PSYCHO-SOCIAL ANALYSIS OF KIDNAPPING IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR RURAL CHILDREN

Globally, kidnapping has become a debilitating and fast-growing epidemic with no recourse to possible solution in sight with severe implications for individuals and the country at large. A review of a study by Onyido (2019) reveals that Nigeria is currently and increasingly engulfed with various forms of violence ranging from kidnapping, banditry, corruption, terrorism, extra judicial killings to religious and electoral violence. These have left our society in a state of trauma, posttraumatic disorder, endless fears, heighten anxiety, chronic depression other psycho pathological disorders bewildering innocent citizens as a result of the menace. There is growing evidence to suggest that victims of kidnapping suffer both short- and long-term adverse effects particularly young children and women who might be raped during this period. Against this backdrop that the study explores the psychosocial analysis of kidnapping in Nigeria and its implication on our rural children by reviewing history of kidnapping in Nigeria, prevalence of kidnapping, theoretical and empirical analysis, and implications this could have on the innocent children in Nigeria and Nigeria’s economy. The study therefore suggests a stiff punishment for the perpetrators of these dastardly acts and protects the rights of Nigerian children most especially, in the term of access to education.