By Emeka Aroh.
‘Kidnapping’ is not a new word or concept to an average Nigerian. However, it has been taken to a new level parallel to excruciating economic squeeze on the citizenry. Depending where one is standing, it is easy to see why Southeastern Nigerians believe the government has turned a blind eye to the gory tales of activities mostly carried out in Southeast, Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen. The question is, “Will those who bear the brunt of kidnap do nothing?”It is unconscionable that lack of public safety has been added to the push-factor that drives Nigerian citizens abroad. A lot of Nigerians are not doing well. Many are perennially hungry and looking for an opportunity to make any form of living.Informed or not, many point tothe economy as spiraling and in shambles due to individual greed, uninformed economic policies, thieving in high places, high seas-ala bunkering, and illicit siphoning of the nation’s major sources of income: gold, coal, groundnut, cocoa, and oil to private accounts abroad in collusion with dubious Western technocrats.
To make matters worse, those entrusted with authority to serve the people including local chiefs, indigenes, the police, the army; yes, soldiers and relatives have joined in the fray. Kidnapping has become so lucrative that everyone is a potential informant working with outlaws in the bush to forcefully deprive the unfortunate of millions of naira. Bankers and switchboard operators are deeply involved in this chicanery. This is wrong. It is a hallmark of a dysfunctional society evidenced in Banana Republics. Many in the country have lost hope in democratic institutions, and believe sorrowfully that the country is slipping faster and faster to becoming a failed state if nothing is done to stem the tide. They are aware that to call for an urgent action to stem the activities of kidnappers in Nigeria in the face of near to total electricity blackout, roads riddled with potholes, zero manufacturing abilities amidst tribalistic kleptomaniacs in government is akin to a cry in the wilderness.This is why few bother to press for a solution to kidnapping in Nigeria. Instead, the rich surround themselves with private security, mobile policemen and rent-for-hire soldiers. They say nothing; instead, they showcase great fire power around themselves.
The solution is not far-fetched, and all know it. Truth be told, there are less than one thousand (1,000) Fulani herdsmen in all Southeast, Nigeria. Yet over 36 million people live in fear. They walk on eggshells in their own villages. They are afraid to call outsiders for funerals to bury the dead. They fast to journey from point A to B in the same state in Nigeria. Wives, mothers, fathers, husbands, and children cannot go to their farms, nor sleep in their own houses in peace. This does not make sense, except,as many people believe, rightly or wrongly, that Fulani herdsmen is an excuse for governmental invasion of Southeast Nigeria; a glaring subterfuge, they claim, the government (past and present) uses as bait to Southeast Nigeria.Assuming, however, that the ruling government is simply inept at providing its citizenry with an acceptable form of security to safeguard their lives, then it is time for locals to band together and do something to checkmate kidnappers in their tracks. This can be done by using DRONES to monitor activities in surrounding bushes where Fulani herdsmen are known to inhabit.
Every local government authority in the Southeast can acquire a cheap DRONE equipped with cameras with which a few trained personnel can use to monitor activities in surrounding farms, streams, uncompleted buildings, bush tracks (paths), and anywhere smoke is seen rising or sound is heard. Secondly, all able-bodied young men in every village should assemble at a point twice every month and together comb through their surrounding forests to ferret out anything or anyone that is out of place. Those abroad or not living at home should be taxed monetarily to support the work done by those at home. Between DRONES monitoring and feet on the ground there is no place for kidnappers to hide and become the menace they have become to people living in the Southeast. State governments must actively support the forming of vigilante groups across each state. Formed, these able-bodied young men must mount roadblocks in their villages from 6pm-to-6am daily, or 24/7 to reassure their wives, mothers, and children that they are safe in their villages. Their activities will be monitored from the sky with DRONES in local government headquarters. Not to do these things is tantamount to owning what is happening in the Southeast. The time to act is now. Enough is enough.
It must be noted that a few villages in the Southeast have already instituted vigilante groupsthat monitor the going and coming of all vehicular traffic to their villages 24/7. They know their people and help instill confidence in them. Knowing they are present encourage local folks to go to farm, fetch wood and conduct daily activities in peace. Unfortunately, they are ill-equipped and afraid of disbandment by the government. This must not be so; rather, they should be encouraged, recognized, assisted and integrated into each local government support system.
Emeka Aroh wrote from USA.