Kidnapped NYSC Members: Rescued or Ransomed? – By Bolanle Bolawole

(Published in the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday TRIBUNE newspaper edition of 11 October, 2026).

Wonders will never end in this country of one scandal, one day! Here, the more you look, the less you see. Yesterday, I ruminated on the reggae song “One Heart, One Nation” – a Best Legend Reggae Mixtape dedicated to the memories of six artists – Peter Tosh, Alpha Blondy, Lucky Dube, Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, and Bob Marley and wondered why we often dismiss these revolutionary prophets – like we did Fela here – simply because of their lifestyle, which they made an open book, whereas many of our holier-than-thou preachers live a more sordid double life hid under thick layers of closets.

Rastafarians preach better sermons than I have heard mullahs, ayatollahs, Bishops and General Overseers preach. They prophesy – with more accuracy – than men and women who live on prophecies, most times hoodwinking and deceiving the unwary. Well, let that be a topic for another day!

The track ‘Tan and See’ in Max Romeo and the Upsetters’ “War in a Babylon” starts like this: Everyone speaks of Babylon/No one remembers Rahab/Rahab and Babylon were toilet and paper, you know” Each time we speak of bad leaders here, how many of those times do we address our minds to the faulty foundation that keeps producing them? Faulty foundations and bad leaders – are they not like toilet and toilet-paper? Can we have one without the other?

Despite the fact that the British colonialists maliciously and mischievously programmed Nigeria to fail from the very beginning, shouldn’t we, with clear-headedness, turn adversity into opportunity like Rahab did?

Can we separate the superstructure from the foundation? Can a faulty foundation sustain an elegant building for long? Max Romeo said: “A long time I-man did a-warn yeah/(A long time) Long, long, time ago/A long time I-man did tell you say/(A long time) Long, long time ago” And what did he tell us? “The more you look, the less you see/And the less you look, the more you see/No need to jump and prance.”

If the right thing is not done, dancing and prancing like our leaders do – and we foolishly engage in the macabre dance with them; singing their praises, fighting, maiming and killing one another over nothing – all of these only get us deeper in the miry clay! If we continue to put the cart before the horse! If we pluck leaves and trim branches instead of addressing the root cause of our problems! If, like our people say, we ignore leprosy but hanker after eczema!

Mind you, this did not start only yesterday! It is as old as Nigeria itself. In fact, it is what defines us. It is the reason Nigeria is not making progress that is commensurate with its abundant potential. It is the reason rag-tag armies of bandits and terrorists have turned Nigeria into the laughing stock of the international community. And that theatre of the absurd will not only continue but will get worse until the contraption called Nigeria is restructured – or collapses on its already shaky legs.

THERE WAS A COUNTRY! – CHINUA ACHEBE

The departing British colonial masters bequeathed a faulty foundation to Nigeria: A federation in which one region was made so strong as to dictate its terms to the two other regions, later three. The Yoruba elements in the North should have been merged with their kith and kin in the South-west. The day Africa regains its liberty, which was put to the sword at the 1884/85 Berlin conference which arbitrarily partitioned Africa, the Yoruba of Benin and Togo republics, even up to Ghana, will recover their legitimate right to decide where to properly belong. The Middle Belt should have been excised out of the North – what with the Tiv Riots of 1960 and 1964 over their marginalization in the North.

The minorities in the Eastern Region agitated to throw off Igbo domination but were silenced. Ever heard of Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro and his Niger Delta Volunteer Force? In desperation, Boro declared his short-lived Niger Delta Republic on February 23, 1966. Only the Western Region was weakened with the creation of the Midwest Region out of it in 1963 – the conspiracy of the North and East.

Historical injustices are chains that bind any nation! It took only six years of civilian rule (1960 – 1966) to prove that the contraption the British left behind was unworkable. The military then came to bury it, beginning with Gen. GTU Aguiyi-Ironsi’s ill-advised and ill-motivated Unification Decree No. 34 of May 24, 1966. Successive military governments after him struggled to exhume and revive the corpse, performing all manner of surgical operations on Nigeria’s cadaver.

We have had a plethora of men in uniforms, those Samuel Edward Finer described as “The Man on Horseback.” Finer argued that the military’s incursion into politics was not necessarily because of ambition but because civilian political institutions were weak, immature and lacked political legitimacy. Add corruption and the circle is complete, leading to weak public support for the civilian governments. The military, in turn, used these as excuses to intervene in politics. But tell me, how can strong institutions sprout from or be erected on weak and faulty foundations?

The harm done by the military’s incursion into Nigeria’s politics would have been bearable had they lived up to Samuel P. Huntington’s classification (“Political Order in Changing Societies, 1968”) of a modernizing force; perhaps, they were such in other lands but Nigeria’s experience has largely been otherwise. Successive military regimes concretized Aguiyi-Ironsi’s destruction of the half-hearted federalism left by the colonialists and imposed the military’s command-and-control structure, which has been at the heart of the strident call for restructuring and the agitation for secession, over which the country fought a gruelling civil war in 1967-70.

