Insecurity: How did we get here?
Nigeria is currently stuck in a nightmare, as Nigerians constantly live in fear of the unknown, because kidnapping for ransom has moved from being a random crime to being a
- By Moyosore Shittu
Nigeria is currently stuck in a nightmare, as Nigerians constantly live in fear of the unknown, because kidnapping for ransom has moved from being a random crime to being a billion-naira industry. Between mid 2024 and 2025, nearly 5,000 Nigerians were kidnapped, with the price tag for their freedom totalling a jaw-dropping sum of N48 billion in ransom demands.
While honest businesses are struggling to survive the economic crisis, the kidnap industry is booming, and the scariest part is not the number of people who have been taken captive, but how seemingly normal it now is. In a country where one single abduction can bring in millions and billions of naira and the kidnappers get away with it, the message is clear: crime pays better than a university degree.
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Living in Nigeria now feels like being under siege, because we are all functionally paranoid, as a result. We check our mirrors constantly while driving, stop visiting family in other states because the roads feel like death traps, and even in our own homes, we don’t feel safe either.
For most families, ransoms are like a death sentence for their finances, and in a bid to save a loved one who has been abducted, they resort to selling their property, empty their life savings, and even borrow huge amounts of money. Our hard-earned wealth is being handed over to bandits who use the same money to buy better guns and faster bikes to kidnap the next person. It’s a never-ending cycle.
Why does this keep happening? Your guess is as good as mine. In a normal country, if you commit a crime, you pay the price, but in Nigeria, it seems the kidnappers call the shots, because the chances of a “big-time” kidnap kingpin being caught and jailed are almost zero. Sadly, it feels like the government has left us to negotiate our own survival.
In a state where the government only offers condolences, instead of consequences, there should be no iota of surprise when criminals become bolder. We are becoming a nation of traumatised people, and Nigeria is at a breaking point. We can’t keep living like this; afraid to drive, afraid to sleep, and afraid to succeed. If we don’t shut down the kidnap factory now, it will eventually consume us all.
• Moyosore contributed this piece from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).
