The recent attack on schools at High School, L.A. Basic School, and Yawota Baptist Nursery and Primary School, in Ahoro-Esinele, in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, is a debilitating news that sent sadness down the spine. It indeed cast an ominous poll when gunmen descended like shadows upon classrooms where children had only gathered to learn, and where teachers had only arrived to shape minds and build tomorrow. In the heart-wrenching event, seven teachers were abducted, scores of pupils and students were taken away, and one teacher was reportedly murdered in captivity. And so one question has quietly settled in many homes across Oyo State. If schools are no longer safe, where then shall innocence hide?
No teacher should stand before a blackboard with fear sitting beside him like a second shadow. No child should hold a school bag with trembling hands. Education was meant to be the soft lantern that guides society out of darkness. Yet now, in too many places across Nigeria, schools have been turned into hunting grounds. Silence is dangerous at moments like this because fear grows quickly where truth is avoided.
According to UNESCO, Nigeria already has one of the highest numbers of out of school children in the world, estimated at over 20 million. Insecurity has remained one of the chief reasons. When kidnappers invade schools, it is not only children that are stolen. Confidence is stolen. Hope is stolen. The future itself is bruised.
The late South African statesman Nelson Mandela once wrote in Long Walk to Freedom, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Yet what becomes of that weapon when classrooms are surrendered to terror and forests become kingdoms for criminals?
The forests around Oyo State must no longer be treated with careless ease. The IITA Forest Reserve, Opara Forest Reserve, and Gambari Forest Reserve are vast stretches of land. Some are so expansive that they could pass for small local governments by sheer size. Criminals understand geography better than governments sometimes do. They understand that dense forests offer cover, concealment, and corridors of escape. And because of this, those forests must be heavily secured with trained personnel, aerial surveillance, modern intelligence systems, and constant patrols.
The Southwest must learn from the wounds of the North before those wounds spread further southward. The Chibok abduction of 2014 did not begin as a national epidemic. Yet from Chibok, the horror stretched into Kankara, Jangebe, Tegina, Kuriga, and other communities where children were seized like spoils of war. Nigeria has witnessed hundreds of school abductions over the last decade. What was once considered unthinkable slowly became frequent. And sadly, familiarity with evil often weakens outrage.
There is a Yoruba proverb that says, “Bí a bá rí ejò, a kì í fi ìrù rẹ̀ ṣeré.” Meaning, “When a snake is seen, its tail is not played with.” A society that toys with insecurity eventually kneels before it.
This is why the Southwest must avoid the dangerous romance of rehabilitation without justice. Citizens cannot continue watching armed men kidnap children today, receive pardon tomorrow, and return to violence next season. No bandit should be rehabilitated or forgiven. Forgiveness belongs to God, it’s the government’s duty to send the terrorists to God.
The first duty of the state is security. Not speeches or unnecessary emotions. Amotekun, local vigilantes, and volunteering groups like Iru Ekun Network should be well-equipped and encouraged. Men who patrol forests with dane guns against terrorists carrying assault rifles are being sent into battle already defeated. Local operatives understand the terrain, the language, the footpaths, and the movement of strangers better than distant officials sitting behind polished desks in Abuja.
And while government must act firmly, citizens too must remain alert. Governor Makinde often repeats a simple phrase: “When you see something, say something.” That message should not be treated lightly. Communities must return to vigilance. Strange movements should be reported. Silence must not protect criminals more than neighbours protect one another.
Governor Seyi Makinde deserves commendation for certain swift actions already taken albeit. The governor has shown concern, and concern matters. The spearheading of the Amotekun Corps years ago, alongside the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, reflected foresight. Equipping the corps with needed ammunition and vehicles is a laudable one. Recently, surveillance aircraft procured from China were said to be undergoing assembly at the Nigerian Air Force hangar in Lagos. Yet security does not wait politely for completion dates. Two months can become two months of mourning if urgency is absent.
At this difficult hour, many Nigerians are already battling inflation, hunger, rising electricity costs, unemployment, and exhaustion. According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, inflation has remained painfully high in recent years, with food inflation biting deepest into ordinary homes. So when insecurity joins hardship, despair begins to multiply. A hungry person can endure much, frightened people endure even less.
The American historian Will Durant wrote in The Lessons of History, “Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” Those words should disturb every serious leader in Nigeria. Order can weaken quietly. Stability can slip slowly. Societies do not collapse in one loud moment alone. Sometimes they decay through repeated neglect.
The governors of the Southwest must therefore fasten their belts and secure this region with seriousness and speed. Actions, not emotions are needed. No emotional excuse will satisfy grieving parents. No political grammar will comfort frightened children. Leadership is measured most honestly when danger arrives.
May Oyo State, Southwest, and Nigeria in its entirety not descend into a land where schools become graveyards of dreams, where forests answer louder than government, and where citizens begin to lose faith in the very institutions meant to protect them. For once a people become accustomed to fear, recovery becomes painfully slow. May wisdom prevail before sorrow spreads further.
Bashiroh Omowumi is the proprietress of Ar-Rahman Group of Schools, Ogbere Idi-Ahun, Ibadan.
