In Nigeria, the Business of Kidnapping is Booming
The issue of kidnappings in Nigerian schools is becoming increasingly worrying. What seemed in 2014 to be a horrific, one-off attack is beginning to resemble a thriving business with plenty of room to grow.
The kidnappings first came into the public eye in April 2014, when Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 female students from their school in the village of Chibok. The fight for the girls’ return has lasted several years. Over this time, some have been released and many more have escaped. The most recent news on these girls’ well-being came in late January 2021, as several fled their captors and escaped to safety. The movement to save the schoolchildren captured the social media world, as many spread the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag in a call for the children’s release. Unfortunately, this has done little to change Boko Haram’s ways. Since 2014, the terrorist organization still holds many of the girls and has committed even more frequent and horrific crimes than before.
The #BringBackOurGirls campaign lost steam as the search dragged on for many years, and more kidnappings of a similar nature began to take place. In mid-December 2020, the third mass kidnapping in six years took place in Kankara, a town in northwest Nigeria. The attack, which the Nigerian government says was committed by bandits asking for ransom, was claimed by Boko Haram and led to the capture of more than 300 schoolboys. The boys were taken out to the countryside, split up, and then used to demand a ransom of the government. The boys were released just a few weeks later with conflicting accounts on whether or not any ransoms were paid.
The kidnappings’ increasing frequency led the New York Times to identify the trend as “Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom” industry. The transition from a one-off attack to an ‘industry’ is concerning for Nigeria. National and local governments have been aware of the issue for several years, yet are still unable to address it. The Council on Foreign Relations identified these kidnapping as a growth industry, citing a growing pool of potential victims, regions, and ransoms. The industry is not limited to schools – two Nigerian football players were recently abducted along the road while travelling. Both were released shortly after, and as is the case with many of the kidnappings, it is unclear whether or not a ransom was paid. It is estimated that between 2011 and 2020, approximately £13 million pounds have been paid in ransom for kidnappings.
This sum is not solely made up of high profile and large ransom payments. Kidnappers are instead focusing on mass kidnappings where they demand a small sum of around £1000 for each child. This allows the kidnappers to widen their range of potential victims to almost anyone within reach of their forces. Just as a business might seek to increase profit by selling large quantities of less expensive items rather than a few expensive ones, kidnappers are seeking to collect a large number of small ransoms. This presents a significant problem for Nigeria. National and local governments struggle to protect their citizens from the bandits and militants that execute these kidnappings, and as the possible targets for kidnappings continues to grow, so will the government’s difficulty in preventing and solving them.
The challenge of stopping the increasing kidnappings seems to be growing. Some Nigerian analysts and media even posit that government officials might also be involved in the business. Governors in northern Nigeria have been criticized for their inability to protect their citizens, but when these citizens are released or escape from their kidnappers, the government claims the victory as their own. Furthermore, some government officials have been accused of stealing some of the ransom money put forward to pay the bandits. This creates another challenge for Nigeria. The country must not only fight bandits and militants but their own government to slow the business of kidnapping.
The government is showing little progress in dealing with this issue. On March 12, just a few weeks after the last high profile kidnapping, at least 30 students were abducted by armed men at a college in Kaduna. The accounts of the event differ drastically between the students and Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner for Kaduna State Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs. While students who escaped say that the kidnappers had been gone long before the arrival of Nigerian soldiers, Aruwan paints a different picture. He describes how the soldiers engaged with the armed bandits and were the reason so many students were rescued. These contrasting stories reflect the nature of the kidnapping problem in Nigeria and explain why it will likely continue. Some in the government seek to paint themselves as heroes solving the problem, when in reality the problem continues to grow.
Local and national governments must find a way to secure schools before the business of kidnapping further cripples the government's relationship with its citizens. Otherwise, kidnapping may become an even greater strain on the lives, money, and security of the Nigerian people.
Image courtesy of Olaniyan Olushola via Wikimedia, © 2015, some rights reserved.
