Obasanjo cautions against payment of ransom

By Modupe Shodeinde

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has cautioned the federal government on payment of ransom to kidnappers and banditry, saying that it will encourage the criminals to continue in the dastardly act.

Obasanjo, spoke on Wednesday while receiving members of Tiv Professionals Group (TPG) led by Prof Zacharys Anger Gunduat his Penthouse residence at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He made known his disbelieve in payment of ransom to kidnappers and bandits, which he said would only encourage criminals to indulge in the dastardly act.

He specifically noted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and that of his predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan had paid ransom to kidnappers and bandits, but denied it.

He noted that the government must develop means to deal with kidnappers and bandits heavily in place of ransom payment.

The former President equally insisted that it requires a “carrot and stick” approach to fight insecurity challenges to a standstill.

He said, “some people are still reaching out, and hoping that lives can still be saved. But a situation whereby anybody thinks paying the ransom is the way out, that person is folly. He is a folly. This is because when you pay the ransom, you encourage. But if you are not going to pay the ransom, you must have the means to deal heavily with it. You must have the stick to deal with it”.

“Government has always paid the ransom. Not only this government, even during Jonathan’s administration. They paid the ransom, but they denied it.”

Also speaking on the agitation for division in Nigeria, Obasanjo relayed the position of a military friend that those beating drums of division don’t think about the interest of the minority ethnic groups.

“And he would say to me if the Yorubas can stand as a country if the Igbos can stand as a country if the Hausas/Fulanis can stand as a country if you major tribes decide to break up from the country, where do you want the minority ethnic groups to stand. That, many Nigerians don’t know about, unfortunately.

“Where do we want those minority groups to stand? Wherever they stand, now they are by virtue of Nigeria’s present situation a little bit protected. But if Nigeria breaks up and they are in a smaller country, they will be oppressed. They will always be exterminated. Are we thinking of that?”

“I believe that if we will get it right in Nigeria, any leader must look at Nigeria with the prism of the diversity of Nigeria. For as long as you look at Nigeria with the prism of your ethnic group, then you aren’t going anywhere, either your ethnic group or religious group”.

“But is there hope? There is hope.”