The abduction of pupils, teachers and residents from Community High School, Ahoro-Esinle, and Baptist Nursery and Primary School in the Ogbomoso-Yawota area of Oriire Local Government Area on Friday May 15 is deeply troubling. While many Nigerians continue to pray for the safe return of the abductees, the disturbing videos showing the beheading of one of the teachers and the daily torture of those in captivity have further compounded the grief and shock of Nigerians.
Just as President Bola Tinubu recently alleged that political opponents are exploiting Nigeria’s worsening insecurity to undermine his administration, an official of the Oyo State Government also told me that political enemies of Governor Seyi Makinde may be complicit in the abduction in a bid to portray him as incompetent ahead of the 2027 elections.
But before politics, accusations and blame games, the immediate priority must remain clear: every available security and intelligence resource must be deployed urgently to rescue the victims safely.
Kidnapping schoolchildren and teachers is not just another crime statistic. It is an assault on the future of an entire community. The emotional trauma inflicted on families, the fear spreading across schools and villages, and the message such attacks send to ordinary citizens are devastating. The victims must not become mere headlines in Nigeria’s endless cycle of insecurity.
Beyond the immediate horror of the Oriire abductions lies an uncomfortable truth: many warnings about the deteriorating security situation in the South-West were made years ago but largely ignored by political leaders.
Last week, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, disclosed that he had written to South-West governors on the need for stronger regional collaboration on security. According to him, terrorists have established a presence in about 40 local government areas across the South-West geopolitical zone, yet the governors allegedly failed to respond to his proposals over a two-year period.
What is particularly noteworthy is that none of the governors has publicly denied his claim. That silence matters because it raises serious questions. In a region where insecurity is becoming increasingly brazen, the public deserves transparency. If Adams’ account is inaccurate, the governors should say so clearly. If it is true, Nigerians have every right to ask why critical security warnings and proposals were ignored while criminal networks expanded across forests, highways and rural communities.
Adams is not the only prominent figure who raised the alarm. In 2021, retired General Kunle Togun, then chairman of the Oyo State Security Network Agency, popularly known as Amotekun, warned that foreign Fulani elements had established camps across parts of the South-West and could launch coordinated attacks if urgent action was not taken.
Togun was not an ordinary commentator. He is a former director of military intelligence and former deputy director-general of the State Security Service (SSS), a man with decades of experience in intelligence and security operations.
He stated that these groups had spent years infiltrating communities and studying the terrain. He also urged residents to become more security-conscious and prepared to defend themselves if necessary.
Unfortunately, those warnings did not generate the urgency they deserved. Instead, what the South-West has witnessed in recent years is the gradual erosion of confidence in regional security structures that were once celebrated as innovative responses to insecurity.
When Amotekun was launched, many Nigerians saw it as a bold attempt by South-West governors to establish a coordinated security architecture rooted in local intelligence and community familiarity. The initiative was widely applauded because many believed local security threats require local knowledge and community-based responses.
Sadly, the promise of Amotekun has increasingly been undermined by the nonchalant attitude of some politicians who appear to believe the South-West remains Nigeria’s safest region and therefore immune to mass abductions and terrorist activities.
A report by the Nigerian Tribune last year identified some of the major challenges confronting the Amotekun corps, including inadequate funding, inferior weapons, poor logistics and lack of prosecutorial authority. No security outfit can function optimally under such conditions, especially when confronting heavily armed criminal networks.
Even more troubling are allegations that recruitment into some of these state security outfits has become politicised. In several states, appointments and recruitment slots are reportedly distributed through political patronage rather than strict competence and security considerations. Instead of attracting highly trained, disciplined and committed personnel, the outfits are increasingly seen as avenues for political compensation and “jobs for the boys”.
The same criticism has been directed at the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), where political patronage is also said to have weakened professionalism. I know politicians in Lagos who were allocated recruitment slots and simply shared them among loyal supporters.
The truth is simple: security cannot succeed where mediocrity is institutionalised.
The growing insecurity in the South-West should also end the dangerous illusion that Lagos and other urban centres are somehow immune from serious security threats.
While discussing the Oyo abduction with a senior media colleague last week, he remarked that the incident should not have come as a surprise to any keen observer, as the warning signs had long been evident.
His words “Well, the signs have always been there. The non-state actors are even present in Lagos.There are cells all around.They have just not been activated”.
In 2017, residents of Ikorodu experienced the horror of violent attacks linked to the notorious Badoo cult group. It took a combination of police operations, local vigilantes and members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) led by Adams to stem the violence.
