Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows, Fernando Sucre, Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell, John Abruzzi, Benjamin Miles “C-Note” Franklin, James Whistler, and David Apolskis.

If you do not recognise any of these names, it simply means you do not own a television and you probably live on a deserted island. These names were made famous in the hit series Prison Break, which ran for four seasons and kept audiences worldwide amused and amazed.

The plot centered on the tale of the unusual love between two brothers- the older, a dumb brute, and the younger, a genius strategist. To save his brother from wrongful execution, Michael found a way to be incarcerated with Lincoln in Fox River Penitentiary, gathered an army of fellow escapees, broke out of jail, and went on the run. In between, he found time to fall in love with a doctor and also discovered his father was alive after all. It was a gripping story; one of Hollywood’s best.

However, in Season Two, a character called Alexander Mahone, turned up. He was the FBI expert assigned to capture all eight escapees and return them to Fox River. At his first press conference, he said, “, the escape man is still human. He is still afraid, and he will stop at nothing in his attempt at flight. Fortunately for us, while our quarry has shadow and night as his ally, we have something far greater. Television.”

Boy, was he right! “The Eight” were recognised everywhere they went because their faces were on all the major television networks across the country. They were on the front pages of newspapers, every cop had a picture of them and posters were in all public places. They weren’t safe anywhere and even before long, the four were caught.

A while ago, about 35 Boko Haram loyalists escaped the Bauchi Prisons. A number of security operatives were either killed or injured. Less than 48 hours later, the national award winning IG of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, lost his job.

When I saw the news, I said to myself, “Thank God that inept IG is gone. Now, those Boko guys will be recaptured. All they need do is put their pictures in the newspapers and the major TV stations and, before you can say ‘Boko’, they will be caged.”

It’s been over three weeks and I’m still waiting. I guess I overestimated the competence of the prisons authorities to have pictures of the detainees. I must have been out of my mind to think the new IG, Hafiz Ringim, has an idea of what he is doing. I must be crazy to think that Goodluck put the IG there for any other reason other than politics.

When children are kidnapped or missing, the media in the United Kingdom and the United States, go all out. They make so much organised noise until the child is found, either dead or alive.

In Nigeria, our media’s attitude to life-threatening situations borders on lethargy. There is seemingly little or no interest in the matter at all. I thought we would have had pictures of the 15 school children kidnapped in Abia State on all the stations, so we could all empathise with their parents. If those pictures had been made available we could put them up on Facebook and jointly implored their captors to release them unharmed. The media failed to let us see the pain their parents were going through at the time.

But then there are still more questions: Did the president have to give orders before the police understood the gravity of the situation or was he grandstanding as usual? Are there no undercover police officers in these areas of high kidnapping to gather intelligence or is this too much James Hadley Chase for our men in black? Is there anyone planning ahead to see that these children, doubtlessly traumatised, get the best psychological help possible, or does that only happen in other countries?

We shouldn’t have to be contending with these issues on the scale we are right now, if just a little thought other direct personal gain is put into picking those that head our various agencies.

My prayer goes out to those 15 children now back with their parents. May you grow up in a country that actually gives a damn about you and yours.
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