OBI, KIDNAPPERS AND A BROKEN SOCIETY

MR MICHAEL OBI, FATHER OF CHELSEA FC MIDFIELDER AND NIGERIAN INTERNATIONAL JOHN MIKEL OBI.
MR MICHAEL OBI, FATHER OF CHELSEA FC MIDFIELDER AND NIGERIAN INTERNATIONAL JOHN MIKEL OBI.

Again and Again, by their dastardly acts of primitive depravity, armed hoodlums keep throwing the Nigeria’s international image to the dogs and portraying all of us as people who are in the very last stage of a failed or broken down society.

The month of August of this year will go down in history as one in which the international image of Nigeria was literarily pulled down by criminal deviants to its lowest ebb with the forced abduction of the father of one of Nigeria’s most talented foreign- based football player Mr. John Mikel Obi. The senior Mr. Obi was violently kidnapped by some suspected armed hoodlums on his way to work in the equally embattled and violence-prone capital city of Plateau state – Jos.

The younger Obi who plies his professional career in the United Kingdom with one of the World’s most widely acclaimed soccer clubs-Chelsea football club of Central London, appeared severally on the International Cable Network news (CNN) and Sky News television on Monday 15th August 2011 to plead with the suspected kidnappers of his lovely father to release him without physical harm. He begged the kidnappers who have for the better part of one week eluded capture by the thoroughly weak and derelict Nigeria Police Force, to contact his family so that they could work out the mechanisms for the safe release of their abducted father.

John Mikel Obi’s appearance and his profoundly emotional plea for the release of his father practically reminded me that Nigeria has indeed become not just a failed state but a broken down society. The symbolism of the violent abduction of the Senior Mr. Obi and the inability of the security operatives to arrest perpetrators of this dastardly crime is that the dysfunctional nature of the apparatus of civil governance has further eroded the fundamental social and cultural fabrics that ought to hold us together as a people in order for us to collectively restore and rescue the Nigerian state from the inevitable failure as a sovereign entity that ought to be properly governed by the principle of the Rule of law.

For most observers, the criminal acts of violent kidnappings of persons by armed hoodlums for ransoms is one clear sign that apart from the fact that the instrumentality of law enforcement has suffered spectacular collapse in Nigeria, the core cultural values of sacredness and dignity attached to human life which are embedded in our diverse cultures, traditions and customs have suffered abysmal abandonment by the citizenry who ought to allow these virtues to govern their every day life.

Just like what happened in the immediate aftermath of the unfortunate four-day criminally- motivated street violence in cities across the United Kingdom when society turned the tables and exacted its retribution, the Nigerian society ought to turn the table and exact its retribution from these bad eggs in the larger society who have continued to paint us in very deplorable colour before members of the international community.

The Daily mail of August 12th 2011 captured the above scenario in the immediate aftermath of the needless street riots in the United Kingdom when Jack Doyle and James Tozer wrote thus; “For four nights they went on the rampage, inflicting misery on decent people and showing brazen contempt for the law. Society has turned the tables and exacted its retribution. Across the country, hundreds of suspects were hauled before the courts and handed stiff punishments by outraged Judges”.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron did not spare these rioters when he categorically told them that they are collectively a disgrace to the British society.

In our own case, kidnappings have gone on for nearly five years now, some decent people in places like Nnewi, Anambra state have recently shown their outrage at these criminal tendencies of these armed hoodlums and called on the police and other security operatives to rise to the occasion and arrest, prosecute and punish these criminals, but these crimes are yet to abate because of the criminal collusion by operatives of the security community in this filthy crime.

Unfortunately, both the police and the law courts have failed to rescue Nigeria and restore us back to a society whereby Rule of law shall remain sacrosanct and inviolable.

Not too long ago, a presidency official in Abuja was quoted in the media as stating that judges in the nation’s courts are avoiding presiding over cases involving members of the armed religious sectarian group-boko haram.

Each time I reflect on the mood of the young John Obi Mikel, who has done so much for our country as a national team player, with particular reference to how he pleaded in the international media for the release of his father, I feel ashamed that I belong to a generation of Nigerians passing through this barbaric and seemingly primitive stage as if we still live in the original state of nature whereby impunity and lawlessness is the order of the day.

These brazen acts of criminality and lawlessness in our contemporary Nigerian society have compelled most thinkers including yours truly to question the rationale and essence of government if those who preside over the civil structure of governance have failed to protect the lives and property of the citizenry which is the fundamental objective of the existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity.

Supporters of government often attempt to convince us that the fundamental purpose of government is the maintenance of basic security and public order.

One of the World’s best ever known thinkers and philosophers Thomas Hobbes affirmed that people were rational animals and thus saw submission to a government dominated by a sovereign as preferable to anarchy.

His words: “People in a community create and submit to government for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order.”

Plausible as the above Hobbesian submission sounds, Contemporary Nigerians who are passing through organized anarchy and lawlessness are beginning to question the essence of government if the sacred code of governance is violated irretrievably through the actions of armed criminals and the weakness of government to check the evil trends effectively.

The Nigerian Constitution provides in section 14(2) (b) that; “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. How come that decent human beings are randomly kidnapped by the force of illegal arms and ammunitions by social miscreants and the security operatives are incapable or unwilling to arrest, prosecute and punish the culprits?

Hank Eso, a columnist in an online Journal once wrote that Nigeria unlike other civilized societies, do not have clear state policy on the payment of ransoms to criminals which according to him has made the crime of kidnappings ever more disturbing.

He said: “Quite in contrast to Nigeria, other nations spell out clearly their policy on such crimes. The British Government for instance, maintains an unambiguous policy on ransoms. The British Government advises UK nationals and entities to know that the long-standing policy of the British Government is not to make substantive concessions to hostage takers. The British Government considers that paying ransoms and releasing prisoners increases the risk of further hostage taking”.

The Federal, state and local government administrations in Nigeria must collectively galvanize Nigerians to work out effective modalities for putting an end to the crime of kidnappings of human beings by criminally-minded human beings in Nigeria.

Nigeria must not continue to remain a failed and broken society or we are doomed.

Written by Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria. Email [email protected].



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