Nigeria’s multi-million naira kidnapping business
Punch Newspaper – Thursday, February 5, 2009
By Agency Reporter
During the last Christmas celebrations, wealthy Nigerians who spent their vacations in the eastern part of the country spent a fortune on security. While many of them were budgeting for the yuletide, they also included the cost of securing police escorts and purchasing patrol vans. It was that bad in the eastern and southern parts of the country where it was very easy for the dare-devil kidnappers to snatch a man from his dinning table in the presence of his whole family members.
After a vacation marred by reports of kidnapping and ransoms, many heaved a sigh of relief on their return to Lagos. But behold, the kidnappers are prowling all over their haven.
Lagos State has joined the fun spots of kidnappers and in the mega city, these kidnappers are no respecter of age and God. For them, luring children from churches poses fewer security risks than abducting adults. The problem here is that the Lagos kidnappers do not differentiate those who bought their ‘tear rubber’ vehicles through a four to five years lease from those who could afford to pay outright for them. For them, anyone who looks successful must be able to come up with a few millions in exchange for their children’s lives.
What started in Nigeria as a way of drawing attention to the neglect of the Niger Delta area has become a big business. Kidnapping of foreigners by militants in the Niger Delta area, as shocking as the rest of the world found it, drew attention to the plight of the inhabitants of the region, who have incessantly complained of being neglected by various governments.
Militant groups claim to be fighting for a share of the region’s oil wealth, which has largely bypassed Niger Delta inhabitants and ended up in the pockets of corrupt politicians. However, the truth is that what was once a politically motivated protest has degenerated into simple extortion, as splinter groups kidnap foreigners and demand for ransom from their companies. Kidnapping in Nigeria today is no longer a cottage industry. It has become a multi million naira business.
As at year 2007, an estimated 200 expatriates have been abducted and ransom paid. Tired of kidnapping expatriates, militants have resorted to kidnapping fellow Nigerians. Oil workers have been kidnapped. Legislators in the Niger Delta area and their spouses have had a taste of it. Even their aged parents have been targets. They have been successfully kidnapped for ransom, though no one ever admits whether ransom is paid or not. The kidnappers have shown they are no respecter of ages. Children and the aged are not spared.
When in 2007, a three year old half caste, Margaret Hill, was kidnapped, there was a public outrage at the abductors, on the propriety of involving children. Since then, the abductors have shown that they do not care about propriety as long as it fetches them good money. Recently, a seven year old boy was kidnapped on his way to school in Port Harcourt. His sister, an 11 year-old, who attempted to protect him was killed in the attack. The writer, Elechi Amadi, was also kidnapped and released when his abductors saw that holding him was not only financially unprofitable, it was too hot for them to handle.
Worse still, the kidnapping surge has extended beyond the Niger Delta area. It has spread to other parts of Nigeria. In Lagos, there have been cases of children abducted and their abductors demanding ransom running into millions of naira. Young employed men in other parts of Nigeria who have heard tales of how their counterparts in the Niger Delta have prospered out of the abduction business have taken up the trade too. Nigeria currently ranks sixth on world’s kidnapping list, coming behind countries like Mexico and Colombia (?)
In Colombia, kidnapping is jokingly described as the fastest growing industry. The majority of kidnapping that takes place in Colombia is believed to be conducted by the guerilla rebels in the countryside. They especially target people traveling on the highways. Like Nigeria, anyone working for a multinational company or foreign government is a major target.
Part of the reasons the kidnappers in the Latin America country give for kidnapping is that the distribution of wealth is tilted heavily in favour of the rich. The gap between the rich and the poor is so wide that the poor believe that they have a Robin Hood strategy in kidnapping. The same is true of Mexico. In a country where the majority is poor, the rich and the middle class bear the brunt. Kidnappers get very ruthless and would do anything to get a share of the wealth.
Though the kidnapping act is most deplorable and utterly reprehensible, one should not lose sight of the fact that kidnapping is symptomatic of a failing society. It shows that our society is gradually failing when young men have taken to crime as a way of life. These young men who have turned professional kidnappers are simply rebelling against an unjust society. Their action is a way of getting back to the society that has failed to engage them positively. For instance, when Amadi was released, he gave an account of what transpired between him and his abductors. The old man recognised that his abductors were not kidnappers for the love of crime or adventure but because circumstances had forced them into it. Perhaps, because he was a writer, Amadi could recognise that societal imbalance had made young men victims of circumstance and crime has become a means of survival; a cathartic purge of pent up frustrations.
He reported that his young abductors “complained that they were unemployed and accused the government of not doing enough to ameliorate the plight of the jobless in the region.” How true! The truth here again is that such picture is not limited to the Niger Delta area. It is all over Nigeria. The sad thing, however, is that nothing seems to be done so far to alleviate the situation.
Amadi could see that something larger than them pushed them and if the society as a whole is not careful, what we already have might be child’s play as it is going to snowball into a bigger societal malaise. By then, it would have become too big for government to successfully manage. By then, getting bullet proof cars would no longer help the corrupt politicians as kidnappers will devise more sophisticated ways of getting their victims.
With his ethos as a writer, Amadi has once again brought to fore the story of a deprived people who are in urgent need of rehabilitation. Our government and politicians need to unclog their ears, open their eyes and get to work to do something about the situation in Nigeria.
Apart from the huge implications it has on the Nigerian economy and image, there is no point in allowing kidnapping fester. It has no export value and it is bound to boomerang on Nigeria sooner or later.
