15 Jul 2007 |
|
The Child-Hostage Takers Of The Delta "If we could, we would exchange ourselves for the children",
vows Zurab Dainiazov, a young man in the crowd. THE conversation above took place at the scene of one of the most dramatic cases of children-hostage taking in the world when a group of psychopaths took 350 children and a few adults as hostages in Beslan, Russia in 2004. The incident was a major test for Russia's ability to manage and respond to terror, but it moved the entire world to tears and empathy with its poignant demonstration of the vulnerability of the world's children as pawns in political conflicts and as targets for easy crime. Since May, the Nigerian society in varying and incremental degrees has been confronted with the same phenomenon of hostage taking involving children and the anguish and the feeling of alarm have been just as deep and urgent. In May, a child, his nanny and the family driver were kidnapped from a house in a rich neigbourhood of Port Harcourt and later released. This was followed by the abduction of Master Michael Somiari-Stewart, the son of a female lawmaker also in Port Harcourt. Two weeks ago, Margaret Hill, a British-Nigerian toddler was also kidnapped. Public outrage on this had not yet settled when 24 hours after the release of Margaret, two expatriate oil workers were again kidnapped in neighbouring Akwa Ibom state, and less than a week later, another toddler, a two-year old Prince Samuel Ovunda Amadi was kidnapped on his way to school. Prince Amadi was released on Friday, the same day, seven oil company workers were abducted along the River Niger in Onitsha. The hostage-taking has followed the same pattern, the children have been released unharmed, ransom is demanded and paid (although all the affected parents and governments deny paying any ransom- I don't believe them!), and in the cases of Margaret and Samuel, the children were abducted on their way to school. The attack on innocent children has been placed in the larger context of the revolutionary protest in the Niger Delta, on the questions of oil revenue, equity and justice in Nigeria, in the course of which over 200 expatriates, mainly oil workers have been kidnapped in the last two years, creating in that region, a state of anomie. Every oil company worker that is kidnapped is released only after ransom has been paid. In a region that is most affected by unemployment and poverty, hostage-taking has become a major occupation. But the use of children as canon-fodder cannot be justified as part of the revolutionary act. It is pure criminality that is at work. Children-hostage taking is already diluting the revolutionary message of the people of the Niger Delta. With repeated assault on the child and the institution of family, what we are now dealing with is depravity of the highest order and a descent to the lower depths of humanity. Kidnapping a child is so easy and cowardly. A child is defenceless even when accompanied on the way to school by a driver and a nanny. There is no prior preparation for an attack or any form of protection. Because child-hostage taking is so easy, it has become very attractive in the Niger Delta, and it may soon spread to the same degree and frequency in other parts of Nigeria, where it also exists in the form of child trafficking. This, particularly as the returns are encouraging; the kidnappers ask for ransom, and parents are willing to pay any amount to have their child back, indeed, every parent like the example from Russia and Margaret's father, is willing to substitute himself or herself. Which parent would not do anything to save a defenceless child? I have argued that the people of the Niger Delta in general must be embarrassed. I repeat this same point. It is some consolation that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and similar groups in the Niger Delta, including the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) have openly condemned the recent assault on children. But this is not enough. MEND and NDPVF in particular, since they are now recognized by the Federal Government as civil society pressure groups (not so?), must take it upon themselves to help ensure an end to this spread of criminal conduct. It is noteworthy that the spate of kidnappings increased shortly after Asari Dokubo, was released on bail by the Federal Authorities. Dokubo had promised a cessation of hostilities in the Delta. Is it likely that recent attacks are the products of a turf war between the rival militant groups in the region? Dokubo has been having meetings with the Presidential Villa. Is it likely that there are come disgruntled elements in the area who are upping the ante of rebellion by kidnapping children and oil company workers in spite of Asari Dokubo's freedom and assurances in order to discredit him? Whatever it is, the credibility of all the militant groups involved in the political objective of justice in the Niger Delta is at stake. They are within the community. They are bound to know who the rogue elements are. In the Eastern part of the country, MASSOB under the leadership of Ralph Uwazuruike, (why are they still keeping that fellow?) helped to restore law and order when some criminals made living in Onitsha impossible. In Western Nigeria, the OPC - Faseun and Adams factions- also launched a similar all-out war against criminals and the people found them useful. What is MEND doing? Where are the elders of the Niger Delta? May I add another conspiracy theory to the matter? When Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was selected as the running mate to President Umaru Yar'Adua, the Obasanjo government claimed this as a smart move that will help to address the crisis in the Niger Delta. Their argument is that with a Niger Delta political figure, an Ijaw, the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria, as Vice president, the people of the Delta could begin to feel a sense of belonging and hence reduce the tempo of their revolutionary protest in the expectation that with their man as No 2, the Niger Delta question would receive better hearing. The continuing violence in the Niger Delta is a direct knock on this proposition. The