Nigeria Content Online

Our unpreparedness
for disasters we know to be inevitable is the bane of our problems in
this country. The government, it seems, is never in a hurry to learn.
To ban, maybe, but not learn. Our leaders would rather throw money at
problems instead of thinking about why they happen and what should be
done to prevent them. Recent events have caught our government and its
various agencies pants down, a scenario always followed by a scramble
to pass the buck. We refuse to learn any lessons from past mistakes.
The isgraceful performance of our national team, the Super Eagles,
during the just concluded World Cup in South Africa was as result of
unpreparedness and lack of commitment to duty. One would have expected
that a tournament as important as the World Cup, especially an edition
holding in Africa for the first time would inspire a determination to
excel, instead of the last minute preparation that inevitably led to
the worst performance in our World Cup history. Millions of naira went
into the hole called the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), yet the
expected miracles did not happen. And President Jonathan did not waste
time in producing the usual knee-jerk reaction by banning the entire
football federation and the national team, before a FIFA ultimatum
caused him to have a rethink.

The
episode further opened the world’s eyes to our perpetually ineffectual
method of handling situations. An even more serious malaise than our
football failings is the kidnapping epidemic. After more than three
years, our government and its security agencies are yet to show us that
they have what it takes to stay ahead of the criminals.

We probably would
not have known the extent to which the Nigerian Police has contributed
to the problem if not for the recent kidnapping of four journalists and
their driver. The ugly incident has thrown light on just how out of
touch the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, is
regarding crime in Nigeria. After the journalists were freed – freed by
the kidnappers, not rescued by the police – the number 1 cop declared,
“the crime is a new phenomenon…” Has he been on sabbatical these past
three or four years? Can someone please send

Mr. Onovo a list
of the high-profile victims of kidnapping – cutting across the entire
country from the North to the South East to the South-South? Can all
those people who have shunned the

customary
end-of-year visits to their villages please let the IG know the reason
for their drastic decision? Can a crime that has grown in leaps and
bounds over several years qualify to be termed “a new phenomenon?” On
top of this startling misjudgment the police were ill equipped and
unprepared to rescue these journalists. The fact that the IG himself
had to run to Abia State reveals a lot about what is wrong with our
police force. Will the IG have to relocate to the site of every
kidnapping crime to personally oversee rescue

efforts that we
all suspect are bound to end in futility? Now that the ordeal is over
the journalists are safely back with their families and the kidnappers
back in their lair to regroup and prepare for the next strike.

The government and police have also returned to their clowning
around. Mr. Onovo is taking credit for a job he clearly bungled, while
the Abia State government – under whose watch the state has descended
into anarchy – has dethroned three traditional rulers for allegedly
sponsoring kidnappings and robberies in the state. Did they just find
out that these traditional rulers sponsored the kidnappers and armed
robbers? How long have the police and other security agencies in the
state been investigating these individuals? Or are they merely the
latest in a series of scapegoats with which the police and state
governor can save face before Nigerians? (It is this same Abia State
governor who has been busy in the last few weeks changing political
parties and attempting to sack his deputy).

Now is the time to
find a lasting and sensible solution to this kidnapping problem. We
suspect that the police force will need a major shake-up. A police
force that cannot ensure that kidnappers find it difficult to operate
deserves nothing less than decommissioning. If Onovo and his men cannot
solve this kidnapping problem now, how do they intend to cope in the
thick of the coming election season?