Pantami’s friend and company

Nigerians are a resilient people who rise up to challenges as the occasion warrants. And deep in the polity is a communal bond that drives citizens onto sharing one another’s burden – never mind an overarching divisiveness fuelled by primordial inclinations and sworn enemies of unity who perennially embattle the nationhood. The country was in such communalistic mode over the plight of the Al-Kadriyar sisters, arising from a death threat that hung over them in the in the den of bloodthirsty kidnappers who placed a high ransom on their release.

Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) resident, was abducted by bandits in his family home in Bwari Area Council on Wednesday, 3rd January, along with his five daughters and their cousin, a daughter to Mansoor’s brother who got killed in the kidnap operation. Two days later, Mansoor was let off by the bandits to go raise N60million for the release of the girls. One of the abducted sisters was Nabeeha, a 400-level Biological Science student of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, who on 12th January was killed by the kidnappers to press home their death threat against the remaining five girls if the demanded ransom was not hurriedly paid. Nabeeha’s five sisters who remained in captivity include Najeebah, a 500-level Quantity Surveying student, and Nadherah, 300-level Zoology. A relation of the Al-Kadriyars made their predicament known on social media, and a crowdfunding initiative hashtagged #Najeebaandhersisters was launched by sympathisers. 

The crowdfunding drive climaxed on Sunday, 14th January, in a disclosure by immediate past Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Pantami that a friend of his had volunteered N50million to make up the ransom being demanded by the bandits to release the remaining Al-Kadriyar sisters. Pantami, in a post on his verified X handle, tweeted that while he personally was not in support of paying ransom to criminals, he’s had to solicit funds for the release of the remaining sisters in view of the fate that befell Nabeeha. He said he had spoken the previous day with the father on the matter, and “furthermore, I spoke with a friend and a brother who offered to pay the remaining N50million of the N60million immediately. I conveyed the account number of the father of our daughters, Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, to the friend and brother to send the money directly,” he stated inter alia.

May the heavens bless the anonymous friend of the ex-minister for the large heart and great altruism shown in service of others. But many in the citizenry did not miss the implication of Pantami’s gesture – noble as it was – and they did not hesitate to point it out. And so, while some people praised him for his concern to save the Al-Kadriyar sisters, others knocked him as legitimising kidnapping for ransom in the country. His prominent personality profile did not help the fear of negative significations of his gesture. A netizen resorted to sarcasm, saying kidnappers could as well now formally unionise and register themselves with government as businessmen, so they could pay taxes, since it is a former top official of government mobilising for ransom payment. Others noted that it was Pantami, as minister, who initiated the policy of linking Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards with holders’ National Identity Number (NIN), and wondered why the policy had failed to hamstrung kidnappers from using phone lines to demand ransom payment among other illicit uses. Still some others wondered how kidnappers could pick up huge sums as ransom and thereafter slip under the radar, with all the data banking that Nigeria has going like the NIN and Biometric Verification Number (BVN) project.

A netizen indeed put the challenge pointedly to the former minister, who responded that the SIM-NIN linkage did not seem to be working because security operatives weren’t maximising its potential. “Relevant institutions fighting criminality are to be requested to ensure they utilise it effectively when a crime is committed… Lack of utilising it is the main problem, not the policy. While in office, I know three instances where the policy was utilised and it led to successful operations,” he said.

“Citizens crowdfund their own insecurity when they rally funds to pay ransom demands… But that is only a side of the coin”       

Still there were missteps, obviously unintended, in Pantami’s public disclosure of the hefty contribution by his friend. For instance, the contribution could have been made as quietly as it was anonymous, just so not to give criminal elements a wrong impression of a potential in the polity they could seek to mine going forward. It could be, of course, that Pantami took to the high octave to also serve an indirect notice to the Al-Kadriyar kidnappers that the ransom being demanded is available, and that there is no need to hurt the girls but only to prepare for their release. Good intention there. But even in his disclosure, the ex-minister indicated – no doubt, inadvertently – that the ransom was oversubscribed through the crowdfunding. “Any additional amount earlier generated from yesterday, the father can use to treat the daughters and other family members in sha Allah,” he said. Only that kidnappers are not people of honour who stick to deal. If they had caught the hint that there was more money available, the Al-Kadriyars could have been in greater difficulty if the ransom demand was jacked up.

Government, on its part, weighed in to caution against crowdfunding ransom payment to kidnappers. Defence Minister Muhammadu Badaru, speaking after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja last week, said ransom payment would only embolden kidnappers to demand more, thereby jeopardising public safety. He recalled that at a meeting the previous day with security chiefs, President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to upscale efforts towards flushing out perpetrators of criminal acts in the society. According to the minister, while government is deeply concerned about kidnappings, paying ransoms through public donations would worsen the problem. “We all know there’s an existing law against payment of ransom. So, it is very sad for people to go over the Internet and radio asking for donations to pay ransom. This will only worsen the situation, it will not help,” he warned. Badaru also urged Nigerians to refrain from responding to ransom demands publicly, noting that the government’s position is to starve kidnappers of the profit that drives abductions. “If we stop over time, kidnapping will not be profitable and they will stop. It is not easy, though, but that is the law,” he said.

The minister was utterly right in saying crowdfunding ransom payment to kidnappers portended great jeopardy for public safety, because it suggests a reservoir that can be repeatedly exploited by criminals. In other words, citizens crowdfund their own insecurity when they rally funds to pay ransom demands, as kidnappers could get incentivised to hold the gun to society’s head by picking on random victims whose ransom they might expect to be crowdfunded. But that is only a side of the coin. The other side is that citizens apparently took to crowdfunding ransom payment as a statement of total loss of faith in government’s ability to meet up its constitutional mandate to provide security. We are talking here about government as a going concern in Nigeria, and not any particular administration.

There are a few things on which many in the citizenry have previously given up on government. Many people provide their own water supply by drilling boreholes / surface wells in their homes, provide their own electricity supply through local power generating devices, and provide their own private security by way of garrison walls, monster gates and electric wire fences around their premises. Security provisioning in the public space was deemed the remit of government. Now it seems the foundation of that notion is shaken by frequent kidnappings that have resulted in the death of some victims over ransom demand by kidnappers. The sample killing of three abductees in another kidnap incident in Dutse, Abuja on 7th January is another recent case, and it seems citizens are resorting to paying for a reprieve.

Reports at the weekend indicated that the Al-Kadriyar sisters were among kidnap victims liberated in Kaduna forest by the FCT Police Intervention Squad. The security operatives deserve great commendation for this achievement, which demonstrated the determination of the present administration to tackle aground the insecurity menace. But there’s a big room yet available to restore public confidence and stop the bandits in their tracks – a very big room.

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