January | 2025 | A View From The Scandinavian

A Questionable Democracy

Adeola Aderounmu

What kind of democracy gives the presidency to a convicted felon, a criminal?

When a convicted felon, a criminal is sworn in as president in a democracy, then democracy should be placed under the spotlight and questioned.

There is every reason to discuss about the consequences of the type of democracy that the US is displaying to the world. It’s hypocritical. Put rightly, it is a like a dictatorship mimicking democracy, or a democratic face painted on tyranny. It is a dangerous experiment.

What kind of government, what kind of democracy gives the opportunity for a criminal to become president?

What kind of law system makes a person to be above the law. Prisons across the US are filled with convicted felons, citizens who have been found guilty of one crime or the other, and dully serving time for their crimes. Fair enough. But Trump as a free man in the US, even becoming president means that not all animals are equal, and some animals are more equal that some others.

A democracy that placed a criminal in the position to make laws, to amend laws and to dispense laws, in my opinion, is not better than any form of dictatorship. I would find it hard to state the benefits of a criminal making laws in a supposedly democratic dispensation. I would find it difficult to place the value of a criminal-president in a pseudo-democracy above a tyrant in a non-democracy. I can’t come to terms with the possibility to accepting the conducts and leadership of a criminal-president in a civil society.

I started writing this article before trump was sworn in and I was already going to suggest that Trump could close all the prisons in the US and send all fellow criminals’ home. I was not shocked by the executive orders to send home more than 1 700 criminals few hours after he returned to the White House. Nothing trump had done in a few days or nothing he would do in 4 years would shock me. Tyrants don’t send shock, they radiate the characteristics of tyrants.

Nowadays I have so much to do that my articles are late and not covering the depths of my thoughts. But I must put them down anyway just to make sure that I wrote my views.

We are in the early days of Trump administration. So, the only thing to do now is to fasten our seat belts and be prepared for one of the bumpiest rides in world history. Every day will unfold with drama, with threats and with vows to reverse the world order. Denmark should probably start preparing to go to war if she must keep Greenland.

A few years ago, in my first article about trump, I wrote to the American people that MAY THE WIND BE THEIR WAY.

Now I am writing to the rest of us. Under a Trump rule as a convicted felon, may the wind be our way.

Na-Kutsa: A Village By The Kidnapper’s Den

Adeola Aderounmu (A view From The Scandinavian)

There are many stories of families waiting for their loved ones across Nigeria. After a certain period of waiting, the expectations of seeing them alive again drop and the worst is assumed.

Just imagine boarding a cab along the road because the car park was devoid of regular taxi services and being abducted by criminals who transported you to a place close to Na-Kutsa village in Zaria. This was what happened to innocent people regularly in Zaria, Kaduna State. It would continue to happen until the den of kidnappers, or the villagers in Na-Kutsa are shaken. No village should harbor murderers and kidnappers, as a way of life.

I recommend that you read the sad experience of Baraka Abdulkarim as narrated to the Punch Newspaper. She was kidnapped by notorious cab operators and handed over to kidnappers. The first 2 weeks in December 2024 was a real trip to hell for Baraka and other passengers who thought they had boarded a regular cab. A woman who had 6 children on the trip saw two of her children shot to dead because they walked slowly through the forest.

Image source: Punch Newspaper, Nigeria

Baraka Abdulkarim

For 2 weeks, Baraka and the others defecated on their bodies. They pissed on themselves and were rarely fed as the kidnappers waited for ransoms from the victims’ families. During the period of her captivity, Baraka, according to the Punch Newspaper underwenrt her menstrual cycle bleeding all over her body and the blood drying up on her. The mess can only be imagined!

The person or persons who deliver ransoms are usually held back, killed or re-cycled for the next ransom. In some places in Northern Nigeria, like the Na-Kutsa village in Kaduna, kidnappers are well-known, and the profession is a way of life, a means to easy wealth.

I am writing about this, not just because it happened in Kaduna, because this could have been a sad occurrence anywhere in Nigeria. But I am writing about it because the village is known, and the den of kidnappers is also probably known. It is shocking that the notorious cab driver(s) are out there waiting for their next set of victims.

The cooperation between cab drivers and the kidnappers is a very profitable evil business. It rakes in millions daily. We know about Baraka and the others kidnaped along with her because she was released after the ransom was paid. Sadly, the person who delivered her ransom was held.

We don’t know about thousands of other missing kidnapped people. Many of them are killed like goats and left to rotten in the forests. There are many stories of families waiting for their loved ones across Nigeria. After a certain waiting period, the expectations drop, and the worst is assumed.

Kidnapping is a profitable business in some parts of Nigeria. Sometimes, it can occur at some random locations if you, your friends, of family members run out of luck. It’s like a gamble sometimes if you are safe or not.

My expectation is a police investigation into the notorious hideouts of the kidnappers which is either in or around Na-kutsa village. It is not a rocket science to find the village, to find the kidnappers and to apprehend the kidnappers. In my books of investigations, this is supposed to be a very easy raid and conquests of the criminals.

Unless the authorities are accomplices, or the intelligence gathering around the Na-Kutsa village is compromised, I don’t see any reason why the cab drivers and the kidnappers should not be apprehended this January 2025.

One worrisome aspect of the Punch report was that the kidnappers have young wives who could be as young as 12 years old. I am sorry for them. I am sorry for that part of the world where children are raped in the names of early marriages. I am sad to be associated with these types of MOFOS. There is nothing in this world that will stop me from longing for freedom.

This is my view from The Scandinavian. The rest, you know!