Nigeria: The Bad Business Called Kidnapping

Kidnapping has now become a generic word both in public and private discussions going by its prevalence in the country. Literarily, the word, which has become notorious, putrid and nauseating in the ears of virtually everyone, is derived from "kid" meaning 'child' and "nab" which means 'to snatch.'

Kidnapping, no doubt, is not a new phenomenon. It's as old as the word itself. But the motive has differed from country to country. Since 1673, the unfriendly word has been used to mean the practice of stealing of children for use as servants or laborers in the American colonies. It has come to mean any illegal capture or detention of a person or people against their will, regardless of age.

The kidnappers, who can be very erratic, have been found to engage in the criminality for several complex motives ranging from unemployment, idleness, retribution, rituals, monetary gains and political reasons.

According to the Black's Law Dictionary, the crime of kidnapping is labeled abduction when the victim is a woman. In modern usage, kidnapping or abduction of a child is often called "child stealing," especially when not done to collect a ransom.

The Law Encyclopedia describes the act as false imprisonment in the sense that it involves the illegal confinement of an individual against his or her will by another individual in such a manner as to violate the confined individual's right to be free from restraint of movement.

In Criminal Law, kidnapping is the taking away or asporation of a person against the person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment or a confinement without legal authority. This is often done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime.

In the Psychology of Kidnapping, as revealed by Stephen Golding, a Forensic Psychologist in Personality100.com, kidnappers "use psychological controls similar to those used by some law enforcements, namely making threats to the victim about potential harm they could do to the victim and to the victim's family."

No one is free from being kidnapped. Even parents have been found to kidnap their children and wards! In Nigeria, the kidnappers are everywhere targeting all - foreigners and non-foreigners alike with little or no resistance from our law enforcement agents.

In most cases, the superior arms and ammunition of the kidnappers are overwhelming. The militants and their unscrupulous warlords, who acquire their weapons with proceeds from oil smuggling, are exploiting this genuine sense of grievance by the people of Niger Delta.

The Weekly Telegraph of February 20, 2006 depicted the level of sophistication in the modus operandi of the kidnappers. It says, "the way they hold their rifles, with their fingers placed away from the trigger and the use of headphones for noise-protection by some fighters indicate they have been given professional military training." Recently, some military men were sent to life imprisonment for allegedly selling arms and ammunition to militants in the Niger Delta.

In a gory recent statistics posted by NationMaster.com, out of the 13,973 reported cases of kidnapping, the United Kingdom had 3,261; South Africa has 3,071 while the least was Iceland with 2 cases among the countries documented.

The Associated Press, in its report of August 27, 2008 stated that "more than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in two years of heightened violence across Nigeria's restive South, the victims are normally released unharmed after a ransom is paid, although, several have been killed during botched seizures or rescue attempts." Victims are ineluctably maimed, raped and manhandled in such a manner that the stigma remains almost indefinitely. Their families and associates are knocked down by intractable trauma.

The militants believe they should take their destinies into their hands and grab whatever they could, using the barrel of the gun in the face of systematic looting of funds by government officials. Apart from having a fair share of national resources, the militants, who are mostly the kidnappers, are also demanding the release of their leaders arrested by the government and are currently facing criminal charges.

Politicians have been reported to have stolen about 220 Billion pounds in the first four decades of independence from Britain - an amount roughly equivalent to the western aid given to Africa.

The effects of the ever-increasing cases of kidnapping are enormous. In monetary terms, CNN.com of May 26, 2007 quoted the US Department of Energy as saying that in 2005, Nigeria was the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil, "but the conflict there has cut distribution by an estimated 500,000 barrels per day."

Perhaps, what the bad business called kidnapping has caused the nation more is the negative image and reputation. Technically speaking, image is an attribute, a quality or character that a nation has got. On the other hand, reputation is when this quality, character or attribute is held in public opinion and is commonly ascribed. While image remains what it is; whether known or not, it becomes reputation when it is known.

As rightly observed by Zulu Sofola in "Philosophy and Dimensions of National Communication Policy," "the issue of the image of a nation is a crucial one, but that of a national conscience is quite complicated when there exists an absence of a national ethos. For without national ethics and code of conduct, the wicked and brutish tendencies of man cannot be influenced positively."

This vividly captures the point raised by Deji Haastrup in "Public Relations for Maximum Productivity" that "no matter the level of international diplomacy and brinkmanship we employ, if we do not work conscientiously to rid our country of the negative tendencies that abound here and show our determination to build a new foundation for collective development and progress, we will be wasting out time and money because the international community will not take us seriously."

Genuine investors now shy away from venturing into the Nigerian business environment that is already enmeshed in dearth of infrastructure, epileptic power supply, high cost of finance and unfavorable political climate.

Curbing this social malaise is a collective effort. The citizenry and law enforcement agents should work in tandem to find a lasting solution to the problem. Everyone should be security conscious. Culprits should be apprehended and punished as appropriate and more importantly, public officers should shun corruption, govern the populace with transparency, accountability and fair play.

Definitely, when these indices are put in place, the verity is that bad business called kidnapping would become less attractive and in turn, stimulate the much-needed sense of compassion, patriotism and love for one another for a sustainable development and nation building.

allAfrica.com