By Debbie Ogunjobi

As the year races to an end, it is always great to look back and see what was so great and not so great about it. I can certainly count a few peeves that test patience as a virtue, but there are some that make you question life and humanity as a whole. Some occurrences are a slap in the face of our creator and the fact that they  can happen in any society makes all of us culpable of breeding evil.

I can count many things that were great about the year, but something not so great has got my attention and I must vent or explode with rage. A while ago, in the middle of an argument; a friend of mine who had got pregnant after decades of waiting had patted her bulging belly and told us all to mind our language so we don’t offend the ears of her precious cargo.

That child is almost a teenager now, but he is still called precious to most of us who know the progeny! I had always thought that was very endearing as I can’t think of anything more precious than a child.

One of the most reviled figures in Biblical History is Judas; the reason being his betrayal of Christ and the blood money he took for that betrayal. The issue of kidnapping in Nigeria is becoming an issue that should shake us all to the marrow and it seems insidious to find it targeting everyone.  We all have become cargoes; some more precious than others!!

You hear of experiences that are vile and wonder when we as a people derailed to become little more than cannibals. There are some states in the country that it would be plain suicidal to go, not for any other reason than that one is almost sure of getting kidnapped and held for ransom. It is not only the rich that are targets, the poor are also not left out and just like a virus the disease of kidnapping is fast becoming a pandemic.

I read an account of a young girl who had been kidnapped on a motorcycle just a few months ago and her account of her ordeal was horrifying. The last thing she remembers was someone covering her nose with a little rag and she woke up hours later tied up in a dark room. Her captors on noticing she was conscious had given her a phone to call her parents and demand a ransom that her mother who was a widow couldn’t find.

A negotiation which lasted two weeks began and in the meantime the girl was subjected to rape by so many men she lost count. By the time she was released she had been infected with several STDs and pregnant. Her case is not isolated and it happened in Lagos in broad daylight.  We are being bombarded by several bulletins and messages warning us all to be extra-vigilant and I wonder what happened to law enforcement and the officers who should protect us!!

This past week a little child was kidnapped and the parents are left reeling with shock and pain. This particular story has a Judas twist as the kidnap was presumably orchestrated by a family friend and trusted aide, one Dare, who had been a part and parcel of that family. On Monday, December 13, little Sharon Omolayo was picked up by Dare from her school in GRA Ikeja, Lagos, and even as I write now(Friday, December 17, 2010) she has not been seen or heard of since. Her parents, contrary to speculation have not received any ransom demand and are clinging on to hope, that God will intervene and bring Sharon home to her family.

I don’t know the family and I have never met Sharon but I am a parent and at times like these we must all become Sharon’s parents; we must pray with them and keep an eye out for the Judas who took her. There are photographs circulating and petitions flying and we must not forget that a little girl, innocent, beautiful, vulnerable and trusting Sharon is missing.

Please,contact 08033506089, 08062549196, 08085083076 with any useful information alternatively you could just get down on your knees and pray!!

A society that eats its young will inevitably eat itself!!