Editorial

Director Michael Adesiyan’s harrowing experience

WHEN they go to bed, surrounded by security agents armed to the teeth, members of Nigeria’s ruling elite have little or no fear for their safety. They are well protected. Unfortunately, that is where the story ends, as the majority of Nigerians have no guarantees about anything. Security is supposed to be the raison d’etre of the State, but it has become abundantly clear that Nigerians from all walks of life, from retired Generals to civil servants, market (wo)men and farmers, can be picked up by outlaws at any time and held in terrible conditions in the forests until ransoms are paid by their families, or executed in the most dastardly fashion even after ransoms have been paid. A former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga, was recently “rescued” from bandits after serving and retired military personnel reportedly contributed hundreds of millions of naira to secure his release, and this is the same country where no less a personality than a former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, was gunned down in cold blood by bandits, while a former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, is only lucky to be alive after being abducted by the merchants of death. As a matter of fact, in March 2021, even as a sitting governor in Benue State, Mr Samuel Ortom came dangerously close to death at the hands of nomadic gunmen who were reported to have boasted that he would not be so lucky next time!

Abuja, the seat of federal power, has been under siege for years now as criminals toy with the lives of the people, invading homesteads and abducting people at will. The implication, namely that you have no guarantees against abduction even in the country’s most fortified enclave, is staggering in purport. From the Presidency to state Government Houses, Nigerian rulers clamour for foreign direct investment, but life in the country is perennially unsafe. Day in, day out, terrorists of all hues perpetrate infamy, assuming a totalitarian role over the lives of hapless citizens, the victims of an abundantly blessed but criminally managed country. The horror stories that signify Nigeria’s gradual descent into anomie are many, but we advise Nigerian leaders to take a minute to ponder the harrowing experience of a Deputy Director at the National Assembly Commission, Michael Adesiyan, who recently recounted his near-death experience in the den of bandits. Adesiyan was abducted from his Chikakore residence in Kubwa, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), alongside his wife on January 26 and was only rescued on April 7.

The story, replete with evidences of governance failure, is painfully tragic. On the night of Monday, January 26, the tribe of terrorists that Nigerians know too well abducted Adesiyan, his wife, Esther; their son, their visitor and a neighbour. Thereafter, the criminals killed Esther Adesiyan and dumped her body in a bush near Itagbajii community in Niger State. Narrating his ordeal to journalists at the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Abuja, during the presentation of 60 kidnapped victims rescued by the security forces to the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu Adesiyan, said: “I was chained for 32 days. I want to advise that the government should find a way to disarm or arrest them (bandits) instead of confronting them. They (government) can send them to school. Some cannot even count one million. They are stark illiterates. They are young people of ages 17 to 21. They don’t know what they are doing. So, if the government can bring them out, if they want to learn work (apprenticeship), it can let them do so. It can retrain them, reorientate them, so that they can become useful to themselves. My advice is this: instead of killing them, arrest them, reorientate them. When they kill someone in your presence, you will give them anything they want. For instance, they killed my wife in my presence. If they request for your head in that situation, you will give it to them.”

Here is a citizen telling the story of the brutal murder of his spouse, right in his presence. What can be more soul-crushing than this? Yet, it is the daily dose of agony that criminals administer to Nigerians. A gang of criminals wielding AK-47 rifles, ammunition to which other Nigerians have no access, keeps shedding blood across the length and breadth of the country while those voted into office to ensure their safety keep rolling out a salad of excuses for their dismal failure. In a civilised clime, the hearts of those in authority would be pricked by dastardly stories such as this, but hardly anyone can vouch for Nigerian leaders in this regard. There have been countless stories like this one, but they have not led to a demonstrable change in the state of affairs in the country. If anything, things have been getting worse. What a tragedy!

If the government wants to salvage whatever is left of its reputation, it must take the battle to the terrorists and smoke them out. In this regard, while we understand the emotional position from which the bereaved director, Adesiyan, spoke, we categorically reject his counsel. If a 20-year-old already knows how to kill and exults in killing people’s wives in their presence, then he should be treated like the murderer that he is. There is no need to try to civilise bloodthirsty killers: they should be given a quick passport to hell. If terrorists are not running riot on the streets of countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States, it is because they know the ugly fate that awaits them if they dare to toy with human life. If terrorists are not running riot in some countries that do not even have a quarter of the resources that Nigeria has, it is because the leadership of those countries is not playing ping-pong with killers. Nigerian leaders must change tactics and let killers know that this is Judgment Day.

Going by the lessons of history, a populace can only take so much before it reacts negatively. The government should stop these killers in their tracks before Nigerians take it upon themselves to stop them. Enough is enough. We are sick and tired of telling the government to do its job.

Tribune Online