Yakubu Gowon’s National Youth Service Corps scheme, established on May 22, 1973, was meant to heal the wounds of war, reconcile disparate and warring ethnic groups, reconstruct the damage visited on the war-ravaged areas and, in so doing, forge national unity.

It is debatable, however, if Nigeria is more united today than it was in 1973. Thus have we witnessed strident calls for restructuring by those who still think the contraption can still be repaired, but complete disintegration by those who feel that restructuring, if it comes at all, will come too little, too late.

What, then, has the NYSC achieved? Last week’s abduction of 20 graduates travelling from Ibadan, Oyo state in two buses to their NYSC orientation camps in Imo and Akwa Ibom states raised fresh concerns about the continued relevance of the scheme. Worse, however, is the handling of the unfortunate security breach by the government.

WHY GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONG MEN – US DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 1776

Once upon a time, when the insecurity walloping the country today was yet to become the new normal, but when COVID was also ravaging the country, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God said security report advised him to cancel the RCCG Convention of that year, but can you recollect his response? He reasoned that God was able to protect His people, COVID or no-COVID; terrorism or no-terrorism. And then he dropped this clincher: “A God that cannot protect His people does not deserve to be served!”

On account of that, Adeboye went ahead with the convention and everything went peacefully. Adeboye’s God proved able to protect His people. Taking a cue from that, I dare to say that a ruling class that cannot protect its people does not deserve to remain in power! Away with Nigeria’s decadent ruling class!

The most offensive and annoying aspect of the unfortunate incident was the bare-faced lies they told us. Was it a rescue mission or was ransom paid by the hapless parents of the kidnapped boys and girls? The parents said they paid millions of Naira as ransom. And they should know! While we all know that it has become the standard practice for the government to leave kidnapped persons to their fate and devices, I never imagined that the attention this particular case attracted would not shake off the government’s lethargy and insensitivity. How mistaken!

Why do we have a government? I recommend that our leaders read the 1776 American Declaration of Independence! What is the point in maintaining a plethora of security agencies? Why vote the lion share of our budget for defence? And why the humongous amounts creamed off every month as security votes by governors and other government officials across the country?

The harrowing accounts of some of the parents said they paid ransoms ranging between N6million and N3 million; that they changed Naira into dollars at the command of the kidnappers and, following instructions from the kidnappers, they appointed representatives who took the money to places designated by the terrorists. The terrorists took the money and set the captives free. In all of this, where was the government? Where were the security agencies?

One parent was reported as saying: “I paid as much as ₦3 million as ransom while I was hoping that nothing happened to my child. I ran helter-skelter to raise the money. I eventually got the money and sent someone to deliver the ransom directly to them.”

Another said: “We had to converge somewhere in Ibadan, Oyo State, to put the money together. Some of us even changed the money to dollars and sent it to Imo State to meet whoever was coming to pick it. I am excited that my son is coming back. However, how do I repay the N6 million I borrowed? I’m just a farmer.”

Yet another said: “Initially, they asked us to pay N50 million per head. We asked whether the amount was for all of them, but they insisted that no, it was for each person. Later, we started begging them to take N500,000. But they said no and started scaring us. Three days ago, they called and said we should pay N15 million. We kept begging them that all we had was ₦5.5 million. They said no and insisted on N6 million. So, it’s N6 million that we paid.”

One parent painted the sordid event more graphically: “They called all the parents of the victims. Twenty of them… They then asked us to send three persons each to meet with them in Ibadan. My husband and my son’s elder brother went. When they got to the meeting place, they asked them to send the money to an account, and that when they get to Imo State, they should change the money into dollars. This is not a rumour. (My son’s elder) brother was among the people who went to meet with the abductors three days ago. They left with the ransom.”

So the kidnappers had representatives in Ibadan who met with representatives of the kidnapped persons right there in Ibadan, even though the abduction took place hundreds of kilometres away! It must have been a well-planned and well-coordinated operation. There must have been insiders and informants.

But when all these discussions, negotiations and arrangements were ongoing, where was the government? But I am sure you know where they were: Waiting for the parents to sort themselves out with the kidnappers before coming out, just as they have again done in this case, with their practised alibi: No ransom was paid! Our gallant men rescued the people!

We must also ask what the Imo state Gov. Hope Uzodinma meant by his “discreet and coordinated approach”, which he said led to the release – or is it rescue – of the victims? Was ransom paid? If it was a rescue operation, how many of the kidnappers were neutralized or arrested? Did the kidnappers cut and run because pressure was mounted on them? Will they and their sponsors/backers be left to enjoy their booty as well as plan their new move and pick their next target? Going forward this way, we may never get out of these woods as far as hostage-taking and ransom-collection is concerned.

Finally, has the government anything for parents bankrupted by this sad episode? And for our eligible youths, what are the incentives to encourage them to keep coming forward to serve in this scheme? Or does the government care less?

• Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief of The WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday TRIBUNE and TREASURES column in the New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.