In a brazen action which succinctly signposts the worsening insecurity in the country, a retired General, Maharazu Ismail Tsiga, was on the 5th of February abducted from his home in Tsiga town of Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State by bandits. To underscore the burgeoning effrontery of criminals in the land, the victim spent not less than 56 days in their den before he was released. And contrary to the claim of security operatives that they carried out the rescue of the General without paying any ransom, a huge ransom was actually paid to the billionaire bandits before they let General Tsiga off the hook. A message from Brigadier General Ismaila Abdullahi expressing profound gratitude to the victim’s friends, colleagues and associates who stood up to be counted while raising money for ransom actually exposed what went on behind the scenes in the course of raising the ransom. The sum of N180 million was widely reported in the social media as the ransom paid before General Tsiga was released by his captors but General Abdullahi, the pointman of the fund mobilisation/rescue committee, disclosed that the terrorists demanded N400 million and confirmed that the rescue committee met its target through the contributions of friends and well-wishers.

It is yet unclear if the N180 million reported in the media was the negotiated sum or the whole N400 million demanded was paid to the violent non-state actors. But whichever of the two sums was paid is a veritable danger in the hands of terrorists. For it is axiomatic that either of the two sums will bolster the nefarious activities of the criminals by way of renewed confidence and further access to sophisticated equipment to continue carrying out hideous attacks on innocent people. The implication is that unless and until the security agencies up their ante and rein in acts of terrorism, every success recorded by the outlaws will constitute an incentive for the commission of further atrocious actions.

We are happy that General Tsiga is back home and we say kudos to his colleagues, friends and associates who rallied round to make that possible through their generous donations. However, it is shameful that Generals are contributing money to rescue a colleague and the government failed to go after the kidnappers and smoke them out. Trying to save a colleague with whatever it takes is understandable but that cannot and should not have been the end of the story. There ought to have been military operation against the terrorists to ensure that they paid for the embarrassment they caused the military by kidnapping one of their retired top brass, and also to ensure that they did not spend the huge ransom money. But all the military has done so far is to deny that ransom was paid to the bandits before the release of one of their own from captivity in the face of veritable evidence to the contrary. It is bad optics that army Generals can be picked up like chicken, and it is even worse that such an outrageous action is yet to be met with dire consequences. If this can be the lot of a retired General, what is the fate of the poor in a similar circumstance? Is there going to be a contribution cycle each time someone is kidnapped?

For instance, while giving feedback and thanking those who donated towards the ransom payment, Brigadier General Abdullahi, who coordinated the fundraising for the rescue of General Tsiga, remarked: “The response was overwhelming. Donations came in, pouring like August rain.” But certainly, that cannot be the level of response in all cases as the status of the person in captivity may have positively impacted the reported generous donations in this case. The question is, what is the fate of the ordinary citizen? Who will mobilise funds to pay ransom for the average Nigerian? Will friends and associates of the poor who don’t know where their next meal will come from be in a position to raise ransom money? A news caption in the aftermath of the General’s rescue couldn’t have been more apt. It read: “Who is safe again in this country? Generals contribute money to free a fellow General from ragamuffin bandits!” This headline exemplifies the citizenry’s level of despondency over the deplorable activities of bandits that would appear to have defied every solution.

It is the height of embarrassment that an army General was held hostage for 56 days by a ragtag army of non-state actors, and that the military denied ransom payment, while the statement by the military officers who contributed the money contradicts this. It has become customary for security agencies to deny the payment of ransom each time a kidnap victim is rescued. The objective is apparently to discourage those who may wish to go into the nefarious business of kidnapping, but it is evident that it has yet to discourage kidnapping, which seems to be burgeoning on a daily basis. One of the most efficacious solutions to the menace of banditry, particularly kidnapping, is to ensure that the probability of apprehending kidnappers after their heinous act approaches one. And that is not impossible to achieve if there is commitment and political will. All that the security agencies need to do is to restrategise and be pragmatic in their approach. It is evident that the current strategy is suboptimal. For instance, why can’t the money that bandits collect from victims be marked so that they can be easily apprehended while trying to spend it?

The government must be willing to throw everything into the ring to arrest this dangerous drift. There is palpable apprehension amongst the citizenry that no one is safe from bandits – from the poor farmers on their farms in the countryside to army Generals in the cities and towns. As many have pointed out, if the same level of energy and resources that the government usually deploys to track down its critics are channeled towards tracking down criminals, the activities of terrorists and other violent non-state actors will reduce significantly. It is illogical to treat incidents of terrorism lightly and expect the perpetrators to be deterred. It bears stressing that banditry, especially kidnapping, has become arguably the most lucrative “business” in the country and those involved are unlikely to quit unless there are sure-fire systems of prevention and deterrence in place. It does not bode well for the image of the country that criminals are steps ahead of the security operatives, so much so that custodians of state violence, such as army Generals, are now being listed among the victims of kidnappers. (Nigerian Tribune Editorial)