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Kidnapping: Lesson from Bayelsa By Maxwell James
“What I wanted the kidnappers and the suspected politicians behind to know is that kidnapping is not as lucrative as they are thinking” - Bayelsa State Deputy Governor.
The above postulation by Hon. Peremobowei Ebebi, the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa state is exactly the new thinking of the government of Bayelsa concerning hostage taking in the state. This heinous crime reached a crescendo towards the last quarter of former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration when some misguided and faceless ‘militants’ masquerading under the guise of the popular Niger Delta struggle also with full support of some disgruntled politicians unleashed one of the worst crimes against humanity by seizing expatriates oil workers for a ransom. Since the debut of that criminal act in 2006, the kidnapping business has evolved in style, nature and mode – all to the detriment of the poor but rich Niger Delta states and Nigeria as a whole. For instance apart from seizing staff of various multi – national companies, innocent children of the elites were severally forcefully taken away from their parents or guardians in a broad day light. This scenario is even worrisome when such crimes are perpetrated in the presence of our ill – equipped security agencies.
Another ugly scenario associated with the ill – trade especially in Bayelsa state is the constant attack on the elderly whose only fault is the fact that, they have their children in high political offices. Recently, a friend argued that such negative act will spur the government to put in more effort towards developing their communities. While we welcome development by all means, hostage taking in any guise must be discouraged pronto because experience has shown that hostage takers are mere agents of peeved politicians.
As a lesson to the present administration, it is instructive to note that, this social decadence was allowed to fester by the consolidated avarice of some amorphous politicians who lack decorum and sanity. The immensity of their corrupt tendencies and propensities remain unparalleled to the extent that stories upon stories were told of how these government officials cum negotiators displayed stupendous wealth from their otherwise modest status. They also facilitate this normative anarchy to thrive for selfish reasons.
On many occasions for instance, negotiating for the release of hostages was so bastardized that this class of ‘negotiators’ operate as a high – wired cabals of extremely placed rogues whose love for their private pockets remain paramount than the miseries of their brothers and sisters as evident in the revenue loss – leading to poor outing by government. Among these classes of people, we have quite a number of them who have enormous investment in big cities in Nigeria and abroad. Business of hostage taking is no doubt another good example of Nigeria’s crude politics of elitist contrivance. The last administrations in the Niger Delta with their enormous revenue, treated vital issues in a grand orchestrated make-belief, ostentatiously designed and carefully managed to gullibly hoodwink Nigerians.
Although, the emergence of Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa state was greeted with mixed feeling across the various militant camps following his non involvement in hostage matters prior to his emergence as governor of the oil rich state, there was even report of a palpable apprehension regarding the modus operandi the state chief executive was going to adopt in tackling the hostage menace, but today, the story has changed.
There was spirited campaign by some congenital idiots – begging the erstwhile ill – traders to stage a comeback in form of taking the center stage in negotiating the release of some hostages the governor met upon resumption of office. To their chagrin, the governor took the risk and challenge thereby demystifying the Dracula and monster in the garb of hostage taking by physically leading an armed–less delegation of spirited government officials into the sanctum sanctorum of the militants’ dent. The pre – conceived strategy (information flow) paid off as direct line of communication was established with the various key players and commandos in hostage matters at the various camps. This single action of his convoked an agreeable acceptance locally and internationally. For the first time ever, the governor united the ideological tangents of his harshest critics with that of their sycophantic cheerleaders that he is everything but a political juggernaut.
Since then, as it is being usually said, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. While there has been considerable and remarkable improvement from the old order (kidnapping expatriates), the new order which is the seizing of the elderly has definitely become a bad business as Hon Ebebi stated in the above quotation. The oriented militants themselves are key stakeholders in security watch in the state as apparent in the manner in which they secured the release of the Deputy Governor’s father late last year without a dime being paid. This line of thinking was also espoused by the Speaker of the state House of Assembly and other members of the House when their parents were kidnapped recently.
As the youths in the state have come to realise, the government has solid programmes and initiatives aimed at redirecting their mind set from violence into constructive engagement in the society – what with the giant strides in the area of training and scholarship fully packaged for the youth annually in various areas of computer education. Very soon, India, through the Ministry of Youth, Conflict and Employment Generation under the direction of Maxwell Oko will be a guest to some 260 youths from Bayelsa state. Also Norway will host a sizeable number of youths in marine related training. Worthy of mention also is the Aviation training in the United States that has been finalized. These efforts are all geared towards building the capacity of the youths to fully partake in all evolving government programmes as encapsulated in the government 10 point agenda. These, plus the local initiative of youth engagement called The Bayelsa Volunteer will no doubt mop up considerable number of youths that are prone to political manipulation and machination.
May this newly excavated sense of positive engagement and direction in Bayelsa not loose steam! That is the secret prayer of my heart. At least, hostage merchants, who buried the posterity of the youths in the crapulence of their avaricious desires as well as the few young robber barons that conspire with the geriatric debauchees to steal and embezzle the collective future of the next generation, have lost out completely. They are now being challenged by their jobless status. Fear has at least arrived at the door step of the corrupt.
Maxwell James Kpansia – Epie Yenagoa Bayelsa State
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