Help! There’s Abduction Everywhere

  

 

Since the “battle of the Chris-es” in Anambra, I’ve been on edge. Everywhere I go one word follows me like a stubborn fly. They call it ‘Abduction.’ And it’s frightening. Now, if an okada stops me a few metres from my front door, I panic. The rider might be an Uba. And, believe me; I am not alone in this fear.

 

A few weeks after the “godfather crises”, G. O. Okeke, the OMATA (Onitsha Market Traders Association) boss shouted: Abduction! He claimed some elements from Abuja were after him. If he was paying for a breach of an agreement, no one asked. Last week, Ngige’s younger brother, Emeka, a SAN, tasted the abduction pill. Three Nwantis – Sam, Herbert and Darlington - almost injected the lawyer in his Choice Hotel room.

Now, why do all the political abductions happen in Anambra? Are people there more ambitious or greedy? Maybe the state should change its name to Abduction State. 

 

The truth, however, is that the Anambra episode may be the beginning of political abduction.  But the entire country is one big abduction camp. For, Nigeria is being overtaken by greed, overambition, mistrust, and deceit and fear. Already, the rich and famous are fleeing their homes to hotels. Ask yourself. Why do the Ngiges live in hotels?  Well, ask them: are hotels safer than private homes? Maybe. Maybe not. But the reality is that there is fear in the land. And mistrust, too.

 

No one trusts even his mother, anymore. The other day, my wife even accused me of trying to abduct her. Imagine! I swear, I only asked for a list of food items. She said I intended to use the list to “Ngige” her later. I simply ran out of the house before the neighbours arrived.

 

But there is abduction everywhere. In different forms. Political abduction, social kind and domestic type. Religious one. Family abduction, etc. My wife’s was an alleged combination of family and domestic types. My mum added her own recently. She came to Lagos but refused to stay for more than a few weeks. When my siblings and I insisted, she claimed we wanted to abduct her. Wahala!

 

Anyway, even the government is abducting the citizens. That is, if abduction is forcing someone to let go or depriving him of his rightful position. Nigerians have been deprived of security, food, jobs, good roads and all. If abduction is about failed agreements, then Nigerians should rightly abduct the government. But, who born them? Ngige failed to keep an agreement with Uba and was abducted. Yet, the masses played their part – voted in the leaders. And, in spite of the hardship, pay their taxes. But the government, like Ngige, refuses to play ball. 

 

In a country of about 120 million, by the 1991 census, 91 million live in abject poverty. You should expect abduction of different kinds. Ask Prof Joe Umo, an ILO consultant. He says armed robbery is just one of the resultant vices from societal neglect. Either way, there is abduction somewhere. The citizens are abducted everyday in buses as they struggle to go home after a fruitless, stressful day. They are robbed and raped, too. Some times, they get killed. For ritual. And most times, the beneficiaries of such abduction and killings are those in power. I was abducted once. In a bus, between Ojota and Palm grove – in Lagos. Somehow, mine was dramatic and mild. I came out with N500 less and a shaking spouse.

 

When the leaders neglect social issues that breed miscreants and robbers, eventually, it’s not only the lowly that suffer. Check it out. In recent times, the list has grown. General Obasanjo’s daughter, Iyabo and her daughters were victims. A few weeks back, General Ibrahim Babangida was also attacked by bandits on Suleja-Minna Road.  Abdulkadir Kure, Niger State Governor got his share last week. His deputy ADC, Mammah Sagabe, was killed. Pity! 

 

Yet, those “high and mighty” have had chances to check social abduction. With their programmes. But did they? If they had, obviously, the idle hands the devil has used to inflict terror on the landscape probably would not have been there.

 

Now, “the rich also cry”. There’s fear everywhere in their camp. I heard Gov. Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna can’t sleep easy – for fear he’ll be abducted. Musa Ajogie, chairman, Patriotic Indigenes of Northern Publishers Association (PINPA), claims some godfathers are after the governor. Even the Police Service Commision boss, Chief Simon Okeke, has refused to leave his Maitama residence to his Federal Secretariat, Abuja, office. Reason? He’s afraid of “abduction”.  On the political score, as Chaucer said: “The poor can sing and dance in relief; of having nothing that will tempt a thief”.

 

Religious abduction is gaining grounds now. And the poor is mainly the victim. My younger sister “abducted” me the other day to a church for her child’s dedication. And an ego-driven pastor abducted us all. He insisted: “I can keep you here till 6pm. This is my house. Until you satisfy me, you are not going”. And he did.  What should have been the preaching was a load of abuses, outright insult on the members and advertisement of his family problems. At a point, even the “Amen”, the only Bible portion everyone knew, got weaker and weaker. Everyone was tired. But he made us go round innumerable times for offerings. When my bones cried out from strain; and my system became weak from hunger, I realised that I had been abducted.

 

 Many poverty-stricken Nigerians have been abducted by religious leaders – in the name of God and miracles. The self-acclaimed traditional healers, the commercial pastors and their Muslim brothers all claim to be the hands of God. “The moment you see me, you are healed; your problems are solved”, they all refrain. Then, they lure barren women, collect money from them and sleep with some. The jobless are hypnotised and mesmerised to empty their   pockets in the name of “sowing seed”. If that is not abduction, then Uba did not show Ngige the godfather’s stuff.

 

And there are the seminars, workshops, etc. They are free(?). “Just come and be blessed”. Hallelujah! But the needy are lured to part with their borrowed money and trek home to die in hunger. “Give and it shall be given to you.” Really? When? “Just believe,” they say. “Givers never lack;” “Give and gain”. No tangible, only loads of phrases. How come the pastors never share the church money to the needy? Yet, the poor, after a series of offerings, are word-abducted to buy the pastor’s cassettes, CDs. And books. Mere volumes filled with Bible quotations and human opinions. Why not just buy a Bible and go home?

 

That’s why Sonny Okosuns was livid, when Pastor Matthew Ashimilowo sold a book for N1,500. The “Success Summit” advertised to teach practical approach to wealth rather impoverish the participants. Ashimolowo groaned: “… any religion that does not see to your physical need is not a good religion”. Yet, he “abducted” the people’s pockets. A set of audio CDs sold for N9, 000. Okosuns, like me, fumed. “How can he sell a book for as high as N1, 500, is it the Bible? That won’t save me because he copied it from the Bible”. He walked off the meeting. “I spent only three minutes and he was talking money…Money is the only thing competing with God”. But aren’t they all the same? As far as I know, there’s abduction everywhere, in different forms; …all the way.

 

Okoro is my man!

Senator Fidelis Okoro is a man after my heart. His two sons, accused of robbery last week, got the shock of their lives. If they expected Okoro to stand up for them, they failed. 

 

He has all the might – power and money - to twist justice in their favour. But the senator called on the police to hang the boys. “I did not send them to join any cult or get involved in any mess,” he said. He felt justified that he had done what any good father should do for the youngsters. But since, as adults, they committed a crime, they should bear the consequences.

 

Good talk. That is the way to fight corruption. That is the way for positive social change. If over-pampered children of the rich know their families would not subvert justice for their sake, perhaps, they would stay away from crime? Maybe. Here’s one for Okoro!

 

• First published in Saturday Sun  of  August 30, 2003