How Ralia’s kidnapping changed her life forever
By Precious Adefowora
As the only child of a wealthy Business man, Ralia had everything she could ever wish for — luxury clothes, bags, shoes and every other thing she ever wanted.
She often described her life as perfect to anyone who cared to listen and she soon began to think her perfect life was going to last forever.
Ralia and her family lived in Kaduna State, the Northern part of Nigeria. Her father was a Businessman with diverse chains of business and her mother was a popular Jewelry trader who often shipped in her good from other Countries. They hail from kogi State, but settled in Kaduna right after Ralia was Born.
Being the only child, Ralia always had the best of the best, but a faithful incident changed Ralia’s life.
In the 10th day of March, around 10:00pm, Ralia’s family got a visit from the notorious group of Bandits that terrorized the state.
They only had one mission, taking every literate female child captive and so they took Ralia, not listening to the cries and pleas of her parents.
Ralia who was too exhausted to move due to the ill treatment of her captors woke up to a poorly lit room filled with girls like herself. Some of them looked like they would give us at any minute and other looked like they were going to cry. She was also at the verge of busting into tears but she was too exhausted from crying all day.
Ralia finally gathered the strength to talk to one of the girls who told her that she was a Final year student at a private university.
She said she regretted not listening to her parents and living a careless life, that God was probably punishing her for being so disobedient.
Ralia thought of the ridiculous demands she made to her parents on several occasions, threatening to kill herself. Being the only child they always give in to her demands.
One of the captors walked in and barked order at the group of frightened girls telling them to stop making noise with their crying and that they should prepare for dinner.
When dinner arrived, Ralia couldn’t believe what was staring at her, even the dogs at her house didn’t eat such a poorly looking and little amount of food. She was about to refuse the food but on second thought, she needed to eat to regain her strength.
Hours went into days and Ralia was starting to lose the hope of seeing the outside world again, she had spoken to some other girls in the room and realized that they had one thing in common, they were over privileged children of elites who misued their parent’s wealth.
Ralia sat down, thinking of the things she would do better if she ever got her freedom, she sope to the girls too, telling them that being born with silver spoons didn’t make them any better than the beggars on the street.
She soon became the girls motivator, telling them that if they were willing to do better, they had a chance of seeing the outside world.
Meanwhile, Ralia’s parents had spared no expense at finding their daughter, policemen combed every book and cranny of the state, but all their effort were furtile.
After a month in the captor’s den, hope smiled on Ralia and the girls and the were rescued from their captors. Everyone was reunited with their family.
Ralia’s parents saw an evident change in Ralia and instead of making unreasonable demands, she decided to start a foundation instead, with the help of her parents and the girls who were with her in the captor’s den.
Sometimes, life’s harshest trials reveal our deepest strengths and lead us toward gratitude and purpose. Ralia’s experience teaches us that material privilege should never overshadow humility, resilience, and empathy.
True strength comes from valuing people and appreciating life beyond luxury.
