Terror attacks in Nigeria escalate with high-profile killings and school abductions, exposing gaps in national security and urgent need for action

NO outrage. No shock. No anger as terrorists kill Brigadier-General Musa Uba in the North-East sector. Nigerians were processing that affront when news of terrorists’ attack on worshippers at Christ Apostolic Church, CAC, Eruku in Kwara State during their church service.

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The attackers went away with 35 worshippers. They are asking for ransom of N100 million on each of them.

By Monday, 25 students of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, were abducted, their vice-principal, and a security guard were killed.

The killing of Brigadier-General Uba, and the abductions of the female students, reeked of betrayal and sabotages that have shocked normal Nigerians – yes, many of us may not be normal.

How does a Brigadier-General die in an ambush in the way he was killed? He had reportedly been rescued, awaiting evacuation when the terrorists were said to have “intercepted” messages on this high security operation. They killed him. The terrorists are gloating over their victory. We allowed them.

First, the ambush failed. Yet, they got Uba, a fine officer by the many accounts of his career.

Nobody has been arrested and punished for the treachery that caused this death. There was no urgent operation in the area to teach the terrorists a lesson.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Commander-in-Chief, was loud with his silence. Tinubu’s silence was a great example for his commanders.

Did Brigadier-General Uba die in vain? How does that affect the morale of the military, the ordinary troops, who would note the fate that befell their commander?

It would be wrong to say that Tinubu did entirely nothing over the embarrassing killing of Brigadier-General Uba. He postponed trips to South Africa and Angola.

That was good for the headlines. Vice-President Kashim Shettima eventually will represent Tinubu who has made a great sacrifice by missing the trips. Or the meetings?

“As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I am depressed with the tragic death of our soldiers and officers on active duty.

May God comfort the families of Brigadier General Musa Uba and other fallen heroes. I am also depressed that heartless terrorists have disrupted the education of innocent schoolgirls,” Tinubu said, according to a State House statement on Tuesday.

The President should snap out of his depression to act with the urgency the situation demands. The country is being attacked from any point of the terrorists’ choice.

What makes these incidents shameful and cast more doubts about Nigeria’s determination to throw terrorists out of our territory is the complete absence of fire in the President’s eyes as he mouths his platitudinous solutions to terrorism.

Sabotage of the efforts of our military and security agencies is treated as if it has no implications.

When former President Goodluck Jonathan said there were Boko Haram members in his government, Tinubu was in the forefront of those who accused him of incompetence and suggested that Jonathan should resign.

“This is clear sabotage. We received credible intelligence from the DSS that this school was likely to be attacked. The DSS further advised that we convene an emergency Security Council meeting, which we did.

The decision was that we would provide round-the-clock protection for the students,” said Governor Mohammed Nasir Idris of Kebbi State, when he visited the school on Monday morning.

According to him, he acted on the DSS report because failure to act on similar intelligence led to the December 2020 kidnapping of over 300 pupils of a school in Kankara, Katsina State.

“The heavily armed security personnel spent time taking photographs with the students, only to abandon them 30 minutes before the attack,” Governor Idris lamented.

Who ordered their withdrawal?

The Governor was infuriated enough to call what happened by its name, sabotage. Security agents who went after the fleeing terrorists were ambushed – twice – another sabotage.

Who provides the intelligence that the terrorists use for these successful ambushes?

As we were asking these questions, without answers, with no plans in sight to improve the security situation, terrorists struck in early hours of Friday at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri in Niger State.

Some sources said that over 200 pupils, and some teachers were abducted. The state government blames the school for re-opening without obtaining a security clearance. The school counters that it got no security message from government.

The impunity of the terrorists must be stopped. Excuses, even reasons, are inadequate for their boldness. Tolerating terrorists, as those “peace meetings” imply, is not a solution.

Dr. Bashir Kurfi, a well-known expert in community security in the North-West, narrated this incident on television: “A notorious bandit killed an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Katsina.

He wore the uniform of the officer he killed, during a peace deal organised by the State Government, with officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces in attendance.”

The terrorists are emboldened by the realisation that the law accommodates their lawlessness. Now that they have the additional benefit of “intercepting” the communication of our military and security agents, how can we win the war on terror?

Senator Sunday Steve Karim, Kogi West, Chairman Senate Services Committee, sees the current rising insecurity “as acts being perpetrated by mischief makers with the sole aim to tarnish President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration despite the concerted efforts by the administration to fix the country for the betterment of all and sundry”.

Which mischief makers “tarnished” Jonathan’s administration?

The issues are straight forward – are we seeing Tinubu’s (in)security agenda? What is Tinubu doing outside propaganda, distance from securing Nigeria and his 2027 elections?

For Senator Karim of Kogi State and the likes of Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue, one of the most attacked States, to join in the sophistry about Christians and Muslims being attacked as proof that there is no genocide, is to play politics with lives.

The debates about whether the Americans and other allies should help Nigeria out of our current miasma is belated.

Nigerians who wish their country well are more concerned with when the interventions to retrieve Nigeria from the harms Tinubu’s handicaps, incompetence and compromises have cost the country since 2015 when he was a major investor in Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency.

Tinubu winning the next election cannot be more important than our lives and having a country that works for Nigerians.

Finally….

JUSTICE James Omotosho has sentenced Nnamdi Kanu to life imprisonment on terrorism charges, ending a matter that made a round of the courts for a decade. How great it would be to try terrorists and their sponsors!

. ZAMFARA State Governor Dauda Lawal: “I swear to Almighty Allah, wherever a bandits’ leader is located within Zamfara State, I know it and if he goes out, I know.

With my mobile phone, I can show you where and where these bandits are today. But we cannot do anything beyond our powers.

“If today, I have the power to give orders to the security agencies, I can assure you, we will end banditry in Zamfara State within two months.

Most of the time, I shed tears for my people because I can see a problem but because I don’t have control over the security agencies, I cannot order the security operatives to act in time.

“There was a time, the bandits invaded Shinkafi local government and I was sitting here when the security operatives were alerted but they refused to go to Shinkafi simply because they were not given orders from Abuja.

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This is the problem we are facing but we trust God and surely, He will come to our rescue”. – Governor Lawal on Arise TV on 4 September 2025