The first time I heard the issue of paying ransom in northern Nigeria was in 2018 when the twin sisters were abducted by an armed group in Dauran village of Zamfara state. Their abductors demanded a ransom of N150 million; their demand generated attention and concern in most of the communities of the state and some neighbouring states especially in the mosques where imams were requesting the faithful to contribute money for their release. They were later freed after the payment of N15 million.
The above narration is one of the many stories of the agony and trauma people are facing in paying ransom, their frequent demand of ransoms pushed many people into serious bankruptcy, poverty and destruction of businesses in cities and rural communities. Apart from an excessive levy they enforce on many farmers in local communities of Katsina, Zamfara, Niger and Sokoto states, one must pay a huge amount of money for one to have access to one’s farmland. I recall my engagement with some local farmers in Zamfara, as they revealed to me that armed groups warned them several times not to go near their farmlands even if they paid the levy. For them, no farming for this year.
Recently, the Senate considered a bill that seeks to prohibit the payment and receipt of ransom for the release of any person kidnapped, imprisoned or wrongfully confined. The bill is said to have been cited under the Terrorism Prevention Act which scaled the second reading. If the bill becomes successfully passed into law, the offenders will remain in prison for 15 years.
Paying ransom to kidnappers is absolutely bad but the humanity in us will not allow leaving our loved ones in the hands of these criminal armed groups. Even the sponsor of the bill will not watch a kidnapper kill or molest his wife, mother, daughter or relatives. The untold stories and hardship of any captive in the hand of the kidnappers are beyond their imagination.
Nigerians are paying ransom because they have seemingly lost interest in security operatives whom they sometimes see as collaborators and informants to the kidnappers and other armed groups engaged in the business. As I am writing this piece, a sitting judge of Sharia court in Katsina was abducted in broad daylight during court proceedings. The security agencies blamed the judge for going to that community.
However, paying ransom is motivating many to join the business since it involves millions of naira but the failure of the government to arrest the issue of insecurity is the worst. Government opened eyes for the kidnappers and other armed groups when they first abducted the Chibok and Daphchi girls in Borno and Yobe states respectively where undisclosed amounts of money and other gifts were handsomely released to the abductors for the freedom of the schoolgirls. Last year, over 300 secondary school boys of government science Kanakara were abducted by armed and heartless criminals. It was said the state government paid the group over N30 million as ransom. Likewise, similar incidents happened in Niger, Kaduna, and most recently in Zamfara states. This caused tension and distrust among Nigerians because people believed that the government was sponsoring insecurity indirectly.
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A serious government will not pay any money to criminal armed groups in the name of ransom for kidnapping because it is a criminal offence against the fundamental human rights of the citizen that require proactive and prompt security operatives to curb. We have seen this seriousness in the American government when one of its citizens was abducted along the border community between Nigeria and Niger Republic. They silently sent some soldiers and rescued him without paying a penny.
As for me, it’s too early for the lawmakers to come up with this law without putting the necessary things in place. One, a majority of the state governors couldn’t figure out the exact genesis and what motivated people to engage in the lucrative business of kidnapping either as the field actors or the informants. Without clearly digging out the root causes, there is nothing that will work to stop them.
Security experts and analysts warned Nigerian authorities on the issue of abandoned ungovernable spaces especially in the core North part of the country. Many people are living in these areas without any influence or presence of government. They are providing basic necessities for themselves; the government is only going there to station polling boxes.
Economic hardship, unemployment and climate change pushed many young people especially from the Northern part of the country to join either kidnapping gangs or criminal armed groups available in the region. Many local farmers lost their farmlands due to desert encroachment; herders have limited spaces to rear their cattle and an explosive population with no strategic plan to accommodate them.
Instead of 15 years of imprisonment as being canvassed by our lawmakers, the government must come up with economic policies that will provide opportunities to the teeming youth population. Good governance remains the most important key to everything including engaging the vulnerable youths on productive activities against engaging in any crime-related activities.
Idris Mohammed, Funtua, Katsina State.
@Edrees4P
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