It is amusing watching government spokesmen discomfit the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with allegations that it is playing politics with the blood of gallant Nigerian soldiers who fell to the firepower of Boko Haram insurgents during their recent raid at Metele village in Borno State.
A choice characterisation was to say they were ‘dancing on the graves’ of the unfortunate soldiers. How exactly did the PDP do this? By criticising the administration’s management of the long-drawn war against the insurgents in the Northeast.
In 2014 when roles were reversed and the Goodluck Jonathan administration was battling unsuccessfully to contain the Boko Haram hordes, it was the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) chiefs who used to excoriate the government as ‘clueless.’
Its candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired army general was pumped up as the tough guy with the know-how to bring the sect to heel. Back then, presidential spokesmen would make the same condescending noises about not politicising everything – especially national tragedies.
In the end, insecurity became one of the key issues that undermined Jonathan in the North and cemented his profiling as weak and incompetent.
Four years down the line, Buhari has grappled with the Boko Haram challenge with a measure of success. The group’s so-called caliphate with headquarters in Gwoza is now history, while all the local governments it once controlled have since been liberated.
That said, the sect as it showed with its recent deadly sortie in Metele, is still capable of launching devastating attacks against lonely outposts. Its alliance with Islamic State (IS) ensures that it can access finance, weapons and training to continue its reign of terror.
This reality has caused untold embarrassment to the government whose leading lights have been in a hurry to declare the insurgents ‘technically defeated.’ They didn’t learn any lessons from the experience of former US President George W. Bush who, famously, prematurely declared victory in the post-Iraq war conflict in 2003.
Barely weeks after posing triumphantly on an aircraft carrier with a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner as backdrop, guerrilla warfare intensified – totally demolishing any notion that the Americans had successfully pacified the country.
Buhari and the APC may not have knocked out Boko Haram, but the most uncharitable of persons cannot deny that the Islamists – even with IS support – are not the force they were three or four years ago.
Back in 2015 all talk about insecurity revolved round the activities of the terrorists in the Northeast. Violent crimes of other types had not reached a crisis as to become critical in determining the outcome of the elections.
Two months to the next elections, insecurity remains firmly on the national agenda. Indeed, the security challenges have metastasized. While Boko Haram may be down, banditry and cattle rustling have been on the up in places like Zamfara where even leading members of the traditional leadership institution are being suspected of being in league with the criminals.
Until a few months ago, killings by herdsmen left scores of Nigerian villages desolate as the rampaging pastoralists vented their anger over lost cattle or denial of access for indiscriminate grazing. One of the most gripping images of this year remains the scenes of bereaved women weeping uncontrollably at the mass burials for victims of the killings in Benue.
After a series of missteps, the government seems to have come to grips with the problems by taking drastic steps such that killer herdsmen have since been displaced from newspaper front pages. Similarly, the bandits who forced Zamfara Governor Abdulaziz Yari to throw in the towel as chief security officer of the state, have suddenly become quiescent.
Even the Niger Delta which was troubled in the early days of the administration, has been pleasantly still. It has been ages since faceless bombers attacked isolated pipelines or crude oil production platforms. All the militants ‘generals’ with flamboyant nom de guerre have gone deathly silent.
But whatever successes the administration might claim on these other fronts is greatly undermined by the uncontrollable spread of kidnapping across the country. Whatever it has done to tamp down banditry in Zamfara and rein in killer herders, has not had any effect in discouraging abductors.
A few years ago I described this crime as Nigeria’s latest growth industry. That description is still very apt today. We are all witnesses to the gripping testimonies of witnesses at the ongoing trial of alleged billionaire kidnapper Evans.
Everyday there is a harrowing story by some victim. A few days ago, a House of Assembly candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Nasarawa State, David Ayele, was snatched as he left his home in Lafia. He was rescued in Pandam, Qua’an Pan Local Government of Plateau State after paying a ransom of N2 million to regain his freedom.
On Thursday, a Lagos High Court, sentenced a man who abducted the sister of the Managing Director of Emzor Pharmaceuticals, to 15 years imprisonment.
In the last two weeks there have been unending tales of people kidnapped while travelling between towns in Ekiti and Ondo States. Some of the victims even paid the ransom demanded by their abductors who still went ahead to kill them.
Nobody is safe. The pioneer kidnappers targeted foreign oil workers as part of the Niger Delta struggle. But when the expatriates fled, the militants started targeting the wealthy in their midst.
Today, it is not only the reasonably affluent that should worry. Kidnappers target even the poor: anyone that has a family that is sufficiently concerned about their welfare is fair game. A while back, former Kaduna State Governor, Balarabe Musa, raised the alarm about poor almajiris being seized from isolated farms and held for ransom as low as N3, 000!
Some of these accounts may seem like distant, impersonal – almost fictional tales. That is until it happens to you. In March this year, my family became victims of kidnappers. My younger brother, who is a pastor, was travelling with his wife to Abuja for a church event.
On the outskirts of Abuja, at a point called Kwaita Junction, gunmen suddenly opened fire on cars travelling on the road. Vehicles screeched to a halt and frightened occupants fled into the bushes – into the welcoming hands of kidnappers.
That was to be the beginning of four of the most harrowing days of my life. I contacted a very senior Police officer who is very knowledgeable about the activities of the kidnappers who operate in the axis between Abuja and Kaduna.
I equally reached another senior officer in the State Security Service (SSS) who assured me they were tracking the kidnappers and would soon catch up with them. Somehow his words rang hollow.
In my discussion with the police officer I was struck by the seeming helplessness of law enforcement confronted by a criminal activity that has reached epidemic proportions. He told me frankly that they always advise the families to negotiate first and secure the release of their loved ones while the police then chase after the abductors.
We followed his counsel and paid a ransom. Luckily for us, the story had a good ending as my brother and his wife, along with another woman who was abducted with them, were freed on the evening of the fourth day – after difficult and dramatic negotiations with erratic gunmen.
My brother told me that while they were being marched through the forest at night after being captured, the gunmen grumbled bitterly about their conditions – with some saying if they had a job that paid as low as N25, 000 they would prefer it to roaming around in the bush like animals.
I have never accepted poverty as an excuse for criminality. Millions of our people live below the poverty line yet they have not succumbed to a life of crime. That said, there are the weaker elements for whom economic pressures would always become a trigger to veer off the straight and narrow path.
It is no surprise, therefore, that we are witnessing this upsurge in kidnapping coinciding with the recession of the past three years. The abductions are not tied to any religious or political ends: they are simply business transactions.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, this is one very attractive business where for very little outlay you reap a mindboggling return on investment. Those who snatched my brother started negotiations at N15 million but they got nowhere near that. In some other cases, the pay-out can be truly bountiful.
For as long as the economy continues to struggle, we will have a problem with abductions for ransom. Even if Nigeria becomes an economic Eldorado, greed would still make kidnapping an attractive proposition because of the returns. We don’t have enough policemen in Nigeria to combat freelance kidnappers now operating at will North, South, East and West – or those they are likely to spawn.
Ever since the campaigns I have been waiting for the major parties to make statements recognising the gravity of the situation and offer policy suggestions on a matter that is affecting all categories of Nigerians – rich or poor, child or adult.
Hopefully, we can start a serious discussion on the changing face of insecurity in today’s Nigeria. The focus of the campaigns thus far is indicative of how out-of-touch some of those canvassing votes are concerning the issues that truly matter to the average person.