The Evans in all of us
Congratulations Naija. For two weeks I waited for the police to change the story and it did not, so I reckon it must be true. The most wanted man after Abubakar Shekau, Chukwudubem Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans is finally in the police net. Okay, kidnapping has not stopped, but those remaining in the business are no match for the improved expertise of our crack police team. They are running against the time machine.
But wait a minute – how many kingpins are there in the kidnapping industry? Once upon a time, it was a guy by the name Henry Chibueze alias Vampire that terrorized the south until he was killed in a gun duel with the police in the evil forest of Omu Awa in Rivers state. In Naija, where a US-based athlete, Dele Udo was gunned down by the police and almost passed off as a criminal; when the police exterminate notorious criminals, that is the end of the matter. We can’t import Oyibo-style human rights issues here. Kidnappers, armed robbers and 419ners show no milk of human kindness to their victims; mercury on our moral thermometer seems wonky. A young person disappears into oblivion for a few months or years, then reappears with incredible wealth to throw around. Suddenly, they become everybody’s moral compass. Parents flaunt them as examples of ‘success’ to their hardworking but out of luck children. They challenge them to make it like Dino. The many Dinos in our society are hailed as heroes. Before you could ask what’s going on here, communities are queuing up wanting to give them invitation letters to town launching. They queue to confer dubious titles on them. Universities and polytechnics follow with awards. High society groups invite them to share the secret of their success and pastors abandon their pulpits for them to give dubious testimonies and encourage the youths while smiling to the bank with dubious offerings and tithes.
So when did we become so puzzled that a half-literate man who left his village for South Africa, returned with a gunshot wound was suddenly building houses everywhere only to end up as the kingpin of a kidnap ring? Which legitimate business pays such high dividend? When did our moral compass or sense of outrage take that upward dive when they all surround us? How many of them are in our villages, towns and cities? How many are our neighbours?
Kingpin Evans bought a piece of land from a landowner who need not conduct background checks; they collected their millions, kolanuts and bottles of schnapps, poured libation and smiled to the bank with fellow omo onile. In Alausa, his building plan was processed because he showed proof of taxation and paid the requisite fees. Our security system does not flag a deportee who came to sudden wealth. We have no capacity to closely watch him. There are no dispatches about his business back in South Africa.
When he failed to get a visitor visa in Naija for a trip for his family to Canada, he simply relocated to Ghana, built a few more houses and pronto, the fake businessman is issued a visa perhaps while a professor was standing waiting for his visa for academic exchange. If Naija did not flag him as a person of interest, Canadians have no reason to keep suspecting or denying him visa with such a fat bank account filled with blood money.
How many wretched deportees are in neighbourhoods living way above their means? When our citizens willfully break the laws of other lands, we chastise our diplomats for not siding with them – check the list in Malaysia, Italy or London. Many among us see criminality as justified reparation for 400 years of slavery.
Until we start asking questions, bring our law up to par with members of the human community we associate with, crime-fighting would remain a mirage. Until our charity begins at home, we would continue to put garlands on swine. Start bringing Naija up to 21st century or we’ll remain180 million suspected Evans, waiting to meet Abba Kyari.