Makinde’s call for UN probe of Oyo abduction is patriotic: We will miss the point when, inebriated on the loud applause the successful rescue has engendered, we fail to ask the critical question: what happened? That is what Makinde did. His is not a political question. It is a question that tends to address the issue of public safety frontally considering the fact that while it is true that the Oriire 46 are free, the Askira-Uba 50 are still in captivity, and the 176 women and children abducted from the Woro community in Kaiama local government, Kwara State on February 3, 2026 are yet to be accounted for. So, contrary to the contrived outburst of APC bigwigs, Makinde’s call for UN probe of the Oyo abduction is patriotic.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
There is no well-meaning Nigerian who is not relieved that the Oyo State kidnap saga ended happily despite the multiple fatalities and the 56 agonising days it took the country to embrace, once again, the light at the end of what was, to all intents and purposes, a very dark chapter in its beleaguered history.
The mass abduction which took place on May 15, when terrorists raided three schools in the Yawota and Ahoro-Esinele communities in Oriire local government, whisking away 39 pupils and six teachers, ended on July 10, when they were rescued by a combined team of the armed forces. Eight of the suspects were arrested while others were killed in an operation many agree demonstrates operational efficiency and improved inter-agency collaboration among the security agencies.
For 56 days, the country was on the edge particularly after one of the victims, Michael Oyedokun, a mathematics teacher, was gruesomely murdered and a graphic video of his execution posted online. Nobody was sure what other fatal pranks the terrorists had up their sleeve.
But in a country where the sanctity of human life is often desecrated on the altar of hypocritical politicking, all that matters to politicians is how to use the incident to gain political traction, which explains why Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, is in the eye of a contrived storm.
Makinde, while receiving the rescued teachers and pupils on Monday, expressed his appreciation to President Bola Tinubu and all the security forces that carried out what could rightly be described as the most audacious rescue operation in Nigeria so far, even as he assumed responsibility for their welfare, rehabilitation and education.
But he didn’t allow the euphoria of the moment to becloud his sense of apprehension, hence his call for a UN-backed investigation into the abduction. He argued that Nigerians deserve a full account of the circumstances surrounding the incident.
In a sense, that was an amplification of his earlier insinuation that the abduction was a calculated political attack against him. While addressing the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Bauchi on the eve of the release of the victims, he noted that he declared to run for the presidency at 4 p.m. on May 14, and by 9 a.m. the following day, the teachers and children were abducted.
For him, therefore, the dramatic rescue of the victims, as heart-warming as it is, didn’t answer the fundamental question of what happened and why. That question cannot be wished away even as Nigerians celebrate. Sadly, such an innocuous call has ignited a political firestorm with Tinubu’s storm troopers throwing everything they have at him, including the kitchen sink.
The presidency fired the first salvo same day, dismissing Makinde’s call as unnecessary and politically motivated. The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the request suggested a lack of confidence in Nigeria’s security institutions.
The Senate took a cue from that when it passed a resolution the following day warning that Makinde’s remarks could undermine government’s efforts in tackling insecurity. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, whose job, including signing of appointment letters that are statutorily within the purview of his office, has been brazenly usurped by others, finally found his mojo and accused Makinde of politicising the abduction.
Leading the criticism of the governor during plenary, Senator Adams Oshiomhole described Makinde’s call as unnecessary and capable of diminishing the achievements of the security forces. He said the call was not only “unsportsmanlike” but also stretches partisan politics. In his warped logic, which unfortunately carried the day in the Red Chamber, because “Nigeria is a sovereign nation,” it is therefore inexpedient to call on a foreign body to investigate any domestic matter.
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Not to be left out, the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, also jumped into the condemnation fray, describing Makinde’s call as “shameful, shocking and unbecoming of a leader.”
But how could the governor’s call for an independent probe into the circumstances that led to the death of three teachers, security personnel – Lt F.A. Isaac, Private Silas Musa, and Sgt Abena John Jerome of the Nigeria Police Force, among others be deemed subversive? Subversive of who?
