From Enaholo J.K.
I ran into a kidnap victim a day or two ago plying the Otaru Road Route in Auchi. As usual, he looked dapper, neat, and cute just the same way we’ve always known him. We exchanged quick pleasantries in transit, but as I rode off, my mind betrayed me: I immediately recalled the visuals of him and our other abducted brothers that got online while they were in captivity. You remember those horrifying clips, don’t you?
In that brief moment, the contrast hit me like a slap. The man I’ve just seen looks restored, but I could still see the shadows of misery, anxiety, uncertainty, and pain that had grotesquely reshaped his face back then. And I realized: trauma does not vanish because someone is released. Fear lingers. The scar remains. A man becomes overtly conscious, unsafe even in his own home, in his supposed comfort zone.
And then anger boiled up in me. Because what I saw wasn’t just his trauma. What I saw was a picture of betrayal. A system that promised to protect him but has repeatedly failed. A system that leaves its sons and daughters abandoned to simply survive instead of to truly live in colour and dignity.
In my communal way of thinking, I could not escape the collective guilt. We, as a people, have failed too. We only react when the crisis has already erupted. We only scramble after the gun has gone off, when blood has already been spilled, when ransom money has already been demanded.
When it comes to proactive safeguarding? Zero!
Let me remind us that in not more than three months, ₦70,000,000 (SEVENTY MILLION NAIRA) was raised by fire and force, dragged out of suffering families as our sons went through hell and ice in the hands of a few merciless men. Yes, seventy million! And still, here we are, pretending things are normal.
Let me remind us that the release of those young fathers to reunite with their families is not the end of our insecurity. The criminals are still out there. They are still watching. They are still planning. To them, “money dey Auchi o.” And they will keep coming because they have tested us and confirmed how weak, how careless and how reactive we are.
The question now is, shall we continue to let a few become more powerful than the many? Shall we sit and watch this trend grow the same way we looked away at ‘Yah00 Yah00’ until it became normalized stealing in disguise? Shall we continue raising ransoms instead of raising security? Is this the future we are content with? Shall we continue to live like prey in our own land?
Hmm!
Until we decide to prioritize security over ransom, pain will remain our constant companion.
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