Despite the wealth Nigeria possesses, it has remained underdeveloped due largely to mismanagement. And recently a new wave of crime has gained popularity amongst the youth which is the kidnapping of citizens for ransom. Can we blame them for such an act when the original kidnappers have kidnapped the wealth of Nigeria and usurped their right to a better life? Who is the actual kidnapper?

My birth four decades ago into a poor rural family of Echondom-Danladi-Kent village of Kubau Local Government Area of Kaduna State brought happiness, joy and hope. The kind of hope you see in the dazzling, fuzzy, capricious eyes of an infant. I am told that the women in the neighbourhood jubilated with my family; they danced, they prophesied, they ululated as is typical of African women with the cry of a baby at every birth. It wasn\u2019t cheap either. They ate a whole goat which my father provided according to local custom, and more prophecies rolled out.

My parents loved me with a profound love so much so that I never wanted to leave their side. The warmth of my beloved mother was something beyond imagination. I have vivid memories of my childhood years with my mother playing a leading role. I remember one time we were both beaten in the heavy August rains. She had firewood on her head. I had nothing on my fat head. I trailed behind her giggling, laughing and feeling big telling her my childhood experiences with serious delight. She merely listened to my tales and wondered which planet I came from. We were soaked in the rains by the time we arrived home.

As I grew up, I began to realize that life has many pains, mysteries and disappointments. My village had no electricity, we used bush lamps. We had no tarred roads, we used bush paths. No clinic, hospital or maternity home, we used native herbs and traditional birth attendants. Pipe- borne water was only in stories. The women sang to the only river for a supply of fresh water. The only school we had, had no seats, no books or luxurious items like visuals to help us comprehend lessons quickly. It was almost in shambles. Security in the village was absent. No police post, no barracks nearby and no checkpoint anywhere. Security was mortgaged in the hands of witches and wizards. Everything negative was attributed to them. The fear of witches and wizards was not just the beginning of wisdom, but the beginning of a lifetime of misery, fear, uncertainty and depravation. This was akin to a lifetime of psychological kidnapping.

members. She warned me about coming home late at night. Her reason was strong. The fear was that evil, creepy, unseen ghosts, who controlled the darkness, would either kidnap me physically or render me useless for life with a spell. I never understood why this was important to my young life. Now I do. My problem was the psychological trauma this had on me, in my psyche.

True to God, I never saw any witch, wizard or evil spirits during my growing-up years. That did not mean they never existed. We lived in the same village, ate the same food, drank from the same dirty stream and cried when there was any calamity. I knew they were there and they knew I was afraid of them. Growing up under such ineffectual conditions was like living in Auschwitz with no inkling of what might happen the next minute. Numerous events in the village confirmed my fears. Every bad event was attributed to the evil machinations of witches and wizards. Cases of death, miscarriage, skin disease, cholera, diarrhea, whooping-cough and fever were amongst their many doings. The worst part of this drama was that nobody dared talk about this in public. It was wise to discuss this in low hushed tones. Nobody could pinpoint where these evil men and women were hiding. The effect of what they did was hazardous to the existence of every villager. It was a kidnapping. The fear alone sent shrilled, weird, unexplainable feelings into the soul which became second nature.

But you know what?! Many of those calamities could be explained. If only we had had better hygienic conditions, perhaps many could have been saved. If only we had had a clinic, cases of skin disease, whooping-cough or fever might have been healed. My villagers believed these to be spells from evil men and women and thuskidna pp ing caused every villager to believe that all events whether avoidable or unavoidable were attributed to their whimsical powers.

I recall one funny event. A man drank so much alcohol at a local celebration. It was free beer. Being drunk, he embarked on his journey home. As he was returning late, the moon was shining brightly. He saw the stump of a tree on his bush path and mistook it for an evil spirit. He ran for dear life! He broke his leg and was found sleeping near the village stream, in the opposite direction of his home. By morning the alcohol was gone. A throng of sympathizers led him to where he saw the ghost. Low and behold, the stump of the tree was still there. He looked like a