Kidnappers are having a field day on Buhari’s watch by Ademola Adeoye

On the 14th of April, 2014, on His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s watch, two bombs exploded at a crowded bus station in Nyanya, Nasarawa, killing at least 88 people and injuring at least 200. The bus station is 8km southwest of central Federal Capital Territory. What a very poignant day in the history of our beloved country!

Also, on the 20th of May, 2014, one hundred and eighteen (118) people were killed in twin bomb blasts in central Nigerian city of Jos. I remember calling a friend—who resides in the chill city of Jos—to find out what was truly happening, because many national dailies reported different numbers of people who lost their lives when those two blood-spilling bomb blasts went off. My crony actually narrowly escaped being blown into pieces!


In addition, on the 25th of June, 2014, there was another bomb attack on a busy shopping district in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, killing at least 21 people and injuring 52 more! I can go on and on. Eventually, it got to a time that Nigerians began to become tired of bomb attacks and those who wanted political-power—that is transient—painted GEJ as a weak and wrong man in power. They painted a picture of nation that can never survive on the watch of GEJ! And unwittingly, Nigerians bought into their propaganda and decided to look for an alternative.


Nigerians found an alternative in the earth-suit of General Muhammadu Buhari. GMB was packaged as a man with a magic wand—who would suddenly change Nigeria from what it was to what we all desire her to become. Nigerians went to the polls and GMB ultimately was transformed to PMB! Nigerians screamed and jumped, because they thought their savior had come.


I remember leaving my house very early in the morning for my office to cast my vote for baba, because I did register at Ikeja, the capital of Lagos state. We did not only cast our votes for President Buhari, we waited to defend our votes! Nigerians was made to see a ray of hope in baba—a ray of hope that disappeared around two (2) years after he got to power!


The only rank of people who still see baba as a savior today are those who are feeding fat on the crumbs that daily fall from his table in Aso Rock. This season and period in the migration of Nigeria in the direction of true nationhood has opened my eyes to see that people are only loyal to their pockets and bellies. Once they can find what to eat, black becomes white, bad becomes good, stagnation becomes progress and ineffectiveness becomes effectiveness.


Even those clerics who criticized some clerics for not speaking against GEJ openly, though very close to him, are now as still as water, because they too are living very close to Aso Rock. GEJ was lampooned by them, not because they love Nigeria, but because they hated him for being in power and wanted their own man in the saddle. Now that baba has become the President of Nigeria, what has changed for the better? We still cannot protect our people.


Bomb attacks have now moved from urban areas to rural areas! Now, we are battling bandits, herdsmen, kidnappers and terrorists. Nigerians are now afraid of traveling within Nigeria, for fear of being killed or kidnapped. We have never been this naked as a nation. We clearly cannot protect of our people. And the more we tell the defense-less citizens of Nigeria that we have technically defeated Boko Haram, the more they attack our people, to prove to the whole world that they are still alive and strong.


Some weeks ago, the governor of Kaduna State told the whole world that Abuja-Kaduna highway has become very safe for our people. We have gotten to a level in the life of our country when political leaders would tell you what time says by their wrist-watches and you would need to check your own wristwatch to confirm whether it is true or not. Today, we use more of lies than strategies to govern our people. The most troubling aspect of this sad development is that our people too love to have it so. An average Nigerian prefers falsehood to truth!


Yesterday, seven (7) people were kidnapped on Abuja-Kaduna highway. They actually blocked the highway (that El-Rufai said has become very safe), having a field-day. Also, in Katsina State, 15 citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were kidnapped. This has become a daily occurrence in our clime. Kidnappers are making millions almost every day. When our people are kidnapped, for them to regain freedom, they would need to part with either some thousands or millions of naira. It was in the news the other day that even a policeman needed to part with some cash before regaining freedom. If that happened to a policeman, what then is the hope of the common man?


Kayode Sule, son of the Chief Medical Director and two staff members of the hospital were kidnapped on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. A few days after, they regained their freedom. How much the CMD man parted with is still shrouded in secrecy. Also, during the just concluded annual event of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, some members were kidnapped on their way to the RCCG Camp. They later regained freedom, but we were not told if some cash was paid or not. Our people are cheaply being kidnapped today because some unexpected-people are daily smiling to the bank. Kidnapping on baba’s watch is now a multi-million naira industry!


The fear that grips the hearts of our people while moving from one point to another is much more than the fear that gripped the hearts of Nigerians in the days of old—when “Shina Rambo, Ishola Oyenusi and Lawrence Anini” held sway in a nation that was conceived in hope, but being deliberately nurtured into nothingness.


Coasting home, on the condition that nothing is done to stop the rate at which our people are being easily kidnapped, very soon, Nigeria shall be declared a failed state, because any nation that cannot protect her citizens is truly a failed one!