DEEPENING THICK SKIN ON KIDNAP EPIDEMIC - By Pius Mordi

 

If there was an organisation keeping track of the ballooning count on kidnap in Nigeria, perhaps it would have dawned on the federal government that it has gone beyond the epidemic level. From targeting individuals, abducting families, groups, students and even whole villages have become a past time. Nobody, not government or security agencies, is alarmed any longer.

When the first reported mass kidnap of Chibok girls made global news, the shocked world apparently thought it was a one off or a happenstance. For the political class, the Chibok saga was an instrument for political chess game. The then opposition, saw it as a tool to undermine the Goodluck Jonathan administration with the hapless then President complaining that even the security agencies were sabotaging his administration efforts to arrest the crisis in Borno and rescue the Chibok girls. 

From the Borno theatre, virtually the entire northern part of the country is now plagued by not routine kidnap but mass abduction and forced march of entire villages to locations that remain mysteriously unknown to security agents. Kidnappers no longer bother to disguise their activities. In the case involving the abduction of the Emir of Gobir in Sokoto State, Isah Bawa, they were so audacious and emboldened that after killing the monarch three weeks after abducting him and having their demand for ransom that was reportedly in hundreds of millions of naira not paid promptly, they asked for N60 million before the emir’s body could be released to the family.

If the fear was that the Police is out-manned and out-maneuvered by kidnappers, the outcome of the recent abduction of 20 medical students of the Universities of Jos and Maiduguri rekindles hope that given the right motivation and tools, the Police can get the job done. Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, boasted that his men secured the release of the students without the payment of any ransome. What changed over the case of the medical students? Was it a question of the huge embarrassment that medical students were involved unlike the Chibok girls from a rural secondary school? Were special tools provided the security agencies for the operation to search and rescue the students? Whatever is the motivation and how the rescue was executed, it demonstrates that Nigerians may not be as vulnerable as has been made out by the numerous successful cases of mass abduction.

Over the past 10 years, farmers and economy watchers had warned that with the deepening insecurity, especially the regular deadly attacks and displacement of farmers, it would not be long before insecurity would precipitate a general food scarcity and inflation that will be difficult to contain. The predicted date is here with us.

What is suspect is the option chosen by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to curb the inevitable food inflation. His choice of opening the borders to grain imports may seen plausible on the short term. But if not backed up with a strategic plan to enable displaced farmers return to their farms with their safety assured, what is projected to be a temporary measure may continue to live with us.

The obvious indication that the federal government is not considering a long term strategy is in its failure to acknowledge the debilitating effect of the displacement of farming communities on food security or lack of it. If Egbetokun could reveal what he did differently in the case of the 20 medical students, it could be the template for resolving many unresolved kidnaps. Families that had to endure the nightmare of not getting reprieve from the security agencies and having to eventually pay ransome for the release of their loved ones tell harrowing stories of helplessness when they sought the intervention of the Police. 

It is an open secret that apart from the monthly salaries of officers men of the Police, state commands depend entirely on state governments for the acquisition of basic working tools. 

The state commands are not known to have modern technology-powered tools to combat crime. The major argument against adopting state Police is the well worn perception that governors may misuse the state officers against opposition figures. Despite the atrocious nature of politics in the country, Nigeria's security challenge is not the hide and seek game among politicians. The country is facing an existential challenge more than those posed by other factors. 

The frequency and enormity of the kidnap challenge is such that government tragically sees it as normal occurrences. Government officials are no longer shocked by even mass abductions. Whatever dubious use governors may deploy state Police operators, the judiciary still has a way of restoring sanity and stability in the polity. Not unchecked kidnap. Not even Police orderlies can save politicians who surround themselves with dozens of them. As the saying goes, crime is local and curbing it effectively will depend on the deployment of local personnel and strategies.