Column No.6: Again, who will pay the ransom for Nigeria?

This article is a re-visitation of sorts, title included, albeit with a slight tweak. The original had me doing a post-birthday retrospective against the backdrop of then-raging (make no mistake, it’s still raging) kidnapping and banditry that had Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states in its flames. But my focus today is the Abuja-Kaduna road, […]

This article is a re-visitation of sorts, title included, albeit with a slight tweak. The original had me doing a post-birthday retrospective against the backdrop of then-raging (make no mistake, it’s still raging) kidnapping and banditry that had Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states in its flames. But my focus today is the Abuja-Kaduna road, again. Having the singular honour of being the most-mentioned topic since this column began a little over a year ago, that highway to hell continues to fall deeper and deeper into a dark abyss. The latest tragedy on that 200km-long, important-but-battered strip of asphalt claimed many, including one person I know well.

When I found out via social media that Alhaji Sagir Hamidu, a former governorship aspirant in Zamfara State, was shot dead by ‘bandits’ a week ago while traveling to Abuja, I was shocked. I had met him a number of times, most memorably at the graduation dinner held for the first set of secondary school students of an excellent school he owned. He mingled with all his ex-students, and their parents, himself a smiling, proud guardian. The accounts of the heinous attack that claimed his life, alongside many others, left me weak and unable to touch my dinner. And so soon after the murderous criminals attacked the Abuja-Kaduna train? Wow.

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My jaw on the floor aside, I called some mutual friends we had, as well as a close aide of his to pay condolence of some sort. As if that was not tragic and shocking enough, less than 48 hours later, another attack occurred on the same road, with many killed, and more kidnapped and dragged into the thick bushes that serve as camp/headquarters to the ‘bandits’. More reports came in of terrorists spending the better part of this week operating on the same route, dishing out death. Also, at the now-infamous Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road, killing sprees and kidnappings galore have been reported from last Sunday, up till Wednesday. 

A sane person would ask where our security operatives are, and what are they doing? I’m not one given to blame government for any and every ill the nation faces, but for this, the blame squarely rests on the head of the federal government. Yes, I know that President Buhari directed the nation’s security chiefs to eliminate the terrorists operating along the 200-kilometre road. But am I only the one who had a severe case of déjà vu after reading that? 

Schools have for some time been the favourite targets of terrorists, but highway attacks and kidnappings have now become their favourite sport. Inter-state travel has been severely affected, and agriculture crippled badly, all during a time when the economy is on the floor, dying. The ripple effect of so-called ‘banditry’ (actually terrorism) cannot be quantified, as it continues to expand territory, much like the industry it has become. 

Don’t forget the outlandish, ridiculous aspects of this ever-worsening national tragedy. Remember a couple of months ago when the Emir of Kajuru, Alhaji Alhassan Adamu, was abducted? While he in comparison to other cases was lucky to have only spent a brief time with his captors, the abductors reportedly apologized and asked him for forgiveness before releasing him. If there was any doubt that the whole nation is running mad, things like this just affirm the notion and present certificates for madness, and ineptitude. 

We have proven that as a people, we are absolutely incapable of thinking outside the box to arrest this situation. The minute something major happens, just cue the hand-wringing, like mourning housewives who are tired of mourning (apologies to mourning housewives everywhere). Even the little outrage it sparks sometimes is just that: a spark. Nothing comes out of it, and the terrorists simply slice and dice the proceeds from their crimes and plan the next operation. They get away with murder almost every day, and quite literally. The authorities have quite frankly shown that they are the authorities in name only. Ours is a nation held captive by ‘bandits’, and there isn’t an iota of doubt about that. The questions that remain, as always, are: Who will do something about it, and who will pay our collective ransoms?