This piece was written by Adaobi Okwy from Lagos...
Just last month, I got a text message from my mother: “Mrs Ad…” was kidnapped last night. Please let’s begin praying for her”. Right after the initial chill and shock ran through me and I was able to get my prayers out, the anger of the whole cruelty ripped through my body. That woman is a widow and who spent years suffering to raise children who God has begun to bless their endeavors. That night, a few boys stormed her home and drove her away in her own car and began to ask for a ransom of 50million naira.
Over and over again, we see the news of kidnap. When caught, they turn out to be boys who are out of secondary school and are waiting to get into university or undergraduates. But, let us consider the ripple effect of kidnapping on not just the victims, but on the kidnappers and then, the society at large. Being
kidnapped is cruel and inhuman punishment. You not only psychologically, emotionally and physically torture another humanbeing; you do the same to a whole community of people: family, friends, co-workers, peers and the society.
The case of a young boy “Currency”, his brother and a few others who had kidnapped their relative (a grandmother), a year ago, was aggravated after the woman died within days of her release. The trauma of the woman’s experience led to her demise. Talk to kidnap victims, they suffer terrible traumas, nightmares, insecurities, guilt over what they had no power over and over the huge financial loss they cost their family etc.
Kidnappers when caught, say that ‘hardship’, ‘poverty’, ‘inequality’ and the like, drove them into the crime. In response to that, let us take the widow in the introduction as an example. Did she in anyway cause her kidnappers their hardship, poverty and inequality? Did she not work hard to earn her living? What gives you the right to reap where you did not sow? Let’s say you are paid off with ten million naira. Are you set for life? According to “Currency” mentioned above, he bought a car and rented an apartment with the ransom money he got paid. Did he stop to wonder how he will keep the car on the road? How he will renew his next rent and how generally, he intended to support his newly acquired lifestyle? So, he goes back to kidnapping other people…until when?
There is a reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Aside those rich who make their money by swindling others, there are many rich people who keep toiling hard to make their money. How many honest people do you know, got rich overnight? Tell yourself whatever you want but you cannot give what you do not have. You cannot be anything but evil, if you believe that to move past hardship in life, you have to hurt your neighbor. Remember the Boston bombers? Their family members found it unbelievable what their sons had done. Kidnappers when caught are shot to death- a loss to family, friends and loved ones. A cruel grief to a family.
No society grows above the people who occupy it. Why do people migrate from one place to the other? Mainly because they believe that there’s something better where they’re going. The places where kidnapping is rampant, is not going to see any influx in people because no one wants to be kidnapped or killed. And people bring infrastructure. Infrastructure brings development and growth. Development and growth ensures that we can work hard, contribute back to the system that supports us, and live a sustainable economy for our own children.
Whether we are dealing with foreigners who cannot come to our environment for fear of kidnap or local investors, kidnapping is a cancer that devours everything it touches. The ripple runs very deep and may take a generation to cure…if they are diligent enough.
True talk... You can also write to at mop4aids@gmail.com
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