, were not ready ro give the man a chance to save his daughters. They killed Nabeeha on Friday in what to them was a ‘warning signal’ that they meant business. It was a show of cruelty and callousness. That was no bravery, it was bestiality at its height. Why did they kill the girl? Has her death produced money? The kidnappers must have been high on some drugs to carry out that dastardly act.
The kidnappers might have killed Nabeeha in cold blood to instill fear in her family and the nation. Their callous act is meant to ginger us all into action in getting the ransom over to them pronto! This is a monumental tragedy. By wilfully killing Nabeeha, they were telling the nation to take them serious to avert the killing of her sisters. With the five girls still with them, they hold the four aces. Ransom paying, security experts say, is not the best way to tackle kidnapping. I agree.
But in this instant case, will the girls’ lives not be in jeopardy, if the rule is followed? What matters most now is to ensure the release of the remaining girls, any other consideration can wait until they have safely returned home. For now, nothing should be done to aggravate the agony of the Al-Kadriyars. They have lost a child and five others are within a hair’s breath of death as they are still with the abductors. Rescuing the girls is not going to be a tea party.
It will be a commando-like operation which must be well planned and executed. Time may be too short for such a precision operation. For now, the only option for the immediate release of the girls is the payment of the ransom which the kidnappers have jacked up to N100 million. It is not their fault. We are in this bind today because of the failure of our systems. It is a shame that criminals now rule the roost.
This is the price the nation must pay for unabashedly abandoning its responsibilities to the citizenry. The Al-Kadriyars have lost a child, they must not lose another one for whatever reason. The state must do whatever it takes to rescue the remaining girls from captivity. This is the only way to soothe the family’s pain of losing a promising child.
