Nigeria can stop the wave of kidnappings in the country: An Open Letter to the Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan

“The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that make rebuilding.”

The Right Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, late and First African Governor General of Nigeria.  In his “Development of Political Parties in Nigeria, (London: Oxford Printing Press, 1954), p. 50.

The war on corruption started by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCON was revolutionary in nature in the history of Nigeria since independence.  We are now speaking of a serious need to complete that revolution by putting a stop on the current wave of kidnappings in the country.  The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to whom Chief Obasanjo is equally a mentor must do all in his power to put an urgent stop in the insecurity of life and property as it is being experienced now in our country for quite some time.     

Before continuing with why everything has to be done to stop the madness with kidnappings  under your leadership, let us first of all seize this opportunity to express our condolence to you on the transition of President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua to whom you were a deputy.  At the same time my family joins us to congratulate you on your ascension to the thrown as the 14^th president of Nigeria. We have no doubt that you are equal to the task before you as Nigeria’s President. 

Being that as it may, we must state that there is no doubt, there are some who may and are arguing and believing it too, that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has not started any revolution in Nigeria that needs to be completed by President Jonathan.  Equally too, there are many thoughtful and well meaning experienced Nigerians as well as non-Nigerians both in Nigeria and within the international community, who would contend that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo started a nonviolent quiet revolution in Nigeria. They stress, that the future, un-politicized and fairly evaluated, would vindicate their contention.  Whether the protagonists believe or understand this or not cannot stop the proponents to reassert their conviction. This group, the proponents, is therefore praying seriously that President Goodluck Jonathan should work harder to ensure the completion of some of the good jobs.  Some of the socio-political-economic projects and policies were infrastructural foundation in nature which Obasanjo was laying or had started.  Chief Obasanjo could not complete some of them before handing over to President Musa Umaru Yar’ Adua, and due to Yar ‘Adua’s untimely transition, his administration could not also get some of them   completed.

Although, the former President Obasanjo is not the theme of this open letter to you Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; the wave of kidnappings is, but the former president being your mentor Mr. President, we must connect him to some of the aspirations which Nigerians need to be realized since they were not realized before Obasanjo left office.  A greater part of the aspirations of Nigerians which was very much part of Obasanjo’s desire then and now for Nigeria, we may say has been security of life and property. The current wave of kidnappings began with the protest movement in the Niger Delta region where living life was made unbearable by the destruction of life echo system caused by foreign Oil companies operating there without any safety regard for the means to sustain life of the Nigerians in the region. Authorities in Nigeria did not seem to have paid enough attention to those destructions of lives and life sustaining means which could have started those protest kidnappings of foreign Oil company workers. 

It is important that Nigeria takes a queue from President Barack Obama and the deep water Shell BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  From day one, April 20,  when the rig exploded to this day,  Obama has not blinked; he has gone to inspect to see the extent of the damage done, and had repeated his visits to the areas affect by the Oil Spill. In addition, President Barack Obama has spoken out and made speeches about the safety concerns and the short time and long time effect of the damages being done by the Oil Spill. Most importantly Obama has made sure that Shell BP accepts responsibility for the damages and to pay for the cleanings and rehabilitate victims as well pay compensations to the victims as well.  On the strength of this, Shell BP had accepted responsibility for whatever damages and accepted to pay the cost for clean the water and rehabilitate including money compensation to all the victims. Also, Obama has set up commissions of enquiry to investigate BP’s safety measures and the cause of the accident.  BP is expected to pay dearly for any lapses found.  Due to the pressure put on BP, has agreed to pay $20 billion dollar plus another $100 million to rehabilitate victims. BP also has employed many of the citizens living on the coastline and those affected by the Oil Spill on salaries to join on in the cleaning of the Oil spill.  When compared with what have been happening in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, for decades without serious intervention or concerns by authorities before the citizens reacted by kidnapping foreign workers, one cannot but indict authorities in Nigeria for being responsible for the current wave of kidnappings in the country.  Therefore, we are here calling on Mr. President to take active interest on what affects the people.

The idea that, women, children, Nigerian public officials and Nigerians visiting or returning from their oversea abode are being kidnapped is dangerous turn of events, and it is an ominous omen that should not be tolerated by any society, civilized or not. What is more ominous and baffling is the fact that in spite of the alarming rate of the wave of these kidnappings and the heavy ransoms demands, no official concerns public or private have been raised or expressed as far as authorities in Nigeria are concerned.  This must be unacceptable to Nigerians at this point in time of our human development.  Mr. President, the ball is in your court.

