Kidnapping in Nigeria

Nowadays in Nigeria the major way people see of making money fast is by kidnapping, gone are those days were people robbed houses. People see this as a means for making money for themselves because when a loved one of yours is taken by unknown people it will make you go through any length in order to see your loved ones again. So kidnappers capitalise on this knowing the kind of pains it will bring to the victim's loved ones thereby making them to do whatever the kidnappers demand which most commonly is to pay a ransom.All this is because of the economic situation in the country.

Kidnapping in Nigeria has seen a tremendous rise since 2007 which before then was very minimal.Before, it was only foreigners who were victims of abduction up until 2007 when there was a sudden kidnapping rampage of Nigerian nationals which include politicians/famous people children, lecturers and so on and so forth.Moreover the sums of money demanded by kidnappers have seen a ginormous drop which before were millions of dollars to as little as N10,000 (£40).

Most recently 15 primary school children were kidnapped in aba, abia Nigeria and on their way to school.A ransom of N20,000,000 (£90,000) as demanded by their abductors which was later dropped to N350,000 (£1600) because they are willing to release the children which the whole world has condemned.

The federal government has to do something about this before it gets out of hand.

Years Lost

It was recently in the news that for Nigeria to achieve uninterrupted power supply it will cost the nation 7.5 trillion naira ($50 billion) which i believe the country should have achieved long time ago.The purported fee is happens to be almost twice the country's budget for a whole year which i think is ludicrous because the country was meant to have started long time ago during the 1980s when there was an oil boom to make the country worthy of being called the giant of Africa but instead it was the opposite that was done which has led to poverty and underdevelopment.

All of a sudden the Nigerian government have woken up from their slumber and decided to embark upon development initiatives which is a little bit too late because the population of the country is  increasing and more people flocking from villages to cities searching for jobs .Nigeria has also lost many years of gaining potential growth because of mismanagement of the economy and all other things.

If the government can develop policies on economic growth it will help the economy so that the pace of growth is fast.

The Nigerian dream

Many people in Nigeria wake up every morning praying for a better Nigeria, when will all this problems stop in Nigeria.A country that is fifth largest oil producer in the world and is the giant of Africa.
But i tell you we cant achieve anything if we don't help our selves,just take a look at the streets of Lagos the so called centre of excellence.The roads are in a dilapidated state ,dirt in every street and corner.

Talking of cities, Lagos is no where near cities like New York, London or Paris.

The main problematic issues are- :
Corruption - as result of corruption money that is meant for the welfare of the citizens of the country is going into the hands of a few thereby leading to poverty, inadequate power supply and so on and so forth.Corruption and mismanagement swallow about 40 percent of Nigeria's $20 billion annual oil income. No form of arrangement being made for the less privileged to survive.I mean things like job seekers allowance should be introduced in the country.
Overcrowding - a lots of people are commuting to Lagos in search of work thereby causing overcrowding, this has led to poor standard of living. There are no continual developments in villages and rural areas so people in these areas commute to Lagos in search for greener pastures. Population has grown from 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 15 million today, and the Nigerian government estimates that city will have expanded to 25 million residents by 2015 if population isn't controlled.

Sustenance - This is a major bottleneck in the economy and which has been our Achilles heel for quite a long time now. Any time there are new infrastructural development, arrangements aren't made for the maintenance of these developments.A good example are roads, take a look at the picture above and below i mean you can clearly see the difference between the one above and the one below and this is caused because lack of sustenance.

Our flea markets are nothing to write home about.When buying from these markets a person isn't sure of food security when the market itself is in a filthy state.The pictures below show a typical Nigerian local flea market and a more hygienic and modern flea market .can you see that the difference is very clear .

As a result of all this bottlenecks people have nothing else to resort to other than theft and kidnapping.

Kidnapping levels has been on the rise from the middle of 2009 to present .
We cant solve this problems if people continue being greedy .Imagine an individual looting so much money from the tax payers and using it to acquire houses all over the world that he or she wont live in .
Nigeria shouldn't be a nation that moves a step forward and two steps backward ,it should be a state where there is political stability and everything a good nation is supposed to be.

Reasons for corruption in nigeria

Nigerian people are corrupt simply because an individual doesn't earn sufficient money to satisfy his/her needs.An individual earns a basic salary but this salary they earn is insufficient to satisfy their needs due the lack of basic infrastructure such as electricity, pipe borne water, inadequate mass urban transportation and so on and so forth.

A person has to pay for so may things that are meant to be provided free by the government such as money to buy a generator,money to dig your own borehole since the government does practically nothing when it comes to providing all these things. People are thereby forced to loot whatever they can form their various places of work, and i'm referring to not only politicians but Nigerians. 

People are forced to embezzle because they also need to pay their own personal needs lets take for example transportation, holders of public offices e.g (member of parliament) don't use the yellow rickety public buses because of the buses are in a dilapidated state and unsafe to board they make use of taxi's and personal drivers which are all expensive for an average Nigerian to afford.

In countries like the united kingdom politicians live their lives like every normal citizen because they are serving the people(public servants) they take public transport like buses and trains they don't hire drivers for themselves because of the efficiency of their economy.Take a look at the pictures below and tell me the difference.

Nigerian Rickety bus

                               London red bus

Now the pictures above show a Lagos public transportation bus a.k.a danfo  and a double-decker bus in London.Now you can see why people don't enter these yellow buses.

All these has brought about inequality and high dependence on people who are well off in the country.The leaders in other countries earn their salaries which is sufficient for them because their government provide what they are supposed to provide unlike Nigeria.

The prime minister of the united kingdom earns £250,000 a year as salary while politicians in nigeria loot more than this amount in a month. If nigeria can be fixed there will be no need for corruption in nigeria, take a look at tony blair the former prime minister of the united kingdom, he has made a fortune since leaving the prime ministerial seat which is over £16,000,000 (3,697,835,127.34 NGN) and still earning and now has a property portfolio of several houses in england.

                                           Tony Blair's Buckinghamshire house