The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Southwest’s response to security emergency

When the six governors of the Southwest states of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Lagos converged on Ibadan, its regional headquarters, for strategic security deliberations during the week, they were taking a cue from the wisdom of their forefathers during the pre-colonial and colonial days.

Then, kingdoms were being conquered and chiefdoms subdued. Land and crowns were factors in the inter-tribal wars of yore. But later, the sea and the economic advantages it conferred on Yoruba land drew the envy of some powerful warmongers from distant tribes.

Yoruba, the vast territory of the then Alaafin, came under siege. The tormentors depended on the powers of their horses, spears, bows, and arrows. They coveted the land they saw flourishing with the best of nature. Few among the Yoruba warriors had horses too. They could only face the onslaught with Dane guns, cutlasses, and well-crafted sticks called ponpo. Both sides were also known for possessing charms.

Everybody’s attention, from Lagos to Akoko, Igbomina to Egba, Ebolo to Ijebu, and Oyo to Ondo, was in the war of resistance. Led by the brave Ibadan warriors, the Yoruba of Ekiti, Oyo, Akoko, Remo, Ijebu, Igbomina, Ijesa, Popo, and Isabe put their minor differences aside and confronted their common enemy, who wanted to annex their fatherland and impose an alien religious and political administration on their towns and villages.

It was the battle of Osogbo in 1840 when the ambition of the jihadists to expand their territory collapsed. The Yoruba army from Ibadan was strengthened by their strong will, capacity, unity, and resolve to preserve their identity, their history and heritage. The soldiers fought with ideas and knowledge, propelled by the desire to defend their nation with the last drop of blood. The rest, as it is said, is history.

Politically, the Southwest of today is not one, but the threat to the zone does not discriminate. It is gratifying that the Southwest Governors’ Forum (SGF) is proactive. This is not a time for rhetoric. The governors, like their illustrious grandsires who took their destiny in their hands, are taking the bull by the horns. But speed is required as any further delay could jeopardise the existing arrangement.

If the ideas canvassed by its former leader, the late Rotimi Akeredolu, had seen the light of day, the region would today boast of a formidable regional security outfit capable of rising to the occasion.

Nevertheless, the legacy of Amotekun has endured, reminding potential interlopers of a resistant apparatus that can marginally withstand a dosage of security challenges in regional interest.

Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos State), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Lucky Aiyedatiwa (Ondo), Biodun Oyebanji (Ekiti), and Ademola Adeleke (Osun), who was represented by his deputy, Kola Adewusi, were in sober reflection, conscious of the fact that the region can only sleep on guard to its peril.

The Yoruba kith and kin suffer in Eruku and Isapa in Kwara State, which is contiguous to Ekiti, Ondo, and Osun. It is a signal that danger is looming in the neighbourhood.

The governors know that the bandits are not Yoruba. The total agenda of the evil men is unknown but bold. There is concrete evidence suggesting that the kidnapping business is booming. Others insinuate that the region’s vast natural endowments are the targets. Yet, others speculate that banditry and terrorism come with a message of religious subjugation. The Yoruba are the most religiously tolerant people with attendant peace across the region. They would never allow the merchants of chaos to occupy an inch of their land for a purpose that breaches the ethos of the region’s religious finesse.

If the identities of the bandits, their sponsors, sources of funding, and other motivations are known in some quarters, it would be relatively easier to devise solutions.

Yet, these cannot be said to be too hidden in a troubled country where some people have boldly come out to present themselves as negotiators and advocates of amnesty for terrorists and other known killers. The basic fact is that those who have pushed the country into a war have internal collaborators who maximally profit from insurgency.

Compared to other regions, particularly the three northern zones, there is relative peace in the Southwest. The zone has plans for regional progress and prosperity, and the people look forward to the commencement of operations by the Southwest Development Commission, which is expected to be a model to its counterparts in the remaining five regions.

The peace in the Southwest, therefore, should not be allowed to be compromised. The region is one, unique, and indivisible entity with a history of political accommodation and religious tolerance. The cohesion of the region is underscored by its conglomerado, Oodua Investment, jointly owned. Other regions can only copy this primal model.

Read Also: Tinubu, First Lady, Shetimma, hail PFN at 40

What Sanwo-Olu and his compatriots have done is to embark on a bold, pre-emptive, and strategic move to forestall terrorism incursion into the Southwest from the contiguous region.

If there is a crisis in Ekiti, Ondo, or Osun, it has implications for Lagos, Oyo, and Ogun, and vice versa. That is why the leaders are mobilising ideas and resources to invest in prevention instead of cure.

That Southwest is now setting up a Regional Security Fund under the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission is salutary. The initiative is just beginning to catch up with the proposals envisioned by Lagos State over a decade ago. Nigeria should acknowledge the reality that a regional security outfit, once halted by the Muhammadu Buhari government but now bolstered by the right technological equipment, can indeed make a difference.

This proposed regional security architecture, backed by a ‘Joint Security Intelligence Sharing and Communication Platform,’ would enhance early detection of threats, strange movements, and intended onslaught. The establishment of a live, digital intelligence-sharing platform among the six states would also enhance a collective surveillance due to the exchange of threat notifications, incident logs, and traveller and cargo alerts, resulting in a coordinated state-to-state rapid response.

Also, an improved forest surveillance by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), hunters, Amotekun Corps members and other security agencies is likely to flush out criminals who hide in the bushes.

Terrorists do not strike without first spying on the targeted environment. They plan and assess their chances of escape ahead of carrying out their evil enterprise. Thus, vigilance is key.

Since the Southwest is ready to provide the required personnel, the Federal Government should not wait any longer before deploying the forest guards.

In the Southwest are strange faces, including herders whose identities and missions are unknown. There is freedom of movement, but this emergency time calls for the regulation of interstate migration, as proposed by the governors. If not well checked, it could actually snowball into a conduit for insecurity. As highlighted, it would involve stricter border or boundary monitoring, data collection and self-identification. This is why each of the six states would now work with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for proper identification.

A contributory factor to banditry is the porous borders. Over 1,000 of them are unguarded, serving as easy routes for systematic invasion by foreigners who come in to torment Nigerians in their land. Some of the foreigners are involved in illegal mining activities, which “threaten environmental safety, public health and security”.

If there is a comprehensive licensing framework, monitoring mechanisms, and strict enforcement actions, as proposed by the governors, violators who want to perpetrate violent crimes under the guise of mining would be effectively checked.

There is also the policing of the land, which is a critical issue. Almost three decades ago, the Southwest led the way in the clamour for restructuring and decentralisation of the security apparatus. Under the Buhari administration, the governors established a regional security outfit that was watered down by elements who uncritically perceived it as a signpost to regional autonomy within the federation.

The presidential nod for the creation of state police has validated the claim of critics who have pointed out that the current defective and centralised policing structure is inadequate for a vast federal country like Nigeria. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s position on the issue makes state police optional. But it is an answered prayer for the six governors who are now expected to seize the opportunity, following the accelerated constitutional review by the National Assembly.

It also implies that at the state level, more Southwesterners would be recruited, trained, and deployed within their region of birth to provide security and have a sense of patriotism and emotional attachment to their region and the nation-state.

