By Abdu Rafiu
As the saying goes, Nero fiddles while Rome burns. This aptly captures the situation in the land today. Barely three months ago, the National Bureau of Statistics sent cold shivers down our spine with its revelation of the state of insecurity and the heavy toll it has taken on the nation. Predictably, the media, print and digital, gave the revelation generous coverage. No report, in my view, has painted the picture the report seeks to convey more vividly than the British Broadcasting Corporation pidgin version. The BBC pidgin version reads: “Di Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday publish dia 2024 Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey.
“Di report show say approximately 2.2 trillion naira na im Nigerians pay to kidnappers as ransom money betwin May 2023 and April 2024. Dat na about 1.41 billion US dollars or £1.16 billion pounds, and e pass di 1. 64 trillion naira wey di goment budget for defence in 2024.
“According to di survey, Northwest rank highest both for di prevalence of kidnapping and di actual number of kidnap incidents. Out of di ova 2.2 million kidnapping incidents wey happun for di Nigeria during di period of di survey, more dan half—1.42 million incidents—happen for di North-West region.”
Newspapers and online publications reported the grim and chilling security situation between 17 and 23 December, 2024. It is in the grip of this grim situation that the Senators pre-occupy themselves with trivialities of who makes passes at one woman or who is being re-allocated a new seat. This is where I find in my reflections how much we reporters, we in this business of writing, miss our boss on the beat. I am referring to no other than celebrated columnist Sad Sam. He had his characterisation of Nigerian politicians in biting satirical style. Sometimes he could resort to crafting his comment in pidgin English as well to bring the language down for the grasp of every reader, the man on the street as well. Take this for instance, his sizzling views of Nigerian politicians with the headline in pidgin:
“Monkey dey work, baboon dey eat.”
Published on 06 May, 1962, the column reads as follows: “M.P.s who won’t sit in Parliament make me angry. One thousand pounds a year we pay them to serve us earnestly for less than 90 days a year. So they come to Lagos for a session in fine, fine cars and live in fine, fine flats at Victoria Beach.
“But in the day time, some go about their business—outside the House. And for the most time, the House cannot form a quorum—like during the Budget Session. At night, some have good times with the butterflies that abound. “Monkey dey work, baboon dey eat’” These politicians promise you all God’s Kingdom when they seek your vote; elect them and they let you down. Their good intentions in practice are at a discount because they are professionals—only amateur politicians are consistent. But beware amateurs.”
In 1970, there was this acrimonious divorce case in court between a couple in Lagos. The man was claiming paternity of the child between them, but the wife said the child did not belong to him. The man insisted the child was his. It was long drawn. Sad Sam felt he had to intervene and he did, partly in Queen’s English and in pidgin: “Who told you? No bi di woman wey born baby wey know di father?” It was not the age of DNA. Although the first production of DNA was in 1972, its first use was in 1986 in the United Kingdom. And it was Akinwumi Ambode’s Administration that completed the construction of high-powered Forensic Laboratory, the first, in Nigeria, in 2017.
So when the feud in the Senate broke out, my mind raced to the master, Sad Sam, how in his inimitable column and bow hat he would have reacted. With all the grim reports of insecurity in the land, inflation that has refused to be tamed and the gathering storm in Rivers State all the Senate regarded as the most pressing was the re-allocation of seats and who has made passes to which woman member of the Parliament. Consider it, in the face of thickening forces for conflagration staring the nation in the face and threatening to engulf first Port Harcourt and like the blind fury of a petrol tanker explosion spill to other parts of the country. And when it comes to electricity supply it is all sound and fury, signifying nothing. You wake up at 5a.m. to go to work at 6, it is all darkness. You return in the evening, it is into darkness. When asked if there was no power supply in your absence, members of the family left at home tell you the power outage was interrupted only briefly. And this reminds me of yet another of my erstwhile bosses. Allah-De of blessed memory.
