There is talk that a Nigerian may be among the hostages seized when gunmen believed to be linked to ISIS attacked an oil field in Libya today. If, indeed, they seized a Nigerian, we need not worry. The Nigerian will make history as the first hostage voluntarily freed with an apology and an offer of a free flight ticket to Lagos by ISIS.
If you are ISIS and you seize a citizen of Nigeria, it means you have not been talking to and receiving advice from your fellow murderers and kidnappers on the coast of Somalia. They would have told you not to take a Nigerian. They would be speaking from experience. In 2008, the foolish Somali pirates kidnapped Nigerian military men. Here is what I had to say in an op-ed about that incident:
================================
"On August 4, 2008, a band of foolish Somali pirates kidnapped the entire crew of a Nigerian tugboat in the coast of Somalia. The boat was returning to Nigeria from Singapore. After holding their Nigerian hostages for a total of 302 days, the Somalian pirates finally grew brains and realized how foolish it was for them to have kidnapped Nigerians. The Somalians broke the number one rule of international hostage taking – the life of your hostage must mean something to a particular state – because they believed that anybody in the rulership of Nigeria was even remotely interested in the lives of Nigerian citizens.
The pirates can be forgiven. Because they mostly kidnapped Americans and Europeans, they were not used to governments not fretting over the lives of their citizens. They extended that consideration to the Nigerian state and paid heavily for their error of judgment. Their Nigerian captives became an economic burden on them for they must be fed. After 302 days, the Somalians practically begged the Nigerian hostages to leave. They needed the space for hostages from serious countries that would worry about their citizens. Nobody in Abuja had bothered about our kidnapped compatriots. No, not one."
=========================================
So, to Sunday Akojiand those who are starting to worry about the possibility of a Nigerian hostage in the hands of ISIS, I say: worry not for a Nigerian citizen has no hostage value. If it is true they have a Nigerian, they will free him when they discover that no state has made any inquiries about him. In fact, those from officially-recognized stateless spots in the world are luckier than us. If they are kidnapped, the UN and international agencies will stand in for them because they are stateless. If we are kidnapped, nobody will stand in for us because we are not officially considered stateless.
Anyway, being a citizen of an uncaring state like Abuja comes with certain advantages. You can travel from Syria to Afghanistan without having to worry too much about being taken. If anybody takes you, it must have been in error. They will release you upon realizing that you have no hostage value.
~Prof Pius Adesanmi
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C5469881191