The nation is bleeding, and the world is watching, but Nigeria’s leaders appear mute. Since President Bola Tinubu took office, Amnesty International has documented 10,217 Nigerian deaths at the hands of armed groups, with Benue accounting for 6,896 victims and Plateau for 2,630. A single night in Yelwata, Benue (June 13‑14, 2025) saw gunmen kill more than a hundred people, torch homes and displace thousands, yet no decisive government action has followed. I emphasise the word ‘decisive’.
The crisis has drawn a sharp rebuke from U.S. President Donald Trump, who re-designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” and warned the United States might cut aid or even use military force “if mass killings of Christians continue”. Nigerian officials retorted that Trump’s claims, “do not reflect the situation on the ground”, and President Tinubu called the designation a distortion of Nigeria’s “true identity”, insisting that Christians and Muslims have long co-existed peacefully. President Tinubu affirmed that the constitution guarantees religious liberty for all.
Meanwhile, school kidnappings and church raids continue unabated – 25 girls seized in Niger State, over 300 students abducted from St Mary’s School, and a Kwara church attacked – painting a grim pattern that many analysts link to a broader strategy of terror and ransom, while the government’s response remains, at best, a deafening silence.
For emphasis, let me say again that the hardest-hit states are Benue, with 6,896 deaths, and Plateau, with 2,630 fatalities recorded over the same period. In Katsina State, Amnesty verified 294 killings, while in Zamfara, at least 273 people have died in bandit-related violence.
Yet, there has been no serious effort from the government to show an intention to decisively confront the crisis.
For about three weeks now, President Trump has re-designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” for alleged systematic violations of religious freedom.
Thus, the government has repeatedly emphasised that the security crisis was rooted in terrorism, banditry and insurgency, not religious persecution.
Then came a spate of school kidnappings, community raids and attacks on churches. It seems as if the CPC designation and the accompanying international warnings have only deepened the chaos. Or does the bandit really want the United States to ‘intervene’?
Let me explain again:
Just last week, 25 girls were kidnapped from a school in Niger State, the school’s vice-principal was killed, and a security officer also lost his life in the attack.
In another brazen assault, more than 300 students and teachers were abducted from St Mary’s School, leaving the entire community in shock. Around the same time, a church in Kwara State was raided by gunmen, resulting in deaths and multiple abductions. In the Kwara CAC incident, 38 abductees have been rescued by the Kwara State governor, according to reports. There is no clear information on how many of the terrorists were arrested or killed while ‘rescuing’ the victims. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, who was previously the CEO of First Fuels Limited before taking office in 2019, personally took credit for the ‘rescue’ one week after the attack.
Now, a look at similar trends and patterns. Some analysts are pointing to a similar pattern of insecurity through kidnappings, killings of soldiers, