Why Jidenna might just be right

“Classic man” singer Jidenna Theodore Mobisson has sent Nigerians into a fit of rage with his comments in a recent interview with VLADtv claiming being light skinned in Nigeria put a target on his back, and making him more valuable to Nigerian kidnappers especially in the S/east where he comes from.
The singer also implied in the interview that his family, which consists of his late Nigerian father Oliver Udemmadu Mobisson from Imo State, his American mother Tama and 3 older siblings were constant targets in Nigeria for robbery and assault because of their light skin.
The statements made by the Nigerian born singer caused quite the ruckus amongst the Nigerian online community who had previously been very proud of the singer, touting him as an “ambassador” of the nation and always quick to point out that the young eccentric singer was indeed Nigerian.
Here are some comments from hurt Nigerians online after the interview.

Jidenna is stupid kraaaa. So there are no light skin Nigerians in Nigeria? He really thinks he is this special? my friend

— miw-sher (@_SheIsPoison) July 11, 2015

With all the public support and his huge fanbase in Nigeria, it came as quite an unpleasant shock to realize that the singer felt quite different about Nigeria and her people.

The question is, is Jidenna completely wrong?

Is the state of affairs relating to kidnap in the south eastern part of Nigeria as bad as he painted?
Yes. To an extent it is. Kidnapping in Nigeria especially in the S/east is notoriously rampant with victim lists growing at alarming rates.
What had started as the occasional kidnap of foreign oil workers in the Niger delta regions by militants as a cry for help to draw attention to the state of things in the region became a wide spread criminal trend adopted by Nigeria’s many unemployed youth as it became a somewhat lucrative source of feeding.
In May this year, Chimamanda Adichie, the widely acclaimed Nigerian author of Half Of A Yellow Sun, spoke shortly while addressing the graduating class of 2015 in Wellesley College of how her Father, 83, was Kidnapped in Enugu earlier year and the emotional trauma and terror her and her family went through during that unfortunate period.

Oliver Udemmadu Mobisson and Jidenna

It is clear to see where Jidenna was coming from, born in the United States of America and hearing these tales of the kidnap and warnings every time he travelled back home to Nigeria must have had a lasting effect on him.
It is also important to understand how easy it is to see only the negatives about Nigeria when abroad and out of touch with the reality of things back home. Jidenna in the interview made statements implying that light skinned people were a target in S/eastern Nigeria because it was “far from the city” and light skinned people were seen as more valuable.
S/eastern Nigeria has a staggering amount of light skinned people in Nigeria and this is not a new discovery.
Being light skinned in the S/east is not of course in any way a prospect that attracts kidnappers as they could care less about your skin colour.
The only thing that matters to most of these kidnappers as to other kidnappers is the money they can get from the kidnap thus the focus on the old parents of popular Nigerians that do not reside in Nigeria, like Adichie’s father and Chelsea footballer Mikel Obi’s father; who are by the way both very dark skinned.
Adichie once addressed the danger of a single story and warned that if we continually hear or speak only a single story about a people or culture we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Yes, kidnapping has become an out of hand situation in the S/east, but to be the only thing said about Nigeria by a Nigerian in an interview aired worldwide is quite disappointing.
Things have however improved. Governments have tried to empower young members of the society who are potential kidnappers and even vigilante groups have stepped in to stem the sickening tide of kidnappings.
Nigerians owe themselves the civil responsibility of not following the footsteps of international media in painting only negative images of Nigeria.