Nigeria Will No Longer Pay Ransom To Bandits, Terrorists

Fiscal and monetary albatrosses have grounded the country’s flight, when surging demographics demand high economic growth to just maintain current standards of living.A decades-old fuel subsidy was exhausting paltry public finances.

“This time, unlike Chibok, the girls and boys were brought back a fortnight later, and the security and intelligence agencies deployed immediately to rescue them.

“Success in Kaduna has brought families relief and praise for the military, yet the government bears no illusions: The scourge of kidnappings must be routed once and for all.

He wrote: “Ten years ago today, 276 girls were abducted in the night from their school in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria.

“Meanwhile, the costs for perpetrators must be raised: They will receive not a dime, and instead security services’ counteraction.

“Currency controls that artificially propped up the naira deterred investment and led to shortages of foreign exchange.

“But without the fundamentals in place, it is impossible for an enabling environment where the private sector thrives, jobs are created, and opportunity is spread across the country.

A multi-billion forex backlog at the central bank has been cleared, giving foreign investors confidence to invest in Africa’s largest economy, safe in the knowledge they can repatriate earnings.

“When this March, 137 children were tragically taken from a school in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, the shadow of Chibok lay ever-present.

Boko Haram translates to “Western Education is Forbidden” and reflects an ideological impetus as jihadi insurgents opposed to the very idea of a Nigerian state.

By 2022, the cost had ballooned to $10 billion—more than the government’s combined spending on education, health care, and infrastructure in a budget of $40 billion.

From London to Washington, protesters held placards reading #BringBackOurGirls—the hashtag the girls’ families had posted to pressure their idle government into action.

“Today, Boko Haram are splintered, and mass abductions are primarily the work of criminal gangs.

The President stated that the resolution of kidnapping through ransom payment only perpetuates more abductions, saying that extortion rackets must be squeezed out of existence..

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