April 17, 2024
Nigeria President Tinubu says the country will no longer pay ransom to kidnappers
Nigeria will no longer pay ransom to armed gangs that have plagued the country with kidnapping and extortion, President Bola Tinubu said in an opinion piece recently published by Newsweek magazine.
In the magazine piece, titled “Ten Years Since Chibok – Nigeria Will No Longer Pay the Price,” Tinubu said ransom payments to gangs only encouraged gangs to commit more crimes and said, “the extortion racket must be squeezed out of existence.”
The president said instead of ransom, perpetrators of the violence will receive the security services’ counter action.
Ndu Nwokolo, managing partner at Nextier, a public advisory firm with focus on security and economic issues, agreed that ransom payment emboldens perpetrators, but said Nigeria is not ready to take such a stance.
- “The Nigerian state is obviously very weak to do those things it says it wants to do. If you’re someone, you have your relative kidnapped and you know that the state security agents can’t do anything,” Nwokolo said.
- “How come you were able to retrieve those numbers of kids without shooting a gun, and we know that those guys demanded ransom? The entire thing shows that there’s no honesty, there’s no transparency.”
Tinubu said Nigeria must ultimately address the triggers for insecurity, including poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity.
In the article, Tinubu also talked about his economic reforms. The Nigerian president said they were necessary to save public finances and encourage foreign investment.
Tinubu scrapped fuel subsidies for the public and floated the naira just days after assuming office last year. The decisions sent prices soaring and were widely criticized, but have not been reversed.