The anticipated constitution review is to pave the way for multi-layered policing. The relationship between the centralised and state police would have to be determined, and measures to guard against abuse at the sub-national level put in place.

The Southwest appears to be rising to the occasion and the governors deserve the support of all and sundry – traditional rulers, who once lost four members to banditry in Ekiti; religious leaders whose colleagues have been victims in the North; security agencies who deserve continuous praise for facing the fire on the battle field; corporate organisations that need a conducive atmosphere to thrive; community development associations, and youths who are the future leaders of the nation.

November 29, 2025
The ex-minister and his interests

These are not the best of times for a noted All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain from the South-South geopolitical zone. The man who also used to be a state governor and one-time minister is on the ropes as it were. But it’s not only his economic interests that are threatened, those of his loyalists are under pressure as individuals with federal connections are angling to take over their existing surveillance contracts.

They are moaning that moves to hijack the surveillance contract of loyalists to the Niger-Delta born politician were politically motivated, and warning that cancelling their meal ticket would be counter productive.

Already, certain youth groups within the ruling APC are accusing the administration in this South-South state of collaborating with vested interests in the state to undermine our man’s interests.

The youths lamented that the only offence of the targeted surveillance contractors was their steadfast loyalty to the under-fire politician. They insiste that executing what they claim is a witchhunt against founding members of APC who had given their all to the party would hamper peace in the state.

The youths said: “Any attempt to wrest these contracts from them, if true, would represent not only an act of political victimisation but also a direct threat to the economic stability of hundreds of youths who rely on these engagements for their survival.

The APC youths said allowing such a plot would be deeply regrettable and could further inflame existing tensions in a state already grappling with economic and political strain.

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“It would be disappointing, and indeed unnecessary, for individuals in such privileged positions to seek control over the modest enterprises that sustain many ordinary citizens.

“What is playing out, in our view, reflects an increasingly intolerant and overreaching political culture—one that seems driven more by insecurity and resentment than by genuine public interest. Having already manoeuvred to dominate political structures built through the sacrifices of others, one must ask: what more is there left to take?

They called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to use his good offices to ensure fairness and restraint in the handling of matters affecting peace, livelihood, and cohesion in the state.

“We urge all actors to remember that the essence of leadership is service, not conquest, and that governance should never descend into a zero-sum contest of personal interests.

“We remain committed to pursuing every legitimate and peaceful avenue to resist any unjust or economically harmful action against our members”, they said.

November 29, 2025
Sickening noise on whereabouts of rescued schoolgirls’ abductors

As a secondary school student, my classmates used to joke that I should pursue a degree in Theology because of my consistently high grades in Christian Religious Studies. But I have never eyed the pulpit or developed any likeness for the cassock. My fascination for the subject was the juicy stories that abound in the section of the syllabus recommended to us.

One of the bible stories I enjoyed reading was Jesus’ healing, on the Sabbath day, of a man who had been blind from birth. As the story goes, Jesus and his disciples were walking along when they sighted the blind man, prompting a question from the disciples as to whether it was the blind man who had sinned or his parents. Jesus responded that neither the man nor his parents sinned. Rather, he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Jesus then commenced the process of healing the man. He spat on the ground, mixed some mud with the saliva and applied the same on the blind man’s eyes, after which he directed him to go to a pool called Siloam and wash. The blind man did as Jesus directed and regained his sight. The incident became the talk of the town, drawing the ire of the Pharisees (Jesus’ perennial enemies), who said he committed an abomination by carrying out healing on the Sabbath, a day of the week when, by Jewish tradition, no one was expected to work.

The Pharisees summoned the blind man’s parents and asked how their blind son regained his sight. The parents, already sensing that they were up to mischief, deflected the question, telling the Pharisees to direct it to their son because he was of age. They summoned the man who had been blind and said, “Tell us the truth; this man (Jesus) is a sinner.” The man who had been healed looked at them and said, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner or not. What I do know is that I was blind but now can see.”

I was reminded of the story by the cynical reaction of the critics of the Tinubu administration to the rescue of some Nigerians, including schoolchildren, abducted in Niger, Kebbi, Kwara and some parts of the country recently. It is proof that treachery and cynicism are as old as human history. Hence (,) the negative reactions of some Nigerians to the return of the victims, who rather than congratulate the returnees and their loved ones (,) resorted to rhetoric on the whereabouts of their abductors, is rooted in human nature.

It was as if the safety of the abductees mattered less than evidence that their abductors had been eliminated or arrested. In the immediate instance, the lives of the abductees were at stake, and their abductors held the power of life and death. They had the yam and the knife and were in a vantage position to decide what to do with them. They were the proverbial leper who cannot milk a cow but endowed with more than enough ability to spill the milk.

Leading the pack of critics was former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who accused the Tinubu government of turning a national tragedy into a propaganda spectacle when the pictures of rescued schoolgirls in Kebbi State appeared online. “Why were these criminals not arrested, neutralized or dismantled on the spot? Why is the government boasting about talking to terrorists instead of eliminating them? Why is kidnapping now reduced to a routine phone call between criminals and state officials?” he queried.

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But a former Field Commander of the Joint Task Force, Operation Safe Haven, Major-General Anthony Atolagbe (rtd), was quick to respond to the tirades of the former Vice President and his ilk, saying that they all spoke from a position of ignorance or limited understanding of what happens on the field. Gen. Atolagbe urged Nigerians to realise that rescue operations do not always result in the arrest or neutralization of kidnappers, because such missions are inherently complex and targeted primarily at saving lives.

Rescue operations, he said, should not be confused with combat engagements as troops on such missions are not deployed to wage war but to ensure the safe return of victims. “You want to get the children out safe and alive. When you meet these people inserted between the children, what do you do? They may tell you, ‘Allow us to pull out and then you can take your children.’ Would you insist on capturing them, or leave them for a later date since you already know where they operate?”

In spite of the insanity that has been unleashed on Nigeria by wailers who are always out to fault every move made by the authorities because of the hatred they harbour for the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led government, saving victims’ lives will always take precedence over pursuing kidnappers during an active operation.

Ironically, the people demanding the heads of the kidnappers now in preference for the safe return of the victims would be the first to dismiss the rescuers as thoughtless and insensitive if any of them is hurt in the event of a crossfire with bandits. Nigeria should count herself lucky that the man at the helm in this moment of orchestrated violence is someone of Tinubu’s clout, intelligence and sagacity. Any of the other characters parading themselves as political rivals would have bolted or crumbled under the weight of the current challenges.

November 29, 2025
Insecurity: Again, how did we get to this pass? (1)
The roots of the current crisis stretch deep into the past. To truly discern these origins, one must look all the way back to the Justice Alexander Ovie Aniagolu Report on the Maitatsine Riots in Kano (1981), whose findings clearly harbingered the events that were to come. Four decades later, we are facing the fatal consequences of unheeded warnings.

Between 1980 and 1985, the Maitatsine Riots encompassed a series of violent religious uprisings in Northern Nigeria. It was initiated and led by Muhammad Marwa (Maitatsine), whose followers belonged to the militant Islamic sect, Yan Tatsine. The conflict began in Kano and spread to other cities, resulting in thousands of deaths before it was suppressed by the Nigerian military.

