Follow Us on Google
“It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.”
—Nelson Mandela
By Daniel Kanu
The Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence, Samuel Kalu Uche, was last Sunday kidnapped along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State.
Going by news reports, he was kidnapped alongside two others, Rt. Rev. Dennis Mark, the Methodist Bishop of Owerri, and the Prelate’s Chaplain.
They were reportedly whisked away at about 2:00 p.m. on their way from a church programme in Okigwe, Imo State.
Happily enough, the clergy is alive today to tell his story with his colleagues. Many did not have such a rare opportunity because as the Methodist Prelate revealed during a press briefing in Lagos, he was shown decomposing bodies of other victims in the bush that were wasted by their heartless abductors.
The Prelate and his colleagues were not just set free as regained their freedom after parting with a whopping N100 million.
Of course, his abduction did not come as a shock because going by the spate of insecurity in Nigeria today, nobody is safe and anybody can be a victim.
Kidnapping for ransom is rife in many parts of the country, including the Southeast where most violent crimes seem to be increasing by the day.
Although the Federal Government has taken a tough stance against ransom payments by criminalizing it in a law recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, it does not appear that the law will be effective.
The reason is simple: the state is supposed to protect life and property, as well as the welfare of citizens as its primary responsibility and where it fails to do so; it then lacks the moral authority to restrict citizens from providing alternative choices for survival.
Perhaps the ordeal of His Eminence would help as an urgent reminder of the confusion that is fast enveloping the Southeast over insecurity and violent breaches of peace that have long been coming.
Another critical issue that must be taken seriously in the Prelate’s eye-opener account was his accusing finger on soldiers and by extension other security agents of being complicit in the activities of kidnappers.
That criminality is unleashing seamlessly to the consternation of government is simply the result of official negligence; and often, political grandstanding in the face of real threat to lives and property.
Security experts have argued that both the federal and the state governments are culprits in this regard as they have failed to be strategic in line with contemporary policing.
In the first place, the Federal Government has failed because it controls the apparatus of state security such as the police and the military, both of which have been unable to contain the onslaught from criminals generally referred to as unknown gunmen, notwithstanding the fact that these have been operating for quite some time now.
Latest research authored by Dr Iro Aghedo, senior lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Benin, and Dr Ndu Nwokolo, a managing partner and chief executive at Nextier SPD, for instance, faulted security agencies’ poor response to emergencies and distress calls.
The study revealed that members of state security agencies are too few, not strategically deployed, overstretched, ill-equipped, and corrupt to effectively manage ubiquitous terrorism, banditry, secessionist agitations, ritual murders, cultism, kidnapping, and other forms of violent insecurity.
There is a need for a system that monitors at-risk locations and assesses the probability of violence eruption, escalation, continuation, and geographic diffusion which security operatives say is lacking.
His Eminence Samuel Uche’s nightmare should be another wake-up call for facts-check not only on security operatives, but also on the activities of some Fulani herders who most of the survivors have fingered as orchestrating and coordinating the dastardly act.
Hear Prelate Uche’s bombshell: “I accuse the soldiers, who are non-Christians, some of them are Fulani. They are part of it because they are shielding these men. They know where the boys are, they know the location.”
No doubt, a background check should serve as the first line of security to address security challenges.
But for the Prelate’s interview, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were first suspected and wrongly accused to be behind the kidnapping until he regained freedom and released the identities of those who seized him.
To address the insecurity challenge and ensure prompt security of life and investments, experts recommend the need to embrace Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) mechanisms of providing adequate government presence in vulnerable communities, building trust between communities and security agents, as well as fostering closer collaboration with local actors.
It is obvious that atrocious violence in Nigeria has surged exponentially, as manifested by rising trends in massacres, arsons, and kidnappings and so the government, with its claim of seriousness, must be seen to be proactive with proven results to show rather than empty promises.
His Eminence, Dr Samuel Chukwuemeka Kalu Uche (JP) is 69 years.
