What is happening in the country today beggars belief. Nigeria is under siege. It is besieged left, right and centre. Banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, robbery, looting, raping and other forms of criminality have become the order of the day.
Kidnapping, especially, has become an industry – it is booming and thriving – and those involved have become so daring that they no longer wait on the road to strike, but go to people’s homes to seize them, take them into captivity and wait for the payment of ransom before releasing them.
We are battered, beaten and bruised as a nation. Life no longer has meaning. People move around in fear, living on a daily basis with their hearts in their mouths because they do not know who the next victim is. We are all potential victims.
Nobody is sure of the other person. Even family members do not trust one another again. You trust your brother or sister at your own peril. People now prefer to keep to themselves because that brother or sister might have negotiated away your life with kidnappers and only waiting for the right time to tell them to strike.
The bedrock of our society is the family. This unit is fast giving way because of the insecurity which has allowed kidnapping to become a huge business. No country is totally free of crimes. But the difference between what happens elsewhere and here is that there are deterrents which make criminals think twice before striking.
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A criminal who knows that his chances of being caught are high would never go into the world of crime. Painfully, we are in a season in which crime pays. Where violence and other related acts bring in so much money, with the perpetrators living big to the chagrin of their compatriots.
In the circumstance, the citizenry face the brunt. They are left to their own devices. In most cases, those who unfortunately fall kidnap victims are left to devise ways of freeing themselves. What this means is that they have to cough out a huge sum as ransom. They buy their freedom or that of their loved ones at a huge price to avoid being killed. Yet, the government is telling them not to pay ransom!
What then is the way out for the victims if they do not pay ransom? Wait until they are killed before their traumatised families will know that the kidnappers mean business. We all know about the Al-Kadriyar family story. They lost a daughter when they did not quickly respond to the kidnappers’ demand for ransom. Yes, it is wrong to pay ransom, but what can a family whose loved one (s) is (are ) in captivity do? We can sermonise when we are not embattled, but he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.
What is the government doing to secure the people or to make kidnapping bad business? It is good to talk about the illegality of ransom payment, but it is better to tackle first the illegality of kidnapping itself before blaming ransom payers. Kidnapping is a crime, but it does not seem so now, with the way the unlawful act is being carried out brazenly.
Kidnappers have turned the land into hell. Why the rise in this unlawful act? I have been pondering over this poser in recent times. But I have not been able to lay a finger on why kidnapping has become this lucrative. Kidnapping! I shudder at the thought and how it has become a huge enterprise under our democratic dispensation.
Surely, this gbomogbomo business did not start today. It began long ago when
kids were the targets. Those days, we were warned against picking what we found on the ground, especially coins, which it was believed were used as bait. Kidnapping has now gone nuclear, so to say. The targets are no longer kids, but the rich. Once in a while too, kids are still kidnapped.
Kidnapping has gotten out of hand. The kidnapping and killing of two Ekiti monarchs and the abduction of some school children from the state have more than brought home the menace staring us in the face. Things cannot continue like this. If kidnappers can kill monarchs, then there is nothing they won’t do to have their way.
No matter what it takes, those pupils who were snatched from their school bus which windows were shattered by bullets must be freed from the kidnappers’ grips to show them how serious we are about stopping kidnapping.
End-time devotees
Many will be shocked by the revelation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, that two religious organisations have been linked with crimes. One, he said, was linked to N7 billion in the course of investigating a N13 billion fraud. The other, he said, laundered money for terrorists. He spoke at a one-day dialogue on “Youth, religion, and the fight against corruption” in Abuja yesterday.
Apparently to avoid the shame of its involvement in an illicit activity, one of the suspected organisations has obtained an interim order stopping the EFCC from inviting its leaders. Igba wo ni maku, oni ku. It is just a matter of time, the organisation will be known. It has made exposing it easier by going to court.
By the time the facts are out, the injunction will be lifted and the wind will blow and the world shall see the anus of the chicken.
At a time like this when terrorists are wreaking havoc everywhere, especially in worship places, should any religious body be seen associating with them? Perhaps, the end-time has come. If not, religious bodies will not be caught in the company of fraudsters and terrorists. What a shame.
