Nigeria’s Dysfunctional Leadership Spawns Hostage Taking

Every time there is news about Nigeria these days, it is bad news. Bad news, not in the sense that Nigerians and their country are being smeared in a conspiracy of sorts in the international press. It is bad news that come straight from bad acts perpetrated in Nigeria by either Nigerian officialdom or through neglects by it. One is talking about the regular news of hostage-taking that takes place these days in the Niger Delta where much of the hydrocarbons that provide 85% of the revenue that sustains Nigeria’s dysfunctional supra-national state, are extracted from.

Refusal by Nigeria’s dysfunctional leaders to respond honestly to the demands by inhabitants of the Niger Delta to be allowed a fair share of the wealth that accrues from the hydrocarbons that are extracted in such reckless manner which destroys and degrades their environment, has spawned shameful acts of hostage-taking by militants and even brigands that are flashed almost regularly in the international media. Up until today when a 3-year-old child of a British oil worker became their latest victim, the hostage takers have specifically concentrated on mostly foreign oil workers. In all cases, they released their victims after holding them for some time. They have consistently indicated that their intention has been to draw attention to the plight of inhabitants of the Delta who exist in unconscionable poverty even as the wealth realized from the resources that are taken from their homeland is stolen and shared out by Nigeria’s corrupt rulers.

One cannot take the liberty to condone their acts of hostage taking. At the same time, the harshest condemnation is reserved for Nigeria’s leaders who have let this state of affairs perpetuate itself. It is absolutely clear that the Nigerian supra-national state and the corrupt individuals that operate it are incapable of subduing the militants and brigands who are responsible for these acts. Why then have they refused to hearken to demands made by aggrieved nationalities in the country for an equitable restructure of the polity to give all excluded groups a sense of belonging? Amongst other reasons, their refusal bothers on the sort of irresponsibility that derives from dysfunctional disposition. It is only dysfunctional leaders who will care next to nothing about the atrocities that they inflict on their society so long as they feather their nests. Many Nigerians are sick and tired of a dysfunctional leadership that presides over their affairs in ways that spawn anger and acts of brigandage from aggrieved groups. Nigeria’s rulers are as responsible as the de facto perpetrators of acts of hostage taking in the Niger Delta. Reasonable people the world over must lend their condemnation for not just the hostage takers who have now resorted to abducting babies, but also for Nigeria’s corrupt and dysfunctional leaders.