In a chilling report released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), N2.2 trillion was paid to kidnappers as ransom between May 2023 and April 2024. Titled, ‘The Crime Experienced and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024’, the report revealed that as many as 91 per cent of kidnapping incidents in the country were to extract ransom, while 2.4 per cent of cases were attributed to political, criminal, or terrorist objectives. About 2.1 per cent of the cases were linked to personal or family disputes while custody disputes accounted for 0.5 per cent of cases. Within the same period, no fewer than 2,235,954 Nigerian citizens/residents (which represents about 1 percent of our national population) were kidnapped in communities across the country at different times.

We must commend the NBS for deploying data to lay bare some of our socio-economic challenges. “Our people should never live in fear—whether on their farmlands, highways or cities,” President Bola Tinubu said yesterday while presenting the N47.9trillion 2025 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly. Yet, it cannot be lost on Nigerians that within the last one year, kidnappers raked in almost what the president is now proposing to spend on the country’s health sector in the coming year. It also means that ‘ransom subsector’ of the economy is now the fastest growing. That’s why authorities at all levels must find a solution to this vexatious menace that threatens not only our national security but also the progress of our country.

The history of kidnappings for ransom can easily be traced to the current democratic dispensation in the country. We first witnessed the problem in the Niger Delta about two decades ago with political agitation for ‘resource control’ before it became a very lucrative enterprise for sundry criminal cartels across the country. Indeed, as far back as 2012, the African Insurance Organization (AIO) designated Nigeria the kidnap for ransom capital of the world. “The number of kidnaps for ransom in Africa continued to increase. In the first half of 2011, Africa’s proportion of the global total increased from 23 per cent in 2010 to 34 per cent,” according to the AIO at the 18th African reinsurance Forum in Mauritius. “Nigeria is now the kidnap for ransom capital of the world, accounting for a quarter of globally reported cases.” That was twelve years ago. The situation of course is now worse considering the details in the NBS survey.

Meanwhile, this is also an issue on which I have intervened numerous times, including reporting contributions I made to ‘ransom funds’ for the release of victims. I recall sharing the experience of Nuhu Tanko, a gardener at the Shehu Musa Yar’AduaCentre, Abuja who was kidnapped along with two brothers on 31st December 2020 on the way from their village (Dakunu in Chukum local government of Kaduna) to the state capital. By his account, the masked kidnappers, clad in military camouflage, numbered more than 50, all on motor bikes, each carrying at least two guns. It was after the family had sold all their possessions, including a piece of land, and the money was not enough to complete the N10 million ransom demand that they reached out to the Centre for support. “Most people have left our village because of kidnappings. It’s like bandits have taken over our village and the surrounding communities,” Tanko lamented at the time, while sharing his harrowing experience, following his release. “They kidnap people, kill and rape women, even if the women are pregnant.”

Perhaps more heartrending was the account of Mallam Iliya Gwaram in Zamfara State. His daughter was one of the 279 female students abducted from the Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe on 26 February 2021. A few days later, he was also kidnapped. But while in captivity, the Jangebe female students were brought to join them. “l saw the schoolgirls being brought into where we were camped by our abductors. At first, l didn’t know who they were or where they were coming from, until l saw the face of my scared daughter looking at me. I quickly told some of the girls who were brought along with her and sat near me to tell my child not to show any indication that she even knew me,” Gwaram recounted after his release a few days later. “The girls were brave enough and they kept our little secret up to the last of their four days stay with us. l never cried in the whole of my life like l cried the day the girls were taken back because l felt it was the last time l would see my daughter…”

From North to South, East to West, there is hardly anybody who does not know someone who has been kidnapped. Therefore, the real value of the NBS report is to put official imprimatur to a social cum security malaise that has now reached epidemic proportion. Of the reported cases of kidnappings, according to the report, 82.1 percent were released, 12.8 percent were killed while 3.3 percent remain in captivity. If one does the arithmetic, the number of kidnap victims who don’t’ return alive is quite chilling. But beyond the trauma to families, the local economies in most rural areas across the country today are comatose while in some communities, especially in the Northwest, kidnappers have taken complete control. Even within metropolis, we all remember the kidnapping of six young ladies and their father from their Bwari (Abuja) residence in January this year. The father was released and asked to go and find N60 million to ransom his children. Unable to meet the payment deadline, the kidnappers killed one of his daughters, a 400-level student of Biological Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and dumped her body on the street. Now that the NBS has beamed its searchlight on this most heinous crime, we hope that the relevant authorities will take the challenge seriously and act.Even more worrisome, going by the report, no fewer than 614,937 Nigerians were killed within the period.

