These days, in my part of the world, a good number of Nigerians no longer have deep concern about people being kidnapped because it has become the norm.
"Again? When are we going to finally conquer this problem? May God help us." This is all we say, dust it off, and move on with our lives with little concern about the kidnapped victims and how they are going to be rescued. The government, on the other hand, doesn't seem to give it deep concern either. The only people who are affected heavily are the family members of the kidnapped victims.
Some days ago, a group of prospective corps members were kidnapped on their journey to their deployed orientation camp in one of the eastern states in Nigeria. For the non-Nigerians reading this, these people are fresh graduates who are deployed to serve the nation for a one-year scheme, and the deployment is usually far away from where one schooled, one's state, or one's state of origin. They got kidnapped, the news spread, and all that came out of everyone's mouths was "Again?" and all sorts of lamentations.
For someone who has passed through the scheme, I tried to put myself in such a circumstance, and I couldn't just allow myself to comprehend everything. It's so disheartening!
These people were held hostage in the bush while the bandits demanded huge ransoms from the families of each of the victims. Under normal circumstances and intense pressure, no family would want their family member to remain in the dungeon of kidnappers, and they would naturally want to make moves to rescue their loved ones.
This is a very rampant occurrence in Nigeria. Kidnapping here and there, and most recently, it has been touching everyone, even the poor in the country who can't afford to sort out the huge ransoms demanded, unlike how it used to be when it mostly affected the rich, who could easily sort out the money.
This recent occurrence, though a lot of us waved it off our thoughts because it's a regular occurrence, made me remember a friend of mine who was once kidnapped while travelling back to school after a holiday. Like, this isn't something I saw on social media or on the news, but something that happened to someone I know. She and others were held hostage in the bush for a week. They were fed "anyhow" food and treated inhumanely. Their parents were contacted, and ransoms were paid before they were released. So hurtful!
As of yesterday, regarding this current trend, it was reported that the kidnapped corps members had been rescued by the police force, in conjunction with other security agencies in the state.
And just as it usually happens, it was reported that the police force waged war against the kidnappers before they were released, while the parents of the victims said they paid ransom for the victims to be released. There are always three(or four, five, or ten)sides of story...
That aside, what will be the condition of the victims? Of course, their mindset won't be the same. Their mental health has already been badly affected.
Thanks for reading.
Photo: Chatgpt