Indeed, these are troubling times for Nigeria as a nation. The growing insecurity in parts of Nigeria marked escalating violence, mindless killings, maiming, terror and rampart banditry has become a national tragedy.
More disturbing is tha attack in schools and the recent abduction of pupils, students and their teachers in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The attack of schools in Orire LGA raises questions that demands serious answers from the government of the day. Our country cannot continue to approach security disaster as isolated cases disconnected from the broader national decline. Armed groups flourish in our country today because authority is weak, collapse of intelligence gathering and corruption which drains public resources and the abandonment of rural communities.
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Everybody thought that South West is the safest part of Nigeria as no one ever thought in their wildest imagination that South west will ever be attacked by insurgency. The most painful part is the desecration of the temple of knowledge- the schools and the kidnapping of kids, stidents and their teachers by these mindless characters.
Unfortunately, in the middle of this crisis and grieving scenario, our politicians and leaders remained consumed by power struggles behaving as if the country can endure endless neglect of the authority without consequences.
Today, terrorism is no longer only a Northern affairs. It has dawn on Western region. That is why our governors must act swiftly to combat the encroachment of insurgents and Jihadist from the North from over-running the region.
The barbaric beheading of Michael Oyedokun is an evidence of the terrorists testing of the region’s resolve. The inhuman action of the terrorists is a staggering horror before the very eyes of a bwildered nation. Their attack is an attack on education which is the cornerstone of the Western region since the days Chief Obafemi Awolowo but now one of the region’s inheritance has come under severe attack.
It will be recall that before now several ugly things has happened in the South West in recent times. From the killing of Pa Fasoranti’s daughter during a kidnapping attempt on the Ore-Sagamu road to the slaughtering of worshippers at the St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo to the January 6, 2026 killing of five forest guards by terrorists in Orire LGA without any consequences probably gave the terrorists the impetus to attack schools in the same LGA again.
The signals have been there all along but government failure to see these signs as great calamity waiting to explode made government of the day to look away until the devil strucked schools in Oyo state before our very eyes.
The South-West cannot afford this complacency. Terrorism in Nigeria which started as a localised insurgency in Bauchi state was understimated, politicised and poorly tackled until it spread its tentacles across the vast stretch of Nigeria.
Hence the South west cannot descends into a prolonged terror because our educational institutions, industries, commerce will suffer from the ruins of Boko Haram attacks.
The tragedy is that much of this danger has been met with political distractions as governors and political elites are so consumed by reckless permutations and campaigns for 2027 elections than the tempest hovering around them.
God forbids, South-West risks being over-run by bandits and kidnappers if urgent and coordinated response is not carried out. Government must intensify intelligent sharing, forests surveillance, rapid response units and frequent border patrols to stop the incursion and ultimately eliminate insurgency from Western region.
The Southern part of Nigeria must begin to see the dangers ahead because if the terrorists succeeds in establishing their base in the South West, they could create a corridor that would threaten the very soul of Nigeria.
The Federal and state governments must wake up to their responsibility of saving life and property and nipping in bud this Jihadist threat that seeks not only to conquer territories but to kill, steal, destroy, cripple education, terrorise communities and break national resolve. A stitch in time saves nine. Therefore the failure of government at all levels to act swiftly could cause a serious harm to the Southwest and may eventually consume the nation.