The implications of this situation for the national economy are grave. In a February 2006 paper, “’Captive Markets’: The Impact of Kidnappings on Corporate Investment in Colombia”, by the United States Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (Central Bank), the trio of Rony Pshisva, ProtegoMexico and Gustavo A. Suarez measured the impact of crime on investments by exploiting variation in kidnappings in Colombia from 1996 to 2002. Instructively, the paper opened with a quote from a report in ‘The Economist’ magazine of 19th June 2004 which summed up their findings: “Who wants to invest money and effort in building a business if their reward is to risk losing their life and/or their money?”

Sadly, as it was in Columbia, so it is in Nigeria today!

Buhari’s Birthday in a New Season

Former President Muhammadu Buhari turned 82 on Tuesday. His long-term political associate and former Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun led a few supporters to Daura, Katsina State, to felicitate with their man. Foremost businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote was also there. But most of the people who for eight years made a fuss over Buhari’s birthday did not remember to place the customary congratulatory adverts in newspapers. Only a few did. Vice President Kashim Shettima, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, as well as Governors Inuwa Yahaha and Abdullahi Sule of Gombe and Nasarawa States respectively placed birthday adverts for Buhari. Boss Mustapha, who was Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under Buhari, former Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari and businessman, Nasiru Danu complete the list of those who remembered to place congratulatory adverts in the newspapers. 

Of course, Mallam Garba Shehu wrote a syndicated article on how ‘At 82, Buhari Wraps Up in Silence and Dignity in Daura’ and Mr Femi Adesina reminded us about ‘Buhari, Ore Mekunu (Friend of the Poor), at 82’. “The Big Elephant in the room. Removal of fuel subsidy. Did you think the Government didn’t know that the money-guzzling monster had to be slain?” Adesina asked in a manner that suggests the current administration removed fuel subsidy without a thought for the poor. “It knew. But who ensured that subsidies remained as long as itdid? Buhari. And why? The people, the ordinary people.”

I don’t know what to make of that, but let’s return to the issue. When Buhari marked his last birthday in office in December 2022, all major newspapers were filled with adverts. From then Senate President, Ahmad Lawan to Hon Idris Wase to Senator Barau Jibrin to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the current President Bola Tinubu, there were effusive words of praise. Then Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje wrote: “History will forever remember and celebrate your laudable achievements.” Less than two years after, Ganduje(now the ruling APC National Chairman) can’t even remember the man’s birthday! Same with other governors at the time, including those still in office today. On Tuesday, I decided to spend time at the Daily Trust newspaper library to read the congratulatory advertisements for Buhari two years ago. Some of the words are now cringe-worthy. 

Let me state quite clearly that the issue here is not about Buhari or for that matter, his birthday. It is about the lack of values in our politics with practitioners who believe in nothing. In a recent column, I wrote about how sycophancy has almost become a direct principle of state policy in Nigeria such that the birthday ceremonies of political office holders and that of their spouses as well as the burial ceremonies of their parents, the naming ceremonies of their children (even from ‘side chicks’) have become state functions. But I am also aware, as most people are, that all the exertions are simply to curry favour from power holders. The moment they become ‘yesterday’s men’, they are on their own.

In the absence of any ideology, our politics revolve around individuals rather than political parties which then explains the state of our democracy. President Buhari is experienced enough to know that most of those who gravitated towards him while in power did so for what they could get. But no society can develop when you have a preponderance of such people at the helm – as is the case in Nigeria today.
 

Ambrose Feese @ 80

Despite having held critical positions in both the public and private sectors in Nigeria, Mr Ambrose Feese remains a very private man. But he takes time to share incredible knowledge and experience with younger professionals. And I have benefitted a lot from my interactions with him over the years. A chartered accountant, banker and public administrator, Feese is a former Minister of State, Works and Housing and before then, Secretary to the 1979 presidential commission on revenue allocation in Nigeria headed by the late Dr Pius Okigbo. He was also a member of the Study Group on the Review of Federal Civil Service in 1985. On a personal note, he is the father of Member, the young lady caught in the 26 August 2011 bombing of the United Nations office in Abuja while collecting data for her post-graduate thesis at the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. Although there will be a ceremony on Saturday in Makurdi, Benue State to mark the 80th birthday of this accomplished man, I cannot attend because by then I should be in Kwara State for what Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has dubbed my ‘annual Christmas pilgrimage.’ I wish Mr Feese a happy birthday, long life and good health.