By ABIODUN KOMOLAFE
TEMITOPE Oladipo Fayehun must be pass-
ing through hard times. A native of Ilesa
in Osun State, Fayehun’s ordeal started on
March 2, 2021, when he, alongside others in
his vehicle, fell into the hands of some Fulani
kidnappers along Osogbo-Ibokun-Ilesa Road
in the state. While some of the passengers
were killed and had their corpses dumped in
the forest, others were immediately hauled
into a thick forest. Fayehun fell into the latter
group. But then, that marked the beginning
of a journey that eventually lasted 16 days in
the kidnappers’ den; as expected, under hell-
ish conditions.
Hear Fayehun, in tears: “as part of the
torture, the kidnappers used their boots to
stamp on, and mess my eyes up daily. They
also sealed them with plasters. My left wrist
was dislocated, with other most inhumane
treatment that had better be left unsaid in
the open. After my release, following the pay-
ment of N4 million ransom, I could neither
see objects nor do anything without being
aided; and this made my life a living hell. On
the almost-severed wrist, I was advised to go
for Plaster of Paris (POP) immobilization, to
re-correct the fractured bone. I have yet to do
it.
“I have sold all my property to regain my
health, especially my vision. The last diagno-
sis suggested that I must do an urgent sur-
gical operation on my left eye or risk losing
my sight forever, which is never an option.
In order to escape this damnation, I need
urgent assistance from public-spirited Ni-
gerians so that I can use my two eyes to see
clearly again. The first surgical operation on
the right eye was performed at the Obafemi
Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife in April
2022, at a cost of seven hundred and twenty
thousand naira only (N720,000.00). It re-
mains the left eye. But I am at my wits end.
So, I pray Nigerians would come to my aid.”
Of a fact, Fayehun is not the only one in
this unfortunate mess that has pathetically
enveloped Nigeria, our dear Native Land. On
Friday, September 29, 2023, no fewer than
25 choristers of the Christ Apostolic Church,
Oke Igan, Akure, Ondo State, were report- edly attacked and kidnapped in the Ose Local
Government Area of the state. Their abductors placed a N50 million ransom on them
before they could smell freedom. On October
4, 2023, gunmen also kidnapped 5 female
students of the Federal University, Dutsinma
in Katsina State.
And the list goes on and on!
Well, like a furious cyclone, insecurity dis-
tracts. When a state fails in manifestation in
terms of its stately attributes, insecurity be-
comes an addendum. It is like bread and but-
ter: they go hand-in-hand. Take, for instance,
when a thug discovers that he is beyond the
reach of the security agents’ handcuffs, those
who may wish to whip him into shape will
only be labouring in vain. When this hap-
pens, one major adverse effect is the initia- tion of hitherto innocent guys. After all, in a
lawless society, being a law-abiding citizen is
a taboo.
With a specific reference to Nigeria, the
plight of kidnap victims is given. Since they
are always subjected to powerlessness, and
are in powerless situations, everything ter-
rible is possible, for the victims lack absolute
control. The tragedy of our system is that
society is becoming increasingly callous. Im-
pliedly, our world is in trouble, should we fail
to reconnect with humanity, for no matter
how good or fantastic a policy or programme
may be, if humanity is missing, then, we a’int
seen nothing yet!
Martin Niemoller’s famous post-war quote,
which begins with “First they came for the so- cialists and I did not speak out …” aptly cap-
tures the complex nature and the uneven tex-
ture of our world. When the central issue of
what to eat has taken over 90% of the society,
society won’t have any excuse again. When
everybody wakes up and the normal concern
of food for the stomach takes pre-eminence,
it becomes a social problem so serious even
for those in leadership positions to compre- hend. But, since they have cold drinks to
sip, they’ll simply go to their refrigerators to
satisfy their thirst while the gathering storm
extends its phalanges to other untested areas;
and this continues until there are deliberate
government interventions.