Dabbling into this issue of electricity, he wrote on 15 March, 1969: Captioned “The miracle and the ECN”, the piece reads: “I was not present when the miracle at Kainji was performed, but that does not prove my inexcitability about prodigies. I am interested in the Kainji Dam if only for my own selfish end. My interest in the dam stems from my curiosity about the business of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, to which I pay warm tributes this morning for its promptness and efficiency in thrusting electricity bills into my garage door month by month.
“It is the only corporation that possesses the power to declare peremptorily to its customers: ‘Let there be light’ and there shall be light; or ‘may darkness fall upon this household’ and, of course, there shall be darkness upon such household. And so the father and the mother, and the children, the servants and all that dwell therein shall trip on the staircase and fall one upon the other.
“If you know of any other piper who is capable of displaying such magic at the dictates of his mood to the annoyance of those who subscribe to his pay packet, I would like to be informed.”
This was 56 years ago! And you ask yourself: what has changed? Yes, ECN has been unbundled, split into three organizations, but what has changed? We now have the Generation Company, GenCo; the Transmission Company, TCN; and the Discos; and Adebayo Adelabu, the new Mr. ECN, has been going up and down, getting to nowhere in particular. The annoyance Allah-De referred to was on display last week by some men of the Air Force! Adelabu has an enviable pedigree. He is the grandson of the nationalist, the icon, Adegoke Adelabu, of peculiar mess fame (Penkelemesi). Adebayo Adelabu himself has climbed high the rungs of economic and social ladder before this call to service. He was deputy governor of Central Bank before he decided to get into political arena following in the footsteps of his grandfather. By 11 December, last year, this newspaper reported that the National Grid had collapsed 12 times. In 10 years the grid collapsed 105 times despite the hefty loans of $1.4billion expended on it.
I can’t but share my unabating fascination for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth When I think of lack of humility of some of our political leaders even when I don’t agree with certain conceptions portrayed in Macbeth’s enrapturing poetry which arose from the painful demise of his wife. But I find the poetry on the whole sobering when I think of goings-on in Port Harcourt and Lagos, the unremitted struggle for political and economic control, and for mere ephemeral public acknowledgement instead of dedicated service infused with humility and thankfulness to the Most High for opportunity to serve! Hear Macbeth:
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty face from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.”
And I ask myself upon reflection on the poem: Where does my path lead me after my earthly life? It is a question for each and every one of us, even for Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin, Ben Netanyahu, Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas—for all mankind. Billions of human beings living in ignorance do not know that God, the Almighty Father does not need mankind; it is man that needs Him. It was they that supplicated to be permitted conscious existence, and consider it, man has turned this part of His Creation, our earth into an asylum! They do not realise that every action, thought and speech has consequences. They believe you just say a few words asking for forgiveness while on the death bed and that would be all, the sins are forgiven! Yet we are told: God cannot be mocked!
So, back to the pressing matters in the land: Security. Whether the reports by the media are couched in Queen’s English or in pidgin, the security situation is chilling. According to one of the national newspapers for example: “The insecurity in Nigeria is getting more serious. Many families are paying hefty ransoms to free their kidnapped relatives. Would the increased budget for security and defence in the 2025 budget change the rhetoric? We keep our fingers crossed.
“It is simply troubling that a nation that is not at war would be having such a staggering number of abductions in one year.
“Many Nigerians were flabbergasted Tuesday when the latest Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) became public.
“The NBS told the world that Nigerian households paid a total of N2.3trn as ransom over the last 12 months between May 2023 and April 2024, and that an estimated number of 51.89 million crime incidents were recorded within the stated period, leaving many citizens tongue-tied.
“It is not surprising that the North west was mentioned as leading chart in the NBS report. The seven states of the zone (Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara have always been the hotbeds of bandits’ activity. These are also where hefty ransoms are being demanded and paid.
“Of the budget, N1.7trillion was allocated to defence. It means that the amount (N2.23trn) paid as ransom was higher than the year’s budget to fight insecurity in that year.”
