By Okechukwu Nwanguma
The news from Kwara and Niger States in the last 48 hours should shake any functioning government to its core. Instead, Nigeria drifts on – as if mass abductions, ransoms in the hundreds of millions, and the slaughter of innocents were now part of our national routine.
On Tuesday, terrorists attacked a Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, killing at least three worshippers and abducting over 30 others. By Thursday, they were already calling families, demanding ₦100 million per victim. In Niger State, barely five days after the abduction of students in Kebbi, terrorists again struck – this time invading St. Mary’s Papiri Private Catholic Secondary School in Agwara. They kidnapped over 50 students and teachers in yet another pre-dawn raid. Some reports put the figure above 100.
Two mass abductions. Two States. Under 48 hours. And the President is… where?
The Purpose of Government
The first duty of any government, anywhere in the world, is painfully simple: to protect lives and secure territory. Everything else, roads, reforms, revenue, rhetoric – comes after.
A government that cannot protect its citizens has failed at the most fundamental level. And in today’s Nigeria, citizens are no longer asking for prosperity or progress. They are begging – quite literally – for safety. For the right to go to school. To worship. To live.
A Nation on Auto-Pilot
Communities under siege are pleading for help. Local leaders like Chief Olusegun Olukotun of Eruku recount scrambling out of windows to escape gunfire. Families are receiving calls from the bush with ransom demands large enough to bankrupt whole villages. Security agencies admit they cannot yet determine how many children were taken from Papiri because chaos has become our new order.
The President – who should be leading from the front – is either aloof, absent, or unmoved. And Nigerians are tired of mourning children, burying victims, fundraising ransoms, and waiting for a Commander-in-Chief who acts only after public outrage forces him to acknowledge a tragedy.
With Tinubu, It Will Only Get Worse
This is not pessimism; it is pattern.
Under the Tinubu administration, terrorists have grown bolder, not weaker. Kidnappers operate more freely, not less. The security architecture, already broken, continues to decay. What Nigerians experience is not just insecurity – it is state incapacity, bordering on state collapse in several regions.
A government that cannot protect schools, churches, farms, highways, villages, and border communities is a government that has lost control.
Enough Pretence
We must stop pretending that the Nigerian state is functioning. We must stop pretending that “efforts are ongoing” is a strategy. We must stop pretending that bandits will simply tire out and go away.
The President must immediately:
Take direct, public, hands-on leadership of national security.
Reorganize the security architecture based on competence, not patronage.
Deploy technology, intelligence, and rapid-response capacity to vulnerable regions.
Hold security chiefs accountable for measurable results.
Declare a national emergency on mass abductions.
If President Tinubu cannot guarantee the safety of Nigerian children in their classrooms or Nigerians worshipping in their churches, then he must answer the question Nigerians are now whispering everywhere:
What exactly is he governing?
Because today, for many communities across the country, the Nigerian government might as well not exist.