The crisis Nigeria currently faces was foretold in the Maitatsine and other Reports. The deepening poverty and woes in the North and parts of Nigeria were largely caused by the destruction of the agricultural value chain. This destruction was exacerbated by the termination of the 1963 Republican Constitution in 1966, and the irresponsible fixation on a misplaced depiction of an oil boom. The inability to reverse the destruction of the rural economy in Northern Nigeria, alongside the failure to make education free and compulsory from the age of 16, starting around 1977, ultimately led us to where we are today.

Former Military President Ibrahim Babangida’s misconceived and now-discredited Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) also added salt to the North’s festering injury. And, as if the gods were angry, SAP deconstructed its nascent industrial base, wiping out fundamental industries such as textiles. Nobody should be surprised, in view of this, that we landed in the era of Boko Haram. Indeed, it would have been absurd had we not landed in that era. Having landed in that era, the political will to tackle the root cause was lacking. Instead, what became depicted as an insurgency opened a vast new avenue for making money by members of the connected political and military establishment.

The military industrial complex arose out of the war against terror. Without parliamentary oversight worth the name, a never-ending war found a stool and sat comfortably in the country. Sadly, the Return on Investment (ROI) for those profiting from this war might be as high as an investment in Oil and Gas. Even a primary school student can do a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) of the profiteering and conclude, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Nigeria has been badly defrauded in the pursuit of what is now a phantom war against terror.

The National Assembly must now, as a way out of terror, do a forensic audit into spending on the war against terror, stretching back fifteen years. This will reveal everything and show conclusively that even if we quadruple expenditure on Defence spending, the war will go on ad infinitum. This is simple common sense, for no turkey votes for an early Christmas. We have an entrenched business encompassing the high and the mighty, and dismantling it would be a determined Herculean task. If we do not dismantle the business framework, we will be fighting the war against terror until the Year 2050, and beyond.

Read Also: Tinubu, First Lady, Shetimma, hail PFN at 40

Worryingly, Nigeria does not have the much needed Unexplained Sources of Wealth Act, even though, commendably, Senator Ali Ndume from Borno South is proposing one. It is only by asking people to account for their wealth that we can really get to the root of the profiteering and racketeering industry that has arisen from the war against terror over the past fifteen years.

In addition to the forensic audit, the country must now have the intellectual humility to admit that it’s been fighting the war in a wrong way. Faced with guerilla warfare, we need to develop a framework centered on Special Forces as well as an increase in specially-trained ground troops to destroy the terrorists. For example, it is clearly absurd to pursue fleeing terrorists on motorbikes with heavy armour. We should have developed our own Special Forces with their own specially-configured motorbikes, perhaps even using electricity, to pursue, overtake and dismantle them.

It is clear that the development of Special Forces is not in sync with the profiteering and racketeering in Defence expenditure. We must now quickly develop Special Forces as well as strengthen the intelligence framework at the local level and use technology to monitor the movements of the terrorists. Satellite sensors could have monitored the movement of scores of motorcycles moving symmetrically. We must also investigate the failure of intelligence.

Nigeria is in a very terrible situation and the entire sector of the war must now be configured in order to defeat terrorism. The top echelon of the Nigerian Defence system must study unconventional warfare, dating back about eighty years, to see how modern armies had to configure their methods to fight insurgents.

A key example is Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. Seventy-one years ago, on the paddy fields of Vietnam, a lightly-armed, barefooted guerrilla army, led by a lawyer named Võ Nguyên Giáp, not only defeated but also destroyed the French Army, which had air power, armoured tanks, and the most modern weaponry at its disposal.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (March-May 1954) was the decisive engagement of the First Indochina War. Apart from changing the conception of warfare forever, it also showed that a revolutionary ragtag army can defeat one of the best armies in the world. Most importantly, it showed that guerrilla warfare is fundamentally different from state-on-state wars like Nigeria versus Ghana or Togo versus Niger Republic.

The French surrender ended its colonial rule in Vietnam and led to the country’s temporary partition. We must therefore study this as well as other examples of asymmetric warfare to resolve the ugly situation we now face. To put it succinctly, there must be a complete overhaul, for it is now clear that the constant changing of personnel is not the issue. The issue is that the strategy must change! It means that we must have a different force structure within the army!

It must also be noted that an insurgency movement mutates. When insurgents quarrel, which is not unlikely, divisions set in and the groups mutate, moving into different sectors. This means that, instead of fighting three groups, a country may eventually face ten or eleven. So, a country worth its vision and mission on security must anticipate this and nurture its strategic plans.

Eni tó kàn ló mò! (Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches!). For yours sincerely, the argument that heightened insecurity is merely a pre‑election narrative for 2027 is too lazy to sound as an excuse. Do we think the parents whose children were kidnapped care a hoot about any election? Have we counted how many of the Chibok girls’ parents are still alive? What of the parents whose children were abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Kebbi: do we know how many have ended up in the hospital? For God’s sake, when will this madness come to an end?

Again, consider the ancient wisdom: “Àgbàrà òjò kò l’óun ò n’ílé wó. Onílé ni kò níí gbà fun.” (The intent of a heavy storm and flood is to wreak havoc, and that of those to be affected is to prevent it.) This dynamic defines all conflict. It stands to reason that nobody has ever waged unconventional, or even conventional, warfare without successfully infiltrating the security apparatus of the opposition. Unfortunately, this tactic takes a sinister turn in a religious war. Here, there are people who view it as a divine calling, making infiltration a sacred duty.
- To be concluded. Email: ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk. Mobile: 08033614419 SMS only
November 29, 2025
School abductions: letter to Northern governors
The world has moved on from the historical past. While humanity remains, development in all sectors of human life has changed how humans live and engage. Traditional education by families and communities can sustain cultures but modern education does much more to enhance human flourishing. The level of development of each nation is undoubtedly tied to the level of education of all of its citizens.

The United Nations through its agencies has been a veritable tool in enhancing global development. Given the value of children to the sustenance of humanity, the UN, through UNICEF and UNESCO promotes child welfare, child rights and education while advocating for global cooperation in education, science, culture and communication to foster global peace and development.

Every child, no matter their geographic or economic situation has the right to quality education. Sadly, in Nigeria statistics show that one in every five of world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. Ironically, even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, more than 18.5 million children aged 5-14 years are not in school.

In Northern Nigeria, the situation is even more dire. A huge number of children in Northern Nigeria are out of school. The North East and North West seem the worst hit given a lot of variables; poverty, gender, child marriage, insecurity, socio-religious beliefs and some other factors well beyond the control of the children who depend on adults to make the best decisions to enhance their welfare and secure their future.

The Chairman of Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdulahi, former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, lamented the fact that 80% of the 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are in the Northern part of Nigeria. While he advocated more budgetary allocation to education as one of the solutions, it is a known fact that Nigeria has never met the UN 26% budgetary benchmark for education. But a lot more introspection and actions need to be done at both federal and sub-national levels.

The past few years and the litany of school kidnappings in Nigeria has again rekindled the fear that the Northern part of Nigeria might be laying foundation for future of more illiterate and uninformed children in a world driven by technology and ideas. From Buni Yadi boys’ massacre of February 2014 in Yobe state to Chibok girls abduction of April 2014 in Bornu, to Dapchi abductions that still holds Leah Sharibu in Yobe to the more than 100 abduction of students in Zamfara state to that of the school of agriculture in Kaduna and in the last two weeks the abductions in Kebbi, Niger and Kwara states.

Dear Northern governors, as you meet today for an emergency meeting possibly with some of your traditional rulers, the Roundtable Conversation wishes you all a very successful meeting. However, there are serious actions to be taken by each and every one of you governors. Understandably, the recent spate of insecurity in the country would be top on the table but we also know that this is not the first of such meetings since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999.

We all know that besides the national Governors’ Forum through which successive state governors unite to seek for the welfare of you all the governors including but not limited to political interests, federal allocations and all other individual and collective interests, you have kept the 19 Governors’ Forum alive and well. In the usual politically expedient associations, all these national and sub-national fora defy political leanings. When it comes to such associations, political parties, tribe and religion dissolve into nothingness. You all speak with one voice.

So, the Roundtable Conversation would be glad to see the 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II reiterate the developmental guidelines he had over the years advocated for on different platforms across Nigeria. There is no Northern elite that has been as transparently and honestly realistic about the value of education especially of the girl child as the Emir in the last two decades or more. For the avoidance of doubt, the emir is well educated and so his words about the value of education can be trusted.

He has a PhD in law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University f London, he holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He equally has qualifications in Islamic Studies and Sharia from the International University of Africa, Khartoum, Sudan.

Recounting the educational qualifications of the Emir, one of the leading traditional/religious leaders of northern extraction is important in this circumstance. He is an Islamic leader, he understands and deeply studied the Islamic religion, he also studied economics so the issues of both macro and micro economics of development are well known to him. He was once the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and under his leadership of the bank, he appointed more female directors than any other CBN governor and those ladies have added value that stand as proof of the value of female education and equal opportunities.

Realistically, Northern Nigeria as a whole has the most illiterates of any region in Nigeria. However, the illiteracy graph keeps rising with the increase in child marriages and school abductions. These two hydra-headed problems are solvable if you, the governors of the region make conscious efforts to solve the problems. According to Emir Sanusi II, “…girl child education is a ‘single silver bullet” that addresses various socio-economic issues, including child-marriage, anti-natal care, nutrition and inter-generational poverty”. He had proposed for free education for girls from primary to tertiary levels pointing out the impact on maternal, new born, and child health.

The Roundtable Conversation believes that the fire service approach by most governors being very reactive cannot solve any problem in the North. The talk-shops are getting repetitively exhausting and very ineffectual. Obviously today’s meeting is coming on the heels of the multiple cases of school kidnappings across the region. However, what is needed is real action. Each governor must think of the legacy he wants to leave behind. Politically expedient actions can be as ephemeral as they can be ineffective in the long run.

Read Also: Tinubu, First Lady, Shetimma, hail PFN at 40

Dear governors, education is the key to the future. Insecurity has become one of the worst issues of our times. The impact is as diverse as it is far reaching. It is a social menace that has left a huge trust deficit on leaderships at all levels. It has impacted food security, social life, economic prosperity and education. These issues are too damaging to a developing country like Nigeria and even more so to the region.

If truth must be told, insecurity is as much a global issue as it is also a national albatross to Nigerians in general but yet, the Northern governors must take steps to address the issues that seems to be sinking the economy of the region. The huge ‘security allocations’ to the governors across the country has not been seen to have been deployed effectively to impact the people. The Northern governors can do better by being more proactive.

The sad impact of the new wave of school kidnappings especially of female students is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. Abduction of female students is not just a mere coincidence. It stems from the socio-religious fixation that has for centuries objectivized the girl child and women across all religions. Time has come for those who know better like governors and traditional/religious leaders to create more and better awareness of the value of human development.

The impact of school abductions is in the danger inherent in parents choosing between illiterate children and kidnapped children. Reports show that most parents are withdrawing or even refusing to enrol their kids in schools. On the state level, School safety issues can be arranged to augment the federal school-safety programmes. What seems to be lacking is the will power to address the school security issues. The consequences are better imagined.

For a region with the world’s highest number of out-of-school children, you, Northern governors must urgently take decisive actions by collaborating with each other to seriously address the issues that are exacerbating insecurity in the region. Attacks on schools would definitely create more illiterates and as women become targets, what would the future hold? What would an abducted girl become as a woman? A Leah Sharibu and all the unreleased Chibok and St. Mary’s Catholic school in Niger state and many other un-named, unaccounted for abductees are the lost children of Nigeria’s future.

There is no culture or religion that can enhance human flourishing holding on to some un-progressive socio-religious issues. Citing socio-cultural or religious excuses for not making positive changes to the governance structures for better human development should not be acceptable in a 21st century world where the world is welcoming the innovative values of technologies like AI. Northern Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind for any reason. Enjoying the benefits of democracy while clinging to un-progressive socio-cultural values is the bane of development.

Dear governors, as you meet today, look at your political parties, your houses of assembly, your cabinets, your civil service, how many women are stirring the ship of leadership? Why is the North that produced a Queen Amina, a Gambo Sawaba, Dudu Waziri, Sultan Bello’s mother,(Hajia Maiurno) and Gogo Nwabueze all great women of impact and influence in Northern Nigeria not concerned about the development of women and girls today? We at the nation would want each of you to account for what you have done to uplift women and girls in your state.
- The dialogue continues…
November 29, 2025
Trump’s wake up call

By his enthusiastic endorsement and approval of the contemptuous and derogatory language with which President Donald Trump couched his recent threat to intervene militarily in Nigeria to check alleged ‘Christian genocide, ‘ Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, obviously believes that the American leader’s tirade was targeted solely at the President Bola Tinubu administration. And the new factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Kabiru Turaki, who recently unabashedly invited Trump to undertake a Messianic role of salvaging democracy in the country, which he perceived to be under threat, also sees the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the sole target of external umbrage at the challenges of insecurity in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, this is a gross misreading of the import of President Trump’s threat to unilaterally violate the country’s sovereignty in an all-out onslaught against Islamic terrorists. Indeed, the reactions of Obi, Turaki and other opponents of the Tinubu administration to Trump’s warning reinforce once again one of the reasons for the latter’s undisguised loathing for the African political elite as a whole. Some attribute Trump’s attitude toward Africa generally to a racist, supremacist outlook. That may not be entirely true. In reality, countries earn respect rather than seek that it be conferred on them gratuitously. Given the abundant resources with which she is endowed, should the African continent be in the pathetic situation of abject underdevelopment, economic misery and political retardation in which she finds herself today? Can we blame outsiders who treat her with condescension and utter derision in the global community?

Most African countries run what the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo described with characteristic brutal frankness as ‘street beggar economies’. Thus, despite being perhaps the most blessed portion of the globe in terms of mineral and natural resources as well as arable land and clement climate, the vast majority of the peoples of Africa are immersed in dehumanising poverty while their societies are plagued by debilitating and dysfunctional inequality that pits a microscopic, obscenely wealthy elite against the rest of the downtrodden populace. President Trump may have been misled by mischievous lobby groups with surreptitious agendas into mischaracterising the nature of violence and insecurity in Nigeria. But his warning is an indictment not just of the incumbent administration but of the political class as a whole.

It is unlikely that the American leader will be impressed by a political elite which supinely accedes to the insulting denigration of their country by outsiders or one which solicits external political saviours to fix their country over six and a half decades after independence. The insurgency, which has laid large swathes of northern Nigeria in particular prostates and metastasised to encompass banditry, herders-farmers bloodletting, religious extremism, incessant communal savagery, among others, has lasted over a decade and a half. The assorted non-state actors pitched against the Nigerian State have, over this period, acquired greater proficiency, access to increasingly more sophisticated arms, enhanced operational flexibility and dexterity, while the efficacy of the undoubtedly valiant Nigerian armed forces is impeded by debilitating elite factionalism, a pervasive culture of corruption and structural defects of a polity that undermine and sabotage national security.

Thus, political actors across factional partisan divides and political parties, who have been in power at one time or the other at different levels of government, are responsible for the current existential fragility of the Nigerian State, including the deteriorating insecurity that elicited Trump’s combustible response. It would thus be naivety of the extreme kind for elements of the opposition to gloat over the threat from Trump, thinking that it is only the ruling party and President Tinubu that are on the defensive. No, Trump’s action indicts the political class as a whole. It is a wake up call for the political class to get its act together and face more seriously the challenge and responsibility of running the affairs of a sovereign polity in an ever increasingly complex, fragile and unpredictable global order or disorder?

In an emergent world in which the canons of international diplomacy and conventional standards of international behaviour are being turned upside down, particularly in the ‘Trumpian’ era, political elites face the real possibility of losing control of their territories to aggressive outsiders if they prove to be inept as well as lacking in vision and patriotic fervour. It is only a reasonably competent ruling elite committed to the continuous and steady development and progress of their polities that can actualise the latent potentials of countries, gain the fervent support of their people and earn desired respect in the global community.

The language employed by Trump in his communication with Nigeria shows a mindset that will readily violate the sovereignty of another country, especially when the latter is perceived as weak and vulnerable. We can see the impunity with which the Trump administration has been launching attacks on vessels allegedly carrying drug peddling syndicates from Venezuela, killing scores of people in what international law experts describe as extrajudicial executions with scant regard for legal due process. Yet, we can see the deference with which Trump treats Vladimir Putin’s Russia or even Kim Jong Un’s North Korea. The state of a country’s military preparedness, especially the possession of nuclear capability, is clearly a key determinant of how nations are perceived and treated in global relations.

But military strength is also largely dependent on economic viability, and where the degree of corruption, for instance, among a country’s political elite is of a magnitude that undermines military efficacy, the political elite as a whole – both the ruling elite and the opposition – are on the ruinous path of communal class suicide. When the opposition seeks to destabilise and bring down an elected administration through surreptitiously inviting military intervention, for instance, simply because it is dissatisfied with the outcome of elections, then it undermines the possibilities of its ever ascending to power in future through the ballot box. In the same vein, it is not in the long run interest of ruling parties to deliberately seek to sabotage, undermine and render the opposition impotent and ineffective. That was the path chosen by the PDP during the imperial Chief Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, and it is partly responsible for the dismal fate that has befallen the former ruling behemoth today.

Right-wing ideologues of the Donald Trump mould are resurgent across the West today, and this tendency blames mass migration of people from the crisis and poverty-ridden parts of the world into their more prosperous countries as partly responsible for the deep-seated socio-economic contradictions of capitalism. Hence, the unprecedented aggression and fervour with which the Trump administration has been tackling what it perceives as the menace of immigration in the US. This is likely to be the pattern in several other advanced countries, including Britain and France, as far-right ideologies gain political ascendancy. As bad governance persists in Africa, particularly with the intransigence of sit-tight leaders for life and the resurgence of military coups, there will be increased clamour in the West for external interventions to promote a modicum of good governance on the continent and thus address at source the root of the mass exodus from Africa that has become a major problem in the advanced capitalist world.

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There are those who believe that, if there is no fundamental change of course by Africa’s ruling elite, we may be on the path of a full-blown recolonisation of the continent, and there is no guarantee that the majority of Africans will be opposed to any such tragic historic reversals on the continent. It will not be surprising if many of those who belong to the hard-headed realist school of power in the West believe that badly governed African countries, which are cesspits of poverty, violence and varying degrees of state failure, have become liabilities to the world. Their societies are plagued by mass hunger, disease, poverty and joblessness even when they are situated atop some of the most precious mineral and natural resources on earth. Those who belong to this school of thought may well believe that external intervention to provide good governance in Africa may be in the interest of the vast majority of Africans and even humanity as a whole. It is time for Africa to stop being a liability to the world.

To decisively address the country’s security situation, President Tinubu has announced a raft of measures to improve the country’s security architecture, one of which is to accelerate the process of actualising state police. It is unfortunate that Trump’s threat of military intervention to combat religious terrorists and the inexplicable spike in attacks on schools and churches in some parts of the North have come at a time when the administration’s economic reforms have begun to yield concrete dividends. It will be naive and shortsighted for the opposition to welcome anything that will derail the reforms, destabilise the polity and threaten democracy. That will only play into the hands of anti-democratic elements, with the entire political class, not just the incumbent administration, being the ultimate losers.

President Trump’s threat must thus be seen as a timely wake up call to the political class. It is time to forge a greater elite consensus around a new commitment to the tenets of democracy, the rule of law and a higher level of governance that promotes prosperity and progress. The menace of rampant corruption, waste and misuse of public resources that compound the problem of poverty, deepen inequality, undermine national security and have become an existential threat for the nation must be more fundamentally tackled across political parties and tendencies.

November 29, 2025
They have started again

The air within sports circles in the country has been fouled. The stench emanating from the broken calabash is suffocating with stampede, arising from people clutching their nostrils while they search the surroundings for unpolluted areas for breath of fresh air. As people ran for cover, having inhaled a high dosage of unhygienic air, the recurring question has been, ‘who dun nit?’ NFF, NSC or the Federal Government? Is anyone surprised that Nigeria won’t be at the 2026 World Cup?

Serious soccer bodies who would be at the competition began their preparations since the last edition four years ago. They only heightened their plans after grabbing the individual qualification tickets, including knowing who their group opponents are. In between these preparation periods, real title contenders have played highly competitive friendly games and have used several training sessions to correct flaws noticed in their teams before another friendly game. That is what is called planning, not what we have here – failure of leadership at the NFF and NSC. Not again.

Those who sang, drank and backslapped each other howling at the top of their voices in Morocco mid-November, sneaked into the country in batches without the fanfare arising from grabbing the intercontinental playoffs’ ticket for the 2026 Mundial in the wee hours from Morocco. These hitherto experts of world soccer now snake their way around the country with sealed lips. In their characteristic style of buck passing, their hitherto conference aimed at stealing the thunder from the NFF had Nigeria returned with the intercontinental ticket to fight for the remaining two slots for the 2026 World Cup, became a platform to mock Nigerians. So, they knew what to do for the good of the game here? Of what use would the solutions offer us when we won’t be at the Mundial? How do you discuss the 2026 World Cup in any form with the soccer federation chieftains absent? What struck one here is that the quest for the next set of NFF board members may have begun. But it should be stressed here that any soccer federation election without resort to the suggestions of the 10-year development plan for the game would be a façade.

Are we not tired of organising a post mortem after each shambolic outing? What the game in Nigeria needs today is a complete departure from the past in terms of those to help find the proper template for the game to be beautiful here anytime it is being played. We are perhaps the only country in the world without a discerning pattern of play unique to us across genders and age cadres. And flaws come from the fact that we don’t have standardised soccer academies with qualified coaches, trainers, teachers of coaches and less self-serving administrators driven by the desire to change the face of soccer from its present ugliness.

The dearth of credible soccer nurseries in the 774 Local Government Areas in the country is one of the reasons coaches employed in the country insult our sensibilities by inviting as many as 24 foreign-based players to our national teams. For instance, Super Eagles Head Coach, Eric Chelle has invited ten new players for the country’s AFCON preparations with only Sporting FC of Lagos’ goalkeeper, Ebenezer Harcourt as the known face sprouting from the domestic game here. Yet, our administrators at the federation and their supervisors expect the blue-chip companies, deep pockets and sports lovers to support the sports industry with their goods, cash and service. It won’t happen. No chance.

The names being bandied include Anthony Dennis (Goztepe SK, Turkey), David Moses (Slavia Praque, Czech Republic), Chibuike Nwaiwu (Wolfsberger FC, Austria), Rafiu Durosinmi (Viktoria Plzen, Czech Republic), Dapo Afolayan (St. Pauli, Germany), Ryan Alebiosu (Blackburn Rovers, England), Tochukwu Nnadi (Zulte Waregem, Belgium), Onuche Ogbelu (Esperance, Tunisia), Tebo Franklin (Crvena zvezda, Serbia) and Ebenezer Harcourt (Sporting Lagos).

The obvious question would be why we worry ourselves trying to run our domestic league matches around the country, if its products can’t be chosen to represent the country in big competitions such as the World Cup, AFCON, Olympic Games, CAF inter-club competitions e.t.c . All the catch-them-young programmes targeted at the youth in the grassroots are extinct. Our administrators aren’t worried. They have forgotten that these catch-them-young competitions serve as the package to document the data of participants which could be referenced in the coming years.

Sadly, our nurseries have been hijacked by shylock agents who can’t be challenged since those who can, already have their hands soiled as players’ scouts or agents. In many cases, both. Kids who represent us in age-grade competitions in the 21st Century use sworn affidavits as attestation of their ages, not original birth certificates. The win at all costs mentality of our officials has made it impossible for us to right the wrongs of our sports.

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No country’s football grows at the senior level. Growth in any soccer side starts from the nursery, which is situated at the grassroots. Nigeria’s case can be found in the 774 Local Government Areas in the country, only with proper organisation. Sadly, all manner of people including some of the federation’s chieftains have corrupted the nurseries such that youth clubs now loan players to professional teams in the country. Youth clubs owned by top federation chiefs dominate the country’s age-grade squads with the squad coaches filling the few spaces left with their mercantile choices. Isn’t this why we don’t know how much the domestic leagues are worth in the country despite the Star Trek to Europe of our youth who strive to earn a living from playing the game?

We can’t be talking about growing talents at the nurseries without standardising the academies that abound in the country. The fraud committed by some disgruntled folks in the name of soccer academies can only be curtailed if the NFF through its state affiliates compel all such bodies to register with it. That way, the authorities can identify who the fraudster is if such allegations arise.

The countries that excel in sporting events have systems that guarantee enough funds for the sportsmen and sportswomen to compete with the best, such as tax rebates on sport-friendly firms, lotteries, and businesses owned by wealthy nationals who know what is in such a sponsorship that benefits them by the sitting government. Such financial taxes are spelled out to companies and wealthy citizens after agreements have been reached. These cast-in-stone policies are binding to all the parties to such an extent that breaches are adequately addressed to allow either of the parties to seek redress in court.

We have lost budding talents to mismanagement, even after the Federal Government had directed that past soccer federations nurture their future. Our administrators bask in the euphoria of being recognised in the world, leaving the game’s development in the lurch for shylock European scouts to exploit to the disadvantage of our young ones.

Civilised countries develop their sports through the neighbourhood system where facilities are built to engage the youth and push them away from social vices. Nurseries serve as the bases for storing the data of those discovered. Such information helps to nurture and monitor the good ones to stardom. Besides, nurseries lay the foundation where the athletes are taught the rudiments of the game. It is at such factories that playing styles and patterns unique to such countries are evolving.

November 29, 2025
Nigeria‘s leadership question

“A nation is great not by its size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline of its people and the quality of their leaders which ensure it an honorable place in history.”- Mr. Lee Kuan Yew – the First Prime Minister of Singapore

The current debilitating political and socio-economic malaise in Nigeria is a culmination of decades of misrule, mismanagement of resources, and corruption. However, the impression that a single administration is, or has been responsible for the decadence in Nigeria is what I call the hypocrisy of our expectations, as citizens. Because, unless, as a people, we identify, within context, the root causes of our problem and address them as such, as a people; not necessarily pointing fingers at a fraction of the people we call, “the leaders”, then, we will continue to slide into the abyss of retrogression. This is because, in my view, we are leaders at various strata of what I call, “the leadership value chain.”

There are people within the leadership value chain that I call the “focal-point leaders”. Examples of focal point leaders include: The President, the Governors, the Chief Judge of the Federation, the Senate President, the Local Government Chairman, etc. These are leaders sitting at the top echelon of leadership, driving governance. But the focal point leaders can only drive effective, efficient, and impactful governance with the support of other leaders across the strata of leadership – vertical and horizontal, and those are the other critical leaders within the “leadership value chain”. If there is a failure within that leadership value chain, whereas the focal point leader may not have the leverage of the value chain to ensure/ enforce that which needs to be done, then that focal point leader will fail, no matter how intelligent, good-intentioned, or powerful he/ she is.

I totally agree that; every administration must own its performance. People vigorously campaign for elections, promising milk and honey and all manner of things to citizens; especially with special reference to the 4th Republic, only for those politicians to turn around with excuses after winning the election, blaming their inability to perform on the previous administrations (at Federal and State levels). I also agree that going forward as citizens, we should not accept lame excuses from leaders that fail. But while we refuse to accept excuses from leaders who fail, we should also have the circumspection of recognizing that the rot did not start with the administration that is complaining. Indeed, the rot is longstanding. Therefore, we should have the introspection to manage the process of holding the leaders accountable to ensure that incumbent administrations at Federal and State levels, take the necessary steps to turn around the political and socioeconomic situation of the country. Of course, it should be without a doubt that continuously keeping leaders on their toes is what will ensure that politicians effectively deliver their mandates. Indeed, to whom much is given, much is expected.

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Furthermore, the optics of governance are also very crucial in managing the expectations of citizens. Therefore, It is very important that leaders within the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary Arms of government; at Federal and subnational levels must demonstrate quintessential and pragmatic leadership. They must show that they are part of the State or Country that they lead; or part of the problem they are trying to solve. Consequently, they, their families, and allies must also demonstrate in their actions that they are not living in a bubble. They should empathize with the people and show the citizenry that they are living with the people in practical reality and not in virtual reality. Only when leaders are quintessential, practical, and empathetic that there be the synergy of visions and objectives between the leaders and citizens. However, sometimes even when the focal point leader (for example the President or Governor) provides quintessential and pragmatic leadership; the Ministers, Commissioners, or other officials within the leadership value chain behave differently (or even sometime irresponsibly) without consequences; this situation presents different optics that are in parallel to what the focal leadership is saying or doing. This type of situation causes problems, especially when there are no consequences for people who misbehave within the leadership value chain. An example is when leaders, whether at the ministerial level or other levels, live lavishly as if we are not living with over 165 million Nigerians who are multidimensionally poor. Now, that is part of the bigger problem! I saw a video trending the other day wherein a known politician was displaying piled up stacks bundles of money (cash) arranged on a table in the midst of the multi-dimensional poverty that the majority of his constituents are facing, I am sure that thousands of them did not eat that day. This audacity of irresponsibility puts the government in a bad light and makes it difficult for citizens to believe or respect the government and its good and well-meaning leaders and officials.

Conversely, the citizens have not really helped themselves or the leaders of the leadership process with our actions, inactions of hypocrisies. For example, when a President refuses to do a jamboree to share people’s free money, he becomes a bad man. When a Governor refuses to loot money to share around to he/she people, he becomes a bad man/ woman. So, a society that celebrates criminality with chieftaincy titles, and honorary doctorate degrees is not a society that is ready for change. It is also not a society that is ready to hire the right leaders, because the actions of the people are such a society will continue to promote corruption and criminality. A society where corrupt people are at once at the first line in the church, at the first line in the mosque, or at the high table of events, should not expect any positive change. This is because you cannot eat your cake and have it! A corrupt people will not allow a good leader to do the needful. Hence, how do you expect society to change for the better? How do you expect the recruitment process to be right when you, the people, are the ones celebrating the corrupt ones, whether as their parents, as their family, or as their society? Indeed, a lot of the religious leaders and the traditional leaders are also in cahoots, and they are part of the leadership value chain. But, as citizens, conveniently point our accusing fingers at the political leaders. The political leaders are part of the society, and unless we continue to refuse to partake in the ills they do, then we have lost the moral right to challenge what they do.

The Paradox of Corruption

The biggest inhibitor of the delivery of good governance over the years in Nigeria is corruption which is as a result of the erosion of our values. This long-standing issue did not start from 1999 but indeed has been embedded in our societies for over 60 years – things have just been getting worse. To be able to address the issue of corruption, we need to dimension the issue of corruption and how deep it has pervaded Nigeria.

Corrupt ion corruption is a long-standing issue in Nigeria. Even if the leaders at the top are good and capable, they cannot be able to force people within the leadership value chain to deliver, maybe by virtue of the system of governance or essentially due to what I call the “conspiracy of corruption. Using the Civil Service as an instance; if the Civil Service is not in sync with the focal point leader, that leader is what I call an “entrapped leader”. Unless such a leader takes drastic steps, he/ she will be “restrained” by the conspiracy of the Establishment/ vested interests, which can trickle down to the society at large.

In my humble view, the root cause of the national development problems in Nigeria is not just the failure of the leaders at the top. Part of the issue of bad leadership in Nigeria is what I term the failure of the “leadership value chain”. For example, if along the layers of the Civil Service, you have corrupt leaders, whether they are Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors, etc. who collaborate to circumvent the system, the system will fail, and consequently the leader will fail, because he will ultimately become what I call, “an entrapped leader”.

Therefore, dear Nigerians, build up to then 2027 general elections, we should recognize that just deciding to choose any person as a leader does not make our problems go away. We should also know that we also have roles to play. First of all, what are our priorities? What are our values as individuals, as families, as communities, and as societies? Then we can take it up a notch higher to start addressing the recruitment process of our leaders, then move on to demand accountability and performance

November 28, 2025
A week like eternity

•General lays down life

HIS GRUESOME KILLING shook the nation. Brigadier-General Musa Uba died in line of duty. An officer and a gentleman, he was leading his men and some members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) on a mission to hunt down the terrorists, bandits and insurgents troubling the nation when they were ambushed along the Damboa-Biu Road in Borno State.

The attack, which was carried out by the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists happened on November 14. It was a black Friday, which presaged a week in which these elements went on the rampage in some states. They hit Borno, Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states, killing, kidnapping and looting in their characterisric style. Infants were not spared, as they abducted hundreds of nursery school kids in Niger, among others.

The General’s bludgeoning stinks. It rankles because of how it happened. He had managed to escape the ISWAP ambush in which some of his men were killed. He was in the forest trying to find his way back to base. He relayed his position to his colleagues through WhatsApp. Somehow, his message leaked and started trending in social media. The military did all it could to salvage the situation, to no avail.

The harm had been done. The terror group cashed in on that momentary lapse caused by the leaked message to comb the forest for Uba. They found and killed him, and in their typical way celebrated their bestial act in a video. Uba died a hero, as President Bola Tinubu said in a tribute. There is no gainsaying the fact that laying down one’s life for one’s country is the primary duty of a soldier, but the circumstances of Uba’s death are quite disturbing. Who did he send his message for help to?

What did the receiver do with it? Was it treated with the utmost secrecy and urgency it deserved in order to evacuate him out of danger? How did the message get to the social media many of whose practitioners are not professional journalists? Uba did not deserve to die the way he did? If those he messaged had done their jobs well, he might have been saved with the terrorists suffering a heavy loss.

What has happened to the area where he was gruesomely killed? Has it been levelled to send a message to ISWAP and others that no beast in human skin kills a soldier, a General for that matter, and lives to celebrate it? Uba’s death should not be in vain. One of the ways to memorialise him will be the routing of ISWAP, Boko Haram, ISIS, Lakurawa, Ansaru and other terror groups by whatever name called, to restore law and order in the north, where the past week was hell. Their renewed offensive on schools and a church was shattering and it affected the national psyche.

It came on the heels of the global efforts to change the narratives about our national image being pushed by American President Donald Trump. Trump had described the insecurity in Nigeria as ‘Christian genocide’, and vowed to come ‘guns-a-blazing’ to save ‘our beloved Christians’. It is thus difficult to dismiss the claim of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, that this ‘targeted killings’ statement might have emboldened the terrorists to unleash these fresh attacks.

Truly, such attacks had gone down until Trump spoke some weeks ago. The renewed attacks began 10 days ago, after they apparently took a cue from that remark. Their first target on November 17 was a girls school in Maga, Kebbi State, where they abducted 24 pupils after shooting dead the vice principal and injuring the principal. The 24 girls were freed on Tuesday.