Another newspaper report stated: “Major Opposition parties in Nigeria have knocked the Federal Government and security in the country, saying they were not doing enough to stem the tide of kidnapping. The concerns were raised following the revelation in the data released on December 17 by the National Bureau of Statistics which revealed that Nigerians paid a sum of N2.23trn as ransom to kidnappers between May 2023 and April 2024. According to NBS, 2.2 million Nigerians were kidnapped while 614, 937 were killed in the same year.”
Reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, lamented that random abductions of innocent persons was allowed to fester into a booming business in Nigeria. Ifoh, in an interview with Saturday Punch, stated that the NBS’s report showed how high insecurity had impacted every household in the country.
He said: “The NBS statistics said it all. In a population 230 million, at least one person in every hundred has been kidnapped in Nigeria. It is incredible and bizzare. It means that insecurity has already come to everybody’s doorstep. This is happening despite the humongous amount of money budgeted for security, including police and defence. Our farmers are no longer safe on the farm because and it is only when we keep the farmers safe that we can produce food”.
As of March last year, everyone, the authorities and stakeholders seemed persuaded after years of perilous foot- dragging that the establishment of state police is the answer to the insecurity debacle bedevilling our country. Since then, what has happened? It was after this raising of hope that the National Bureau of Statistics came up with its shocking and depressing report that, indeed, the situation has gone worse, I believe following our accustomed lethargy. Applauding the meeting of minds on the vexed issue, I wrote exactly a year ago today, 14 March, 2024, the following: Captioned “Security: Time is of the essence”
“It is enheartening that the Federal and State Governments are hearkening to our outcry: They have given nod to the establishment of state police. It is a decision that must be given bite immediately. It is quite a pity that it has taken such a shockingly long time to see that the solution to the insecurity bedeviling our land is the establishment of state police. Something so simple to see and so commonsensical to perceive! Because of the lackadaisical attitude of certain past leaders because they lived in a fortress, all manner of dare-devil criminals was let loose on the country. Citizens were and are still exposed to mindless attacks and destruction of properties. It will soon be 10 years since 276 Chibok school girls in Borno State were kidnapped; no fewer than 95 remain in captivity till date!
“The sign of a renewed legislative thinking was foreshadowed in the House of Representative agenda upon reconvening from Christmas/end of year recess. Perturbed Speaker Tajudeen Abbas did state that the issue of security and the concomitant imperative of the establishment of state police would receive priority attention of the House. Within the last one week the nation was driven to a fresh rude awakening causing alarm to warrant bringing the matter to the front burner again. A new wave of kidnapping began in Borno State when about 400 persons were kidnapped. It was followed by the abduction of 257 school children in one go in Kaduna State. And to muddle the situation, on Tuesday, 60 more persons were kidnapped in the already menaced axis of Kajuru, bringing to more than 300 kidnapped in that state within a week. Sokoto had its own share in the earlier wave of an attack in which two persons were killed.
“With the Federal and State Governments now on the same page, it should go without saying that the National Assembly should realise that time is of the essence. They should permit no distractions now, but speed up whatever processes are required to facilitate the establishment of the State Police in the country.”
For purposes of emphasis, it is necessary to state that practically every day, someone, somewhere is being shot or kidnapped. Gunmen, marauders, bandits, kidnappers, cultists and sundry criminals have for years been let loose, laying siege on the country with alarming impunity. In towns, in villages most Nigerians go to bed with their eyes half closed. People travel with baited breath, feeling relieved only when they reach their destination. Prayers are said at motor parks before drivers turn the ignition key to put their vehicles on the road.
All these have been borne out by the National Bureau of Statistics survey. Added to these is the combustible situation in Port Harcourt waiting only for a careless cigarette end to set off a conflagration. These should be what pre-occupies the attention of the National Assembly not frivolities. The primary purpose of government anywhere in the world is security of the citizenry, protection of life and property. It is to facilitate freedom and movement of citizens without let or fail. After all, Senate President Godswill Akpabio himself in burning rage took on a former predecessor, His Excellency Bukola Saraki protesting the allocation of his seat when he was only an honourable member of the Red Chambers.
The Guardian