An assessment of the National Youth Ser-
vice Corps (NYSC) will show clearly that, ob- jectively, Nigerians are not one, because the
issue was never addressed. Unfortunately, we
are all gathered from one corner of the country only to live together without addressing
what made us to gather. The image or focus
changed; it’s the ‘Certificate of Clearance’,
that ‘you have done your bit.’ That’s what
has represented the entire scheme. Uncon-
firmed reports even have it that many corps
members get their certificates of participa-
tion without physically partaking of the man-
datory programme as required by the Act
establishing NYSC. Arguably therefore, if a
prospective female corps member is going to
sleep with a man to get her that certificate,
she will just do it. If her male counterpart is
going to pay, using his ‘chop money’ to get it,
he won’t hesitate to do it. Many reportedly get
their certificates from the Orientation Camps
without getting to their places of primary as-
signment. In fact, school is the best: without
going to the Orientation Camp, and without
knowing anything about its drills, thrills and
frills, one just comes at the end of the service
year to collect one’s certificate and go away.
This has been the trend, year in, year out.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
“peace is not merely a distant goal that we
seek, but a means by which we arrive at
the goal.” Regrettably, while the scheme
gulps billions of naira each year, nobody has
come open with regard to the measure of its
achievements beyond the usual rhetoric of ‘I
served’, ‘you served’, and ‘we served’; noth- ing beyond the debatable socialization and
inter-ethnic marriages. In other words, what
the Scheme has done to genuinely address
the critical issues surrounding our Nigerian- ness remains to be seen. For God’s sake, who
says Nkechi cannot come from Anambra and
meet her destined heartthrob in Bukkuyum
without the infusion of NYSC? Surely cer-
tainly, until these issues are addressed, the
good Lord, we pray: ‘save us from a point of
no return!’
Niemoller was right: things don’t just hap- pen; they must be addressed. To simply sit
down and begin to think that all things will
suddenly become bright and beautiful can
only amount to jokes taken too far. The more
reason Nigerians don’t have strong support
for, or belief in government policies. They
don’t have reference points or examples of
policies that work to fall back on. Many other
instances have followed but the results have
been similar: creeping frustration and helplessness. What we are saying is that, with the
situation on ground, security is no longer
seen as a responsibility of the government,
not because it is not but because it has not
been objectively tackled; and people are get-
ting used to it. So, once you allow yourself to
be kidnapped, you are on your own. It is as
simple as that!
When former President Olusegun Obasan-
jo’s family was attacked, it didn’t take much
time for Nigeria’s entire security apparat- chik to respond with the fierceness and the
swiftness that the situation demanded. But
for the deadly attack on the then Nigeria’s
First Daughter’s convoy, nobody would have
known that there was a cross-border robbery
kingpin called Hamani Tidjani. But who will
do that on behalf of a poor man? So, every
citizen must come up with his or her own
security measures, or anything that works,
whether it is Ogedengbe Agbogungboro that
one will need to wake up from his eternal
sleep, or conjure the spirit of Moremi Ajasoro
to come to one’s rescue. Depending on where
one’s faith lies, something needs to be done
to watch over one’s household. It is now that
bad!
The brightness and the future of commu-
nal togetherness expressed is given meaning
and intelligibility that government policies
are analyzed, vis-à-vis, the benefits of the peo-
ple. Since those benefits are meant to address
the plights of the people, when one juxtapos- es the benefits with the policy content, one
will know how far the government has gone
to provide governance to the people. Without
doubt, the Nigerian evil, where it came from,
was the ignorant elite who foolishly pushed
for modern ways of life without the people’s
local, inner and moral strengths. They are the
driving force of a stable society. For instance,
once there is instability in communal living,
it spreads like a virus, limited only by the
distance covered by the people or the inter- actions they have all over the world. When
selfishness begins in a community, it takes
over the country in a jiffy. So, it’s no longer an
Ijebuman who lost money. It’s now a general
saying for all the tribes. That’s why one can
say: for Ijebu-Jesa, it is double per Diem!
• KOMOLAFE writes in from Ijebu-Jesa,
Osun State, Nigeria ([email protected])