Truth be told, Makinde’s call is not self-serving. It is neither an indictment on the Tinubu government nor security agencies. If it were, he wouldn’t have been upfront in pouring encomiums on them.
But even if he insinuated political motivations, he would only be re-echoing the sentiment of APC chieftains including Tinubu himself who have consistently said the spike in insecurity was politically motivated. In other words, it may well be true that Makinde thinks the kidnap was politically motivated. But he won’t be the first to so insinuate.
Those calling for his head on the platter of his UN probe advocacy echo the same sentiment. Senate President Godswill Akpabio recently claimed that opposition figures and “enemies of progress” were sponsoring violence, bombings, and unrest to distract Tinubu’s administration. Tinubu himself was once quoted as saying, “My enemies want to use insecurity in the country to get rid of me, but I am a stubborn politician who refuses to go.”
What has changed is that Tinubu now sees a more efficacious propaganda tool in the successful rescue of the Oyo kidnap victims than his previous lamentation that his adversaries were weaponising insecurity in an effort to unseat him.
The contrived angst of the Tinubu hatchet men against Makinde mirrors their diatribe against Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), late last year when he stated that he would welcome U.S. military assistance if it helped improve Nigeria’s security. They branded him a traitor. Onanuga, in one of his harebrained tweets said Nigerians would “never forget nor forgive” Obi for supporting foreign intervention.
Yet, when one month later the U.S. launched some precision strikes against ISIS-linked terrorists in Sokoto, the same characters turned around to endorse an actual foreign military action on Nigerian soil. Since then, Americans have put boots on the ground and the Tinubu administration is brandishing that as an achievement. That raises the question of credibility. As the Prof Pat Utomi-led Big Tent Coalition noted last year, “You cannot vilify a prominent citizen for expressing a conditional policy opinion, only to turn around and implement that very option in practice.”
That is classical hypocrisy and for the Tinubu administration, duplicity is a way of life. It is the oxygen that energises their politics. It is at the heart of the incoherence and policy somersaults that have become the hallmark of the administration.
So, it is not a surprise that the APC-led Federal Government is angry that Governor Makinde is calling for an international probe of the Oyo abduction saga. They have conveniently forgotten, as they are wont to do, that 13 years ago, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), led by Tinubu demanded the trial of President Goodluck Jonathan at the International Criminal Court (ICJ) at The Hague because of the mass killings that happened under his watch, particularly the April 2013 killings that devastated the fishing community of Baga in Borno State.
It will not be a surprise if the Tinubu administration tomorrow invites any international organisation for validation if that will serve its narrow political interest. It will be true to character. They don’t have the moral fibre to govern selflessly. As one commentator noted recently, “Principles lose their worth the moment they become prisoners of partisan convenience.” The problem is that Tinubu and the APC have no affinity whatsoever to ennobling values, that moral compass that can help Nigeria grow by inspiring citizens to act with dignity, honour and purpose.
Makinde should not be deterred by the fulsome attacks on his person. Instead, he should amplify the call because his request, which is neither an attack on the armed forces, the president nor the integrity of the Nigerian state, is germane and resonates with majority of Nigerians who want to know why their country is going south.
We will miss the point when, inebriated on the loud applause the successful rescue has engendered, we fail to ask the critical question: what happened? That is what Makinde did. His is not a political question. It is a question that tends to address the issue of public safety frontally considering the fact that while it is true that the Oriire 46 are free, the Askira-Uba 50 are still in captivity, and the 176 women and children abducted from the Woro community in Kaiama local government, Kwara State on February 3, 2026 are yet to be accounted for.
So, contrary to the contrived outburst of APC bigwigs, Makinde’s call for UN probe of the Oyo abduction is patriotic. In any case, if the Tinubu administration has nothing to hide, why is it kicking against the idea of credible enquiry into the country’s scandalous level of insecurity?
