The Increasing Rate of Kidnapping in the North

Kidnapping has become a source of livelihood for some in recent times. Victims are held hostage until a ransom is paid.

The precision with which they operate seems to have handicapped security operatives in handling the situation. In the North, kidnapping is fast becoming a tool for oppression of innocent citizens.

Schools are a major target

Last December, over 300 school boys were kidnapped by bandits from Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State.

On the day of the incident, President Muhammadu Buhari was on a visit to his home town in Daura, also in Katsina. After some days, the bandits released the school boys. However, whether a ransom was paid or not remains unconfirmed.

N800million for terrorists and bandits, but @MBuhari can’t fund education such that ASUU had to go on strike for 9 months! #occupyNigeria #BuhariMustGo #Revolutionnow

— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) February 20, 2021

It will be recalled that some years back, hundreds of school girls were kidnapped at Chibok in Borno State and Dapchi in Yobe State. While some of regained their freedom, others remain in captivity and their fate is unknown.

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Recently, some students and staff of Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State, were abducted by suspected bandits. This is yet another case of kidnapping in the north and there is no end in sight.

School students were kidnapped in Kagara, Niger State today, one of them was even killed but most of us are not even moved.

This is the Nigeria Buhari has given us.

A nation characterized by insecurity and indifference!

— Rinu #EndSARS🔥🔫 (@SavvyRinu) February 17, 2021

Lai Mohammed speaks

In his statement on the increasing rate of kidnapping in the north, the Minister for Information and Communication, Lai Mohammed, said that kidnapping is not a peculiar crime to Nigeria.

Also, he noted that other developed countries of the world experience school kidnapping including the United States.

Furthermore, he said that the government would not pay ransom while seeking the release of the abducted staff and students of Government Science College in Kangara. In his words;

‘’The thing about terrorism is that the terrorists don’t live by your own rules. They are especially interested in soft targets. They know what is going to get global attention is kidnapping school children. We must be careful. We can’t turn all our schools into barracks. What is important is intelligence gathering, surveillance rather than the physical presence of soldiers or policemen.’’

Is there an end in sight?

The Minister for Defence, Bashir Magashi, while speaking on the Kagara kidnappings, advised Nigerians to defend themselves. He reiterated that the attack on communities keeps increasing because Nigerians are scared to defend themselves.

Magashi said that it is not the job of the military alone to protect the people. Everyone needs to be alert. He encouraged the people not to act like cowards. However, he stated that it is the duty of the security operatives to protect people and ensure that no one is hurt.

Bandits: Defend yourselves, minister tells Nigerians pic.twitter.com/e0LU0Ini7K

— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) February 17, 2021

A case for bandits

Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, made a statement that supports the atrocities committed by the bandits. According to Gumi, the aim of the bandits is not to kill people. But they do when they want to avenge the death of one of their own.

He also said that whenever they kill, it is accidental and when the pressure is too much, they can be influenced by the Boko Haram sect operating in the North East.

He continued;

‘’When they kill, it is mostly accidental. Maybe somebody they took who is sick. But tell me who they have killed? How many? Few. That killing is not because of criminality but for ethnic revenge. And they don’t attack a village except that village did something to one of them. They are kidnapping to get money. Look at the case where they released a bus full of people, they were asking for N500 million. But now, they freed them with mere negotiations for free. Nothing was paid.’’

The statements by Lai Mohammed, Bashir Magashi, and Ahmad Gumi show that kidnapping will continue to be a thread for discussion for a while yet.

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The government must wake up to its duty to protect citizens. In a nation riled with tension fuelled by ethnic differences, advising the citizens to defend themselves could be counter-productive. It may well lead to unending clashes that will hamper the peace of the land.

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A voice of reason

The legendary Wole Soyinka does not mince his words in an interview with The Guardian. Professor Soyinka believes that “We are trivialising kidnapping and it will just become fashionable, acceptable”.

The Nobel Laureate said:

“This is a common cheap specimen of sub-humanity and yet they are glorified. Shekau dances in front of cameras around saying, we have your children, what are you going to do about it? We are going to sell them into slavery. Such people need to be exterminated. And if we cannot exterminate them immediately, the society must rise in repudiation, inactive repudiation of one form or another.

We just cannot sit down helpless each time, especially shouting at the centre, which no longer exists to come to the rescue”.

On Ahmad Gumi, Soyinka commends any action that involves personal risk. However, he questions the approach and terms it problematic. He opines that it rather looks like Gumi is there to plead the case of the violators and not the violated.

Therefore Soyinka advises Gumi to “get both his approach and language right, so that he doesn’t present himself as being an accomplice to the very phenomenon of kidnapping”.