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Daily reports on abductions, banditry and general state of insecurity have continued to confirm Nigeria’s current dilemma.
The country and it’s people, it seems, have really become overwhelmed by the seeming sophistication of the criminals that have held us to ransom for years now.
Organised kidnapping, which I think began in Nigeria’s current history with reports of kidnapping of foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta region, has spread to every part of the country and has graduated to kidnapping of school children in schools, worshippers during services, serving army officers and other armed security personnel on duty, unarmed retired officers, uniformed Youth Corps members and of course, unarmed commoners on transit and in homes in cities and in the villages.
In all of these cases across Nigeria, the country’s security agencies, it seems, are always taken unawares and even when this happens, their after kidnap responses almost always leave something to be desired of.
One of the worrisome details is that common Nigerian observers do not seem to hear anything about any of the many or unending kidnap cases once huge ransoms are demanded and paid.
Some members of my generation, who read James Hadley Chase with youthful passion, thought that smart security operatives pay or allow payment of ransom only with marked money. The aim, we believe, is that the story of any kidnap case should not end with the criminals’ collection of ransom. The narrative should continue after ransom with trailing and tracing of the criminals with the aid of the marked money. What follows should be the eventual arrest, prosecution and imprisonment long after their collection and sharing of ransom.
Notwithstanding that the criminals operating in Nigeria today sometimes harm or even kill their kidnap victims after collecting millions of Naira as ransom, it is annoyingly frustrating that our security operatives seem not to be interested in trailing or tracing kidnappers after releasing of victims.
This explains the suspicion or suppressed allegation by angry Nigerians that government or some top government officials are deeply involved in the ransom business.
Without doubts affected families are really frustrated when members of their families are abducted and huge ransoms demanded from them.
It seems both our states and the federal government are also frustrated over the state of insecurity in the land and our ability as a nation to tackle it effectively.
This national frustration over insecurity manifests itself more in what I today describe as the business of ransom.
Every observer who have followed reports after reports of kidnap cases, reports on how ransoms are negotiated openly and paid and how the criminals have consistently collected hundreds of millions of Naira with ease and have successfully disappeared with their looth into thin air, will not help but express frustration and rage.
Of course, ransom demand by kidnappers or payment of it is not a new phenomenon limited to the current Nigerian experience. It is part of what has sustained the criminal enterprise all over the world.
If you ask me, I will say one of the things that makes the current Nigerian experience much more unfortunate is the way kidnappers humble our states and Federal Government into open negotiations and the way they easily and continually collect the ransoms and walk away without any trace.
For years now, since this ransom business has been thriving, I have been waiting to read stories of men or women, most probably farmers or illegal Miners, who stumbled on buried millions of Naira in the thick Nigerian forests. Or should I believe the kidnappers have special bank packages through which they bank their loots. Point is that if these millions are not taken to the banks, it may be wise for our able youths to go and dig any suspected portion in the forests in order to recover some of the hidden proceeds of ransom.
On a serious note, is it not a shame that criminal elements continue to portray Nigerian security operatives as a bunch of incompetent arm bearers? Should Nigerian security operatives actually be given lecture on the need to make ransom taking unattractive?
One wonders why a country so widely considered as the giant of African allow itself to be so cheaply humbled by a few criminal elements bent on spreading terror.
Some informed observers blame corruption within the Nigerian high command as, according to them, it will not be difficult for Nigerian security operatives to wipe away the criminal elements masquerading as the lords of Nigerian Jungle if the leadership so desires.
It is in this regard that I specially contemplate the views recently canvassed by Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, when he reiterated his earlier decision not to support negotiations with kidnappers abducting residents and wreaking havoc in the state.
The governor, who made public his views at a media chat on Monday, said “paying ransom to criminals empowers them.”
According to Zamfara State Governor and Chief Security Officer, “previous negotiations did not yield any positive results.”
Recalling the abduction of his two brothers Yusuf and Amba in 2025, Governor Dauda Lawal said: “You know, there are certain hard decisions you must take as a leader of the family… and I made it clear that this is my stand, but if anybody feels otherwise, he is free to go and pay and bring Yusuf and Amba back.”
As Governor Dauda Lawal explained, following his hard stand, “the kidnappers got tired and the last thing they asked for then, I think, was a N150,000 recharge card, and even that I said I was not going to pay. Somebody from the family should do that because I made a commitment that I will never put a dime to a criminal.”
Yes, ransom payment is not something someone, not to talk of a government does with pride. It is a humbling act.
That notwithstanding, all of us will not agree with Zamfara State Governor that if or when any citizen is abducted by these ransom merchants, we should all refuse to pay a dime.
This is because we all know that some of the kidnappers may be so mentally unbalanced that if family members of kidnap victims and the governments do not act with enough tact and diplomacy, the criminals may harm or even kill their victims before giving their action the right thoughts it deserves.
Today, we can no longer deny the fact that most Nigerians are grossly frustrated while some have actually ran mad. If this is true even outside the underworld where kidnappers operate, how much more in the jungle?
This is why I feel it may be safer to operate with the mind set that not all the kidnappers operating in Nigeria today have the temperament of the ones that held Yusuf and Amba in 2025.
Even as a civilian and not a security operative in it’s strict sense, I am of the view that because Governor Dauda Lawal’s theory may not work in all cases here in our clime, because we are our brother’s keepers, it would be more useful for our security operatives to become more creative, more proactive and more professional.
Why should our trained security operatives and government allow their actions portray them as supporters, partakers or even sponsors of a grand national ransom racket or business? Why?
Except I have been mistaken all these while, I have believed ransom, especially the one paid with the knowledge of government or it’s security operatives, is not meant to be spent in peace by any kidnapper.
Such ransom, if what I read from books on crime bursting strategies are anything to go by, is supposed to be a mere bait to secure the release of kidnap victims and to help trail and arrest the criminals afterwards.
But it seems this has not been the case in Nigeria as nothing is ever heard of most kidnap matters after payment of ransom.
So, here, hundreds of millions of Naira have been demanded and paid but we hardly hear stories of suspected kidnappers arrested with the aid of marked ransom they collected.
I am of the view that such reports, that is reports of use of marked ransom money to trail and trace the criminals, if it become more regular, will help discourage would-be kidnappers.
It may even help dissuade would-be kidnappers more than Governor Dauda Lawal’s theory of outright refusal to pay a dime, which in my view may grossly endanger the unfortunate victims still in the hands of some mentally unstable kidnappers. Our security operatives need to be more honest, more professional and more creative to win this crazy battle for it is certain ransom has become a very lucrative business in Nigeria of today.
• Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu Esq, is a lawyer, veteran journalist, literary scholar and current affairs analyst.