That episode demonstrated a critical reality: grassroots intelligence and community-based collaboration remain indispensable in combating violent crime. One hopes the new Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, can replicate similar collaborative strategies across the South-West and other parts of the country.
This is why the continued reluctance of governors to genuinely collaborate with local stakeholders who possess deep knowledge of their environments is deeply concerning. Security summits, press conferences and ceremonial launches are meaningless if communities remain vulnerable and criminals continue to operate freely across forests and highways.
South-West governors must move beyond symbolic governance and embrace practical, coordinated security action. Intelligence sharing between states must improve. Local vigilante networks should be strengthened through proper training and oversight. Security recruitment should prioritise competence over politics. Technology, surveillance systems and rapid response mechanisms must also be expanded across vulnerable rural communities and highways.
Most importantly, the victims abducted in Oriire must not be abandoned to their fate. Every security agency involved in the rescue operation must act with urgency and professionalism.
Ultimately, however, the greatest responsibility lies with President Tinubu. Governors often take cues from the tone and seriousness displayed by the federal government. Unfortunately, many Nigerians increasingly believe the federal response to insecurity remains inadequate.
What makes this especially striking is Tinubu’s own history as a leader of the opposition. In March 2013, he called on former President Goodluck Jonathan to resign over worsening insecurity, arguing that any government unable to gather sufficient intelligence and stop attacks had failed. In July 2014, he said Jonathan’s request for a $1 billion loan is not for fighting terrorism but to wage war against opposition and scuttle democracy.
Those criticisms were sharp and uncompromising. Today, many Nigerians are asking whether the same standards Tinubu applied to Jonathan should also apply to his own administration. Why is Tinubu also borrowing loans almost on a weekly basis with just eight months left to the 2027 general elections?
The insecurity crisis did not begin under Tinubu, and no honest observer would pretend otherwise. But leadership is measured not by inherited excuses but by visible results. Nigerians are tired of condolences after every tragedy. They want prevention, protection and accountability.
The Oriire abductions should become a turning point for the southwest. If respected voices like Gani Adams and retired General Togun raised warnings years ago that were ignored, political leaders must honestly reflect on the consequences of their complacency.
In an interview he granted in 2017, Gani Adams said: “When you are talking of defending our community against Fulani herdsmen and other external security threats, I have to consult with the governors, Yoruba leaders, Obas and other relevant stakeholders before any decision is made.”
Also speaking during his installation in January 2018, Adams said, “I will collaborate with security agencies and stakeholders to ensure that Yorubaland is effectively secured through our various organisations.”
These statements clearly show that Adams never positioned himself above constituted authority. Rather, he consistently emphasised collaboration with governors, traditional rulers, security agencies and other stakeholders in addressing insecurity in Yorubaland.
There is little he can do if the chief security officers of the affected states refuse to collaborate or seek his opinion on how to effectively tackle the criminality in the region .
Sadly, despite the worsening security situation across parts of the South-West, many believe the governors have appeared helpless while refusing to genuinely collaborate with people like Adams who possess deep knowledge of local security challenges, grassroots intelligence and community-based security structures.
At a time when communities are living in fear and innocent citizens continue to lose their lives, every relevant stakeholder — including experienced local security actors — should be brought together to confront the growing threat of terrorism and kidnapping.
Many conspiracy theories are also emerging. Some claim the governors may have refused to collaborate with the Aare Ona Kakanfo because of perceived political differences between him and President Tinubu. But that should be irrelevant at a time like this. All hands must be on deck to secure lives and property.
If the APC-led federal government can collaborate with private security firms like Tantita to protect critical assets in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, why can’t governments also partner with genuine local groups such as the OPC to protect human lives? Oil pipelines cannot be more important than securing lives, which is the primary responsibility of any serious government.
Governor Seyi Makinde has said the Oyo State Government is willing to listen to the demands of the abductors, who are reportedly demanding ransom. But this raises an important question: which is preferable — collaborating with time-tested grassroots security actors like Gani Adams, Agbekoya and the OPC to proactively curb criminal activities, or repeatedly paying ransom to terrorists after innocent people have already been abducted, tortured and killed? It has been established that most times, the terrorists use the monies paid as ransom to buy more sophisticated weapons and carry out more deadly attacks.
Why should governors who claim to be overwhelmed by insecurity ignore credible offers of local collaboration while communities remain exposed and innocent citizens killed? . That is the question South-West governors — and indeed the federal government — must answer.
Akinsuyi, former group politics editor of the Daily Independent, writes from the United Kingdom. He can be reached at shabydayo@gmail.com.
