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Death Penalty for Kidnappers in rivers State

February 18, 2009
From recent readings in the Nigerian media, it appears true that the Rivers State Government under Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, is seriously considering the option of death penalty for kidnappers in the state. He has enough lawyers and learned personnel who can provide best proposals on how to succeed in implementing a death penalty within a state in Nigeria. But mine approach here certainly will not be legalistic but economic, social and political. That was why my initial title for this article would have been “The Socio-Political Economy of Kidnapping in Rivers State”.

The reasons for Amaechi’s position can well be imagined given the bad image, intimidation of business, bad name and the high level of insecurity the state has suffered since about AD 2000 when kidnapping business was introduced. Looking at the root causes of this misadventure, we will easily know that death penalty will never solve the problem; just like it has never deterred a sister occupation, armed robbery, in Nigeria. The root causes of kidnapping include greed, too much secret society and cult activities, political patronage of secret society and cultism, youth idleness and wrong educational system. Therefore it will be more apt to tackle this problem by imposing differentiated corrective measures (jail terms) on the culprits, uproot and kill the ideology and system that produce kidnapping, develop our youths through their talents, implement free and compulsory appropriate education at all levels and put in place appropriate educational system that can blend with youths talents and native occupations to cure youth idleness. Let us expand these items a little more.


The first solution is to arrest and prosecute all kidnappers, militants and crude oil bunkerers (note that the type of militancy and oil bunkering activities in Rivers State do not have anything to do with the liberation of the people) in the state. The truth is that we should not be interested in wasting and killing Rivers people when the state needs more hands to tackle the developmental issues affecting the state. The mass killings that had taken place in Port Harcourt, Ogbogoro, Rumuolumeni, Ogbakiri, Iwofe, Emohua, Okirika, Choba, Buguma, Tombia, Ogoni, Rumuekpe and now Uvuawhu/Ibaa are enough bloodshed. No more bloodshed in Rivers State. If all those who committed crimes in the state in the past ten years should be killed, most members of the political class today would not be alive to make this proposal. Moreso, not all in the business of kidnapping, bunkering and militancy today are actually the master minds; that is the reason they should be well prosecuted and differentiated jail terms imposed on those found guilty. At the end, the state may recover those who were merely lured into these unholy businesses and are prepared to turn a new leaf. My thinking here corresponds to my original position on this matter: call crime by its proper name, punish it and do not deal with it with kid gloves through state pardon, amnesty or skills empowerment. This may be an invitation to all of us to join a lucrative dirty business like kidnapping. Let a criminal feel the import of crime to extract the realization of wrong doing and remorse and due apology to the people of Rivers State for what we have past through these recent years.

The only thing death penalty, in this circumstance, can be applied to are those systems and ideologies that breed kidnapping. The level of secret society and cultism activities in the state is just terribly too high to think that killing our youths will solve the problem. The law or edict should first vehemently and strictly ban in all its ideologies, forms and manifestations the existence of all secret societies and cult groups in Rivers State. Unfortunately members of these groups are the ones ruling Nigeria. Today, cultism has majestically moved from the big boys’ clubs in secret places to all tertiary institutions in the state, all secondary schools at least in the four Ikwerre local government areas of the state, all primary schools in Port Harcourt and its environs and gradually penetrating the nursery schools; if not checked, the swelling army of cultists will wage a good war against the state sooner than later. They may insist that cultism be made part of school curriculum. A child born today in Rivers State is not a kidnapper; there is a system, a wrong ideology that recruits the child later into cultism just like the agberos or alayes in Lagos. It is that system that must be killed to free our youths from it. Tradition and religion have failed badly here. Therefore if the state is truly interested in taming this monster, it should ban and kill secret societies and cultism ravaging the state. Since early 1980s when cultism was killing Rivers youths at UST and UNIPORT, how many cult students have been successfully prosecuted and jailed? This is the litmus test to the government of Amaechi in Rivers State. When you kill the system that produces cultism, then be rest assured that kidnapping will stop.

Every person created by God has innate abilities with which to work in his/her environment. The educational system should be designed to assist the individual identify and develop his/her talents. When talents are identified and developed, they do not seek for employment; rather, they, after tertiary education, go straight to doing those works domiciled in their talents for which they have unquenchable passion and employ others. That was why late Fela ‘Kuti or James A. Wizor never worked for people for too long. Talents always seek to provide services that can resolve one problem or the other in the society because talents are from God, humane, bold, determined, sincere and patient. Today, the USA most times looks for talents not skills. The failure of our educational system to groom our talents has led to idleness and unemployment among our youths. No government in the world can ideally create works and resolve unemployment. God has already created works in our talents deposited in us. This calls for the development of youths’ talents with which to work for themselves and no longer be idle minds easily captured by cultism and fake politicians.

The purpose of politics is to articulate and implement relevant public policies that will achieve the common good. Common good is the same thing as the Kingdom of God on earth. But politicians in Rivers State are strictly about their own good. Hence, it led to frustrate and if possible destroy all individuals, organizations and groups that will not allow them achieve their greed. This was why Amaechi and Odili killed Ikwerre Youths Congress and formed Ikwerre Youths Movement. This was basically the reason for co-opting cultists into politics in Rivers State under Dr Peter Odili, Rotimi Amaechi and Abiye Sekibo during the 2003 and 2007 general elections in the state. They bought guns and gave to the boys who are already cultists and after the elections, the boys refused to return the guns. At the same time, the boys were paid handsomely by the state government. Otherwise, how come that most of these boys ride multi-million naira cars. Where do they work and what are their occupations? Therefore, politicians in Rivers State should stop recruiting secret society and cult members into politics or any public activity involving civilians.

One way to consolidate talents development is to adopt appropriate education in Rivers State. Appropriate education is the type that connects education to talents as well as the native occupations of the people for which the people have comparative advantages. That is why it will be appropriate for instance to educate the Ikwerre more on crop farming, the Ijaw on fishery, the Ogoni on oil and gas business etc. This type of education discovers relevant talents in those people who have such occupations. This will lead to the building of Agriculture University in Ikwerre, Fisheries University in Ijaw and Petroleum University in Ogoni etc.

Finally, Rivers people need free and compulsory relevant education at all levels.  

There is great assurance that corrective punishment instead of patronage, total ban on secret society and cultism, the development of youths’ talents in an intellectual environment of free and compulsory relevant education blended into native occupations of the people where they have comparative advantages, will strongly abhor the existence of youths restiveness, kidnapping, ignorant militancy, greed, oil bunkering and ravaging insecurity in Rivers State. Too much blood had been shed in Rivers State; we do not need it anymore. I wish Governor Amaechi goodluck, especially as a fellow Ikwerreman.



Maitama
Abuja.


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