By Alkasim Harisu Alkasim
The abductors got bewitched by Hajiya’s daughter and wanted to hold her for marriage. Had they ever had sex with her? This remains an unanswered question, although such an act is their capital source of chillaxing. During their stay, the abductees could not be in the arms of Morpheus. I told you earlier that the kidnappers do different assignments, such as denying the victims a chance to sleep. There are others assigned to supply food and water and those to provide bullets, etc.
Naturally, women suffer from menstruation period. How do they look after themselves during their monthly friend? It is devastating that the kidnappers eject from the den any victim suffering continuing ill health by gunning him. The kidnappers love talkaholism. They talk their ears off after drinking alcohol and dragging marijuana until an uproar overwhelms the place. Nobody is to tax the patience of these bestiality-stricken people unless they want to die.
The bitterest part of this tragic story was where Hajiya came the selfish with the driver. Given the opportunity to call a blood brother residing in Saudi Arabia, she said something that made my blood boil. When the Saudi-Arabia-based brother asked how many of them got abducted, she shamelessly said they were two, deliberately forgetting to mention the driver. This unprintable selfish behaviour of Hajiya redounded back on her as the kidnappers held her daughter all the more and threw away the key. What a world! The driver got sorrow-ridden as problems slammed him.
The superior kidnappers exploit the inferior by capitalising on their weaknesses and expertise. The inferiors bust their asses to gather money for the superiors, yet they can’t get the money that is worth their effort. The toil of the junior kidnappers is worth hundreds of thousands of naira. Things continued to pick up steam. As a result, they got pretty fed up with how the senior kidnappers capitalised on their expertise to gain money. This dilemmatic situation they got entrapped in emerged as a genuine concern.
As raging parties, the senior and junior kidnappers failed to ensure a common mind among themselves. As the high frequency of their getting exploited steamed more, the juniors cut corners with some of the hostages despite their being under the magnifying glass of the kidnapping honchos. The new abductors collocated their new abductees in a new hidey-hole. Hmm! There is betrayal and sabotage even among the abductors.
One of them said to the driver, “Between you and me and these four walls, do you have relations who can ransom you?” The kidnapper did this to gain money to recompense the exploitation he had stomached when under the employment of their former superiors. But will they ever mend fences with their bossyboots? Nobody knows. The seceded kidnappers considered releasing whoever paid a ransom. They ordered the driver to pay some handsome amount to compensate himself. He told the kidnappers that his whole family could not gather such an amount.
The driver bequeathed his wife and children through Hajiya, who was released on that very day following her ransom payment. So that the driver could not afford the amount they requested, they told him to pay any amount he could, no matter how smattering. Upon payment, he finally got relieved of being a hostage.
At this juncture, society and the government must do their utmost to see the youth walk a straight line in their respective communities. Otherwise, they will always be putting a foot wrong. We all need to stop this problem, for failing to do so means we are putting a gun to our heads. It is also good to know that gaoling the criminals is not the only solution. Because at times, gaoling does not end social ills such as this. Rather, the criminals should be rehabilitated, educated, enlightened and offered jobs. If you give them jobs, they can put butter on their bread.
Parents, too, should stop spoiling their children rotten to avoid paving the way for them to stubbornness. They should be more thorough with their children and reprimand them if they go wrong. They should be taken to market to learn the basics of trading. Maybe, some of them have got a Midas touch. Some boys are brilliant for they can work like clockwork. They can perform like a duck takes to water at anything they start. Let’s help them mend their lifestyle to begin to feel like a million bucks. It is disgusting that some parents contribute to spoiling their children by refusing to admit to handling even simple misbehaviour their children start to embody. This makes me lose the run of myself. This fact can’t admit to two interpretations. First, it is your faux pas. Period!
I feel like a chicken with its head cut off to see our children engaging in the misbehaviour of flirting, misspending, playing truant, etc. Like it or lump it, our youth are rampantly becoming wayward. They abuse drugs like it is going out of style. They don’t only like it, but rather like it like mad. They busy themselves smoking and drinking like nobody’s business as if their lives depended on it. But indeed, if we make it our business, stopping this behaviour is just like taking candy from a baby.
In conclusion, the government should redouble efforts, tighten security and reconnoitre suspicious places. The more disturbing thing the government should know is that the Chadians, Cameroonians, and other Fulani tribespeople form most of the kidnappers, while Nigerian kidnappers form a minority of those abductors. The government should also wake up to this, work hard to gain a wonder drug for the situation and record a great success. Let us strike while the iron is hot.
Alkasim Harisu Alkasim wrote from Kano via alkasabba10@gmail.com.