In a democracy, the freedom of movement, speech, and to own property, including the rights to life are inalienable that cannot be compromised by responsible authorities anywhere.  The wave of kidnappings in Nigeria is murderous and criminal; these kidnappings constitute economic and social sabotage because they are scaring away those would-be investors in Nigeria; they are depriving Nigeria of homecoming Nigerians abroad who desire to return home or bring investment into Nigeria.  The kidnappings make life now miserable to Nigerians at home and abroad.  They are now scared and on the edge not knowing if they were safe with their family anywhere; especially, that the exorbitant amount of ransom being demanded by the criminals exposes the kidnappers as outright undesirable criminals that should not be tolerated in any society.

President Jonathan, Nigerians need you to take drastic action against these criminals; as callous as they are, so should be the equivalent of the punishment the authorities decide.   When we call on you to do these things, we are requesting that these things be done by those who are responsible under your administration to get these done and done good.  Getting these done means that the law enforcement agencies and their agents should get going and do the jobs they are paid to do.  Defenseless Nigerians should not be taking for a ride by criminals. The law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which include the Police, EFCC, NDLEA, ICPC, SSS, NIA, DIA and the DMI, should be made to work together on some state matters in the area of information gathering and sharing that information with a view to safeguarding the territorial integrity of Nigeria and the safety of life and property of Nigerians. Men and women of the Nigeria Police have always excelled in their overseas assignments where they serve as peacekeepers; there is no reason why the same people cannot excel in their duties at home.  Nigerians should feel safe in their home and move freely without any hindrance.  

Also, the Nigerian law makers should be compelled, since they also seem to be silent on the wave of kidnappings, to make laws to proscribe the dastardly act of kidnapping and other known criminal habits.  They should prescribe penalty (such as death by hanging) that deters a-would- be-kidnapper or criminal. Members of our law making bodies earn N8 million per day, an equivalent of $8000 every day.  They have not taken the issue of the kidnappings serious either; they should be ashamed of themselves as their demand for an increase in their already undeserved huge salaries without any appreciable performance in the interest of the public is like the kidnappers who are reaping where they do not sow; such a demand from the national treasury amounts to criminal rubbery in the midst of poverty sticking masses of Nigeria. They need to stop exploiting the people on whose behalf they are in the legislatures.

Some victims have been killed after ransoms have been paid to get their release.  This should be a no, no; an intolerable crime. It has been reported that the police have killed few kidnappers, but compared with the large numbers of the kidnappings in recent time throughout the country, it is as if the kidnappers are more than the police and are more effective in their nefarious crimes than the police who are being outpointed in the fight to protect Nigerian lives and property.

Nigeria should become a crime free country under your leadership; this is achievable if your administration would call for the revival of the Nigerian cultures and traditional values which before now abhor stealing and other forms of foreign criminal tendencies. In traditional Nigeria, everyone knows everyone in the community. Kidnappers and armed robbers have nowhere to hide.  That the Oba of Benin acting through the chiefs and the Chief Priest of Edo, Nosakhare Itsekhure had mandated the adoption of traditional methods on the kidnapping problem is a serious indictment, and it is a call on the Federal Government to consider the introduction of some of the cultural traditional methods of solving certain problems in Nigeria.

We have over the years appealed for the recognition and revival of our cultures and traditional values as a way to reclaim the minds and hearts of our people and restore their consciousness. Mr. President, we have also called for the use of our native traditional sacred rites and rituals for those taking oath of office instead of using only the two recognized Holy Books of Islam and Christianity during oath taken because we have not seen the effectiveness of either of these two books on any one.  Many of those who have been indicted for abuse of office and misappropriations of public funds are known to have sworn by the two Holy books.

Ignorance and miss-education has made many ignorant out of our people as far as respect for the power of our culture is concerned; let us re-educate our people in the cultures and traditions of our land; they would become wise and conscious again. Speaking on ignorance, Mao Tse-tung said, “It is to the advantage of despots to keep people ignorant; it is to our advantage to make them intelligent. We must lead all of them gradually from ignorance.”  Praise singing and honouring of those known to be deadly corrupt is one of the banes to social and economic progress in the Nigeria environment.  This undeserving honour and glorification of society’s misfits brew thoughtless fools that become kidnappers and other criminals.