Yar'Adua/Jonathan Presidency in the last month has made the Niger Delta a top priority issue. There has been a Niger Delta summit and a follow-up meeting of stakeholders. Jonathan has also visited the area as Vice president and he spoke from the heart: "My main assignment in the first six months in the life of this administration is to stabilise the Niger Delta. We will ensure that the security situation in the Niger Delta area is improved soon", he said. Are there some forces and elements in the Niger Delta who do not want Jonathan to succeed, who are aggrieved about his emergence as the Niger Delta representative at the centre? And so they continue to escalate the violence and make it even more bizarre knowing that the more problematic the Niger Delta is, the more irrelevant Jonathan Goodluck would be at the centre? And over time, his relevance would have been effectively destroyed? The Governor of Bayelsa state has boasted: "We'll stop hostage taking in three months?" Does that one know what he is talking about? Nonetheless, every act of violence in the Niger Delta in whatever shape at all is an assault on the Nigerian state. The Nigerian government has an urgent duty to ensure the safety of lives and property in all parts of Nigeria. The ugly message from the child-hostage taking phenomenon is that this is a country where the people now expect anything and everything. The child-hostage taking phenomenon is global and there is existing intelligence about how other governments deal with the menace. In 1993, in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, children were taken hostages, under the reign of Pol Pot in Cambodia, children were tortured by the regime. In 1999, rebel forces in Sierra Leone led by Foday Sankoh of the revolutionary United Front (RUF) took about 52 innocent children as hostages. In Venezuela, May 2005, prisoners at the La Pica penitentiary took 40 children and a few adults as hostages to push their demands for parole and work programme rights. The only caveat here is that the hostages were "willing accomplices" being relatives of the prisoners. In June 2005, 29 students, five of whom were children were held hostage at the British International School, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The hostage takers demanded ransom. In China, last month, a man in his 40s held a three-year old child at knife point for about six hours at a KFC restaurant in Shanghai. Three months earlier, Amando "Jun" Ducat a child care centre manager held 32 children and two teachers hostage in a school bus in Manilla, but he said he was doing it to help them. He asked for free education and housing. He did not ask for ransom: "I did what I did because of my love for you.. I love these children; that's why I am here". A crowd gathered and cheered Ducat. He was later arrested and dismissed as an attention-seeking stuntsman. In Nigeria, nobody is cheering. The children hostage takers are not doing it "for love". Other societies protect the rights of children by declaring zero-tolerance for paedophiles and all acts of aggression against children. What is going on in Port Harcourt is a failure of intelligence. Where is the police? The government should not get used to the habit of paying ransom to criminals. It should go after them with whatever muscle is still available to the state. These child hostage takers engage in phone conversations with the parents of their victims for hours. They promise to drop the child eventually at a spot and they do so. The kidnap effort is carried out in broad daylight on open streets. The crime is committed by human beings, not spirits. In virtually every case, the police have more than enough clues to work on. So, what have they done? Elsewhere, children under this kind of difficult circumstances are given the benefit of trauma care and psychology counseling. Child psychologists who worked on the cases in Russia, Cambodia, Venezuela, China and Britain submitted that children who had been taken as hostages, even when they are as young as two years, are liable to such traumatic experiences as anxiety, depression and inability to manage future relationships. The scary thing is that they may never get over the psychological damage completely. Hence, they require careful treatment and monitoring. In Nigeria, nobody is talking about such post-trauma care. In the case of Margaret Hill, there was some talk about mosquito bites and that was all. In Prince Samuel's case, the parents assured the public that their child is well. Where child psychology is involved, exposure to a catastrophic situation such as being taken hostage may not be that simple. Gradually in Port Harcourt at least, Nigeria is moving towards social anarchy. Eze Amadi had reportedly threatened: "There would have been serious problem in this state if the militants did not release my son to me alive" Whatever he had in mind could not have been in pursuit of public peace. No trauma is comparable to a parent having to negotiate with complete strangers for the life and freedom of his own child. Eze Amadi was first asked to pay N50 million for his son, then the amount was brought down to N5 million and later jerked up to N8 million. The commodification of a human being is the worst crime ever known to mankind. The effect now is that the whole of Port Harcourt may well become a social crisis zone: parents sending their children to school may have to seek police protection, an Alsatian dog may have to accompany the child to ward off kidnappers, schools with a population of children may have to fortify the premises in case the hostage-takers become desperate. In the meantime, foreign oil company workers in the Niger Delta are withdrawing their wives and children from the Nigerian space. How can we hope to attract foreign investors under these circumstances? MEND had referred to the fact that children and women are off-limits as hostages. Let us hope that the hoodlums who have hijacked the Niger Delta struggle would not start soon to kidnap people's wives. That will be the height of anarchy, and if that happens, there will be "serious problem" indeed.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.