Barely 24 hours later, they hit the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), in Eruku, Kwara State, taking away 38 worshippers, among them an elderly woman. The abductees regained their freedom on Sunday. Their story is intriguing. The worshippers were in church to thank God for the release of tbeir brethren who were earlier abducted when they too fell victims of the abductors. In the midst of these incidents, the government is waging war on the global front to change the Trump narrative about Nigeria.

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The United States (U.S.) Congress which he is armtwisting to impose sanctions on Nigeria and back his plan to send troops to take out the terrorists beamed a searchlight on our country on Thursday. Nigeria was on trial of sorts before the world as the proceedings of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa were aired globally. Some members of the Congress led by two women, Sara Jacobs and Pamela Jayapal, argued against the classification of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’, while their counterparts, Riley Moore and Bill Huizenga, led those who insisted that there were ‘targeted killings’ in Nigeria.

Huizenga, who became emotional as he recalled going to ‘school with kids from Nigeria’ pointedly accused the Tinubu administration of doing nothing to stop the killings. In its defence, Nigeria admitted that it has security challenges, explaining that all it required was collaboration with the U.S. to address the issue. Although, it is painful that Nigeria has not overcome the problem, which reared its ugly head in 2009, with the killing of Boko Haram leader Muhammed Yusuf in police custody, it is wrong to say that the country has not done anything about it.

Past administrations fought it. The Tinubu administration intensified the campaign after assuming office over two years ago. Its efforts might have resulted in scorching the snake and not in killing it, though. Therefore, it will be insincere to accuse the government of folding its hands and doing nothing. More needs to be done, no doubt. So, the government must reawaken to the reality of the situation and do everything possible to kill this snake now, or continue to be the butt of cynical remarks by Trump, Moore, Huizenga and their local ilk.

It is in this frame that the Niger school abductions which followed the congressional hearing beggar belief. After the Kebbi and Eruku attacks, the security agencies should have been more alive to their responsibilities to nip in the bud any other fresh incidents. That the Catholic (Private) Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools, Papiri, Niger State, was hit just four days after the Kebbi attack, and in the wake of the congressional hearing, speaks volume about how prepared and serious we are to fight this scourge.

The government has given its die-hard critics the ammunition to fight it and say ‘see those who say they are fighting terrorism’. Papiri should not have happened at all, at least not at a time like this, or at any other time for that matter. The attack should be a challenge to the government to go all out and tame this scourge. There is no better time than now to break this yoke. It has festered for too long. Those nursery kids (just imagine their ages) are waiting (only God knows where they are being held) to be reunited with their parents and guardians. I can hear their cries in my ears as I type this.

November 27, 2025
On language of instruction at early years of schooling

There is no argument about which language of instruction should be used in early education in any serious country other than the mother tongue. The recent announcement by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa that as from now English will be the medium of instruction for education reminded me about his predecessor in the same ministry, Tahir Mamman who suddenly decreed that only children 17 or older will be permitted to write the JAMB admission examination for entrance to Nigerian universities as if there were unchallengeable reasons to bar younger people of admission into university especially in a global environment where Nigerians and others were graduating in British and American universities abroad at ages lower than 17.

It seems the ministers were getting out of step with their positions. They seem to arrogate know-all powers to themselves until they are brought down to the reality of being removed from office.

I wonder whether the current minister was properly advised to take this decision because the research council in the ministry could not have done this because the council’s position and those of most departments of education in our universities are clear on this: they have said and written that one of the reasons for the low quality of our graduates in all departments of learning is that whatever we studied in other peoples’ language cannot be properly absorbed and internalized and if the foundation is not solid, whatever floors constructed on a weak base will be ab initio unreliable.

This fact may be stretching the argument too far but there is no doubt that if the foundation is not strong, the superstructure cannot be reliable. Besides researches by the late Babs Fafunso a professor of education and others suggest that we should study English as a subject in our local languages just as we use English to study many subjects now .This is what great countries like China, India and Japan as well as most of the Arab countries have done and it has not stopped them from making advances in science and technology.

The biggest argument one may have for the minister’s policy of teaching in English to infants is that this is what essentially but unofficially exists in practice among the educated middle class in Nigeria and among most Nigerians in urban centres where people speak a multiplicity of languages. But this does not make it rational to the point of becoming the law. We can also argue about how difficult it would be to translate all existing books in the sciences, medicine, technology and all subjects into our native languages.

Which of our about 300 languages would we choose without alienating the other speakers of languages not selected? This is apparently why the choice of Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba as official languages is not strictly enforced in official communication but English which is neutral has remained the lingua franca. The current policy is that early education should be in our local languages presumably in English, Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba which have remained the official languages of the country. But what has become the constitutional provision of primary education remaining in the province of states? Then what happens to over 200 plus languages spoken by millions of other Nigerians?

If we can learn from our colonial experience in the North where Hausa was taught to all school children even though people in Northern Nigeria spoke other languages like Kanuri, Shuwa, Bura, Jukun, Chamba, Tiv, Angas, Birom, Fulfude, Nupe, Yoruba, Maguzawa, Igala, Idoma , Ebira and others if taken together may have outnumbered the Hausa native speakers. This policy has successfully knitted together perhaps more than 50% of Nigerians who now speak Hausa. There was no such language policy in the South though over the years Creole or Pidgin English is spoken all over Nigeria by people with a few years of exposure to the English language. This Creole/Pidgin of course cannot be seen as a native language. Some years ago, the late Professor Armstrong of the University of Ibadan in the 1960s suggested Igala as a strong candidate if Nigeria wanted a language to adopt as a national language because according to him, Igala has elements of Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. This was based on his academic study of Nigerian linguistics but I am not sure how far his suggestion got in the corridors of power in Nigeria where it was simply laughed out of court.

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This new policy cannot be rejected on the basis that English was imposed on us by an outside authority. It has the support of presumably most people in Nigeria who may have taken up arms against government if a local language or group of languages were imposed on the country. The government probably learnt from the experience of the government of India which met stiff opposition while trying to impose Hindi on the vast country and population which had accepted English a neutral language. It also put us within the global medium of English with its abundant development of instructional material at all levels of the educational ladder. The argument of supporters of English is that if we don’t belong to the wide medium of the English language world, we would have to learn English to understand the language of computing and AI.

If we will gain something from early learning of English, and that the better we started early and this does not mean we will naturally not speak our mother tongue at home and in the market, worship places and perhaps as secret language when negotiating with foreigners or when sending what will amount to ‘coded language’ in the wider global world. This is my personal experience in diplomacy when we want to arrive at a quick decision without our opposite party knowing our position, this will depend on if some of our people speak the same language. This experience made decisions maker to insist that any young recruit into our foreign service must have passed at ordinary level a Nigerian language.

One cannot overemphasize the importance of the ability to speak a mother tongue. Inability to do so undermines one’s indigenous personality and character in a world where confidence in one’s skin is an imperative for one to be able to assert one’s personality in a world of competition of cultural sensitivity. In conclusion, studies in mother tongues, many of which we have in Nigeria will continue to be an advantage for those who study for use in politics, business and the market place economics.

November 27, 2025