The legendary Afrobeats musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti of blessed memory has one or two tracks in which he talked so well about governmental ramblings over serious issues in the midst of failed governance. 

One of those tracks talks about accusations and counter accusations  of official heists as follows: ‘You be thief’, ‘I no be thief’, ‘You be robber’ ‘I no be robber’, ‘You be armed robber’, ‘I no be armed robber’, ‘arguments arguments argue.’

The release or is it ‘rescue’ from North West Kidnappers and terrorists’ abode of a one time Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a military General, provided a perfect opportunity for the Defence headquarters,  the National Security Adviser to publicly ramble about Kidnappers and paying of ransom to Kidnappers. These ramblings came about due to the revelation by some serving and retired Army Generals who said they paid heavily to those who kidnapped Brigadier General Tsiga the erstwhile DG of NYSC before his Kidnappers had mercy on him and freed him. 

Then the Defence Headquarters rambled unending to convince the gullible Nigerians that no kobo of ransom was paid by the Defence establishment before the kidnapped military General who spent nearly two months deep inside the Katsina forests could be ‘freed’ or is it ‘rescued’.

Well, the union of retired and serving military Generals who paid to get General Tsiga freed said they paid from their personal savings and not from the pockets of the Defence establishment.  So why these unnecessary beatings about the bush? 

This is how the whole brouhaha started:
Brigadier General Ismaila Abdullahi (retd.) had said that the release of retired Brigadier General Maharazu Tsiga (retd.), who was abducted from his Katsina State home on February 5, 2025, was facilitated by generous financial contributions from fellow army generals, serving and retired military officers, and a wide spectrum of civilians.

In a note of appreciation shared on Facebook on Sunday, on behalf of Tsiga and his associates, Abdullahi detailed the community-driven effort that secured the retired general’s freedom.

He highlighted the role of a WhatsApp platform named “TSIGA,” created on February 9, 2025, to coordinate information and solicit donations after bandits demanded a N400 million ransom.

“The response was overwhelming. On this platform, we had over 300 members; made up of retired military officers, serving military officers, and civilians from all segments of our society, university lecturers, ambassadors, and businessmen,” Abdullahi stated in the message. While real-time updates on the total amount raised were discontinued for security reasons, Abdullahi emphasised the impact of the collective financial strength.

Then the rambling from the Defence establishment went thus:
The Defence Headquarters said troops engaged both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to secure the release of the ex-NYSC DG.

“It is thus only fair to recognise the significant sacrifices made by these troops who have worked day and night, often at great risk to their own lives in their search of the senior officer.

“The disparaging online is therefore nothing but presumably an act of mischief which is calculated at undermining the dedicated efforts of military effort to eradicate terrorists/bandits and other criminal elements from the North West region.

Then comes the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police who warned the people of Nigeria to stop forthwith from paying or funding Kidnappers.  

But come to think of it, Oga Ribadu,  do you know that your political party the All Progressives Congress paid N50 million to kidnappers of the director of administration of your party’s headquarters who was simply picked up by kidnappers from Abuja, the city of the President and all the Brigade of Guards specially trained snipper shooters.

Oga Ribadu,  do you know that sadly, these armed non-state actors who kidnapped the APC National administration head, killed him or he died even after keeping him for two months and successfully collecting N50 million ransom from the All Progressives Congress the party which you are a top-flight member and in which governments you are the most important Security advisor to the President who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces?

This is the stage we are in, so there is really no need for these meaningless official ramblings about whether a military General kidnapped and kept for two months and couldn’t be rescued by the Army got freed after ransom was paid or not. Nor is there any need to tell Nigerians to stop funding Kidnappers. 

So if Nigerians don’t pay to get their family members and bread winners freed from the clutches of Kidnappers who are on hard drugs and are trigger happy, what should they do? Should the relatives of victims of kidnappings go about their businesses as usual and then let Kidnappers kill their loved ones?  These questions are important because there are abundance of evidential proofs that Kidnappers abduct and keep their victims for upward of one year and the security forces have no way of finding out where they are or resolving the problem. 

We know that in certain instances, these devils who are terrorists Kidnappers could still proceed to kill after collection of ransom but in about 45 per cent of the incidents, these bad guys release their victims when paid their prices.  What the government should be telling Nigerians is what it is doing at the National and sub-national levels to curb Kidnappings and what the various administrations have actually done to bring Kidnappers to swift, decisive and immediate prosecution and legal sanctions for their crimes against humanity.

Have these top officers of the military and the National Security Adviser forgotten the primary duty of government which is to protect lives and property of citizens and promote the welfare and well-being of the citizens as enshrined in section 14 (2) (B) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended?

Please Oga Ribadu and co, if you have conveniently forgotten the primary duty of government, please the aforementioned is precisely the fundamental legal role of government.  Anything else are empty rhetorics and irrelevant ramblings.

Nigerians do not need official ramblings over the rising issues of settling Kidnappers but we ask from this government to tell us what it has done to even protect our international borders because these daredevil armed Kidnappers and terrorists are having field days moving around the country and unleashing devastating violence and then moving to other parts of West Africa whereby some of then have set up their enterprises of kidnappings happening in Nigeria.

In the 2025 budget, the president allocated the lion’s share of N4.9 trillion to defence and national security. So, is this government cash backing humongous expenditures on national security yearly but all we see are crass incompetence, empty story tellings and annoying ramblings that graphically portray the country Nigeria as a failed state. 

We the people of Nigeria feel ashamed that the Country spend monumental and humongous amounts of money to fund the military and police but these Security architectures have failed to deliver on their mandates and sadly the president is cool with their crass incompetence.

The National Assembly being a rubberstamped legislature under the control of the executive president is doing nothing to provide effective oversight on the failed national defence and security institutions and leaderships.  This is why these failed officers of the security infrastructures have made it their past time to continue to bash Nigerians in the media instead of hiding their faces in unmitigated shame. 

Onwubiko is the founder of the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria and was National Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission Of Nigeria.