Trust Nigerians to always make headlines for the wrong reasons. The latest bombshell from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that Nigerians paid a mind-boggling N2.23 trillion in ransom to kidnappers within just one year should send shivers down our spines.
But wait a minute. Is anyone really surprised? I’m not. If anything, I think this figure is just the tip of the iceberg.
Let me tell you why. First, these are just the reported cases. In a country where people have as much faith in the police as they do in their village witch doctor, countless kidnapping cases go unreported.
Who can blame them? We’ve heard too many horror stories of police officers acting as informants to kidnappers. It’s like reporting a theft to the thief’s brother. The statistics paint a grim picture – 65 percent of kidnapped households paid ransom averaging N2.
67 million each. But let’s put this in perspective: N2.23 trillion is more than some states’ annual budgets combined.
While our politicians are busy debating the colour of the next parliamentary building, Nigerians are literally selling their lives back from criminals. Here’s what I find particularly disturbing: the North West recorded the highest crime incidents at 14.4 million.
Yet, this is the same region with multiple military operations ongoing. Someone needs to explain this paradox to me. How can a region under heavy military presence lead the pack in crime statistics? It either means our military operations are mere wi.