Talking about the police in the scheme of things in Nigeria, more is needed to be said for the sanity of the country.  On this matter, one is greatly disappointed about the statement recently credited to the former President, Chief Obasanjo. While speaking on corruption the former President was credited as stating that “people are saying that the Nigeria police is corrupt but it is the same police force that produced (former anti corruption czar) Nuhu Ribadu.”  We beg to differ from Baba on this view because there is no known scientific research methodology that can support his idea or opinion; be it stratified or random samplings, it will be very difficult to find a significant difference.  The likes of Nuhu Ribadu are very few if there are more, in the Nigeria police.  In a police force where the head of the force as a whole was jailed for corruption, is it possible for one to say and prove it that that police force is free of corruption amongst its ranks and files?  In the culture of our birth, there is a saying that if the elder says at the dining table that the soup is sweet, the child who is eating the same soup will break the soup pot because the child will crape the bottom of the pot until there is a hole in the soup pot.  A whole inspector general of the Nigeria police force was sentenced to six month in prison for corruption, the first of its kind in the history of the country.  It is rather unfair to propose or argue that the police force in Nigeria is free of corruption because Nuhu Ribadu is a product of that force.  One is sure that Ribadu himself will not agree to the proposition because of the way many of his colleagues chased him away which is another testimony in its-self. Yes, Nuhu is a man of the people; many Nigerians need him and Nigerians are happy that the President has brought him back to the country.  We would advise that you take good care of Nuhu Ribadu to serve as inspiration and motivation for many other Nigerians because many wept for Nigeria when Ribadu left.              

There is no doubt that the police in Nigeria had been poorly managed; their salaries had been adjudged by the people as poor; the force had been ill-equipped; obsolete regulations, improper and inadequate training; and above all, many have had not the adequate and requisite education including orientation that allow a police man and woman to understand the meaning of the oat of duty they took during their enlistment.  Consequent upon these circumstances therefore, we employ Mr. President to go the extra mile within the shortest possible time to reorganize the Police Force in Nigeria just as did Chief Olusegun Obasanjo by disarming certain elements in the Nigeria Army when he became an elected president in Nigeria. That single act by Chief Obasanjo will make conscientious Nigerians raise their hands up for him in the future because that act may have insulated the men and women in the military from aspiring into venturing for the overthrow of government today in Nigeria.

Dr. Jonathan therefore ought to use the opportunity that has presented itself to correct the ills in the police force through demobilization that should be quick and systematic. Demobilization is a preferred option because many of the current elements in the police force are dried fishes that cannot be bent without breaking. They are not amenable to retraining nor can they be motivated because of the depth of corruption that has been entrenched in their blood. Mr. President it could be doubtful that the weapons and armament with which men of the underworld and kidnappers use against law abiding people in Nigeria are not dumped out there by disgruntled law enforcement agents who are might be criminals themselves in association with their collaborators or saboteur.      

We are unhappy with some misfits in our society who used certain unpalatable phrases, such as a” failed state” to describe Nigeria, but Nigeria authorities must do everything possible at this time to ensure the survival of the sovereign status of Africa’s most populous nation and economic giant of the continent. A situation where people’s life and property are unsure calls to question the nationhood of that state. The president must speak up on this issue of kidnappings. There is a need for the President to steal the show by showing now that Nigerians can trust him that he is not the usual Nigerian ruler who believes that the old ways must continue.  The President should be informed, if he is not aware that those reported lock-outs in which ministers were involved when he was yet the Vice President were hearts warming to the common people who have been victims over the years of official neglect and ineffectiveness. There is no acceptable excuse for a serving public official to be late to a scheduled official meeting which the Vice President would officiate.  A no nonsense treatment of our officials, many a time, by the President, may just be what our public officials need to get them to perform in the interest of the people; it is sad, but this seems to be what the President may need, to be in the good book of the suffering masses. Let many Nigerians love you rather than fear you, let them respect you for what you are able to do to ease their pains of years of neglect, but deal ruthlessly with enemies of progress and those whom you have appointed and are suppose to assist you to be an effective Nigerian leader in helping the masses. The Nigerian population should not be held to ransom by few imbeciles and thugs who now believe that kidnapping innocent citizens is now a trade to be promoted in Nigeria.    

Elections are coming and the President need to seize the opportunity to present himself as the man of the hour in Nigeria. In a country as Nigeria, the best security that endears government to the people is in the constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements in the lives of the people, just as it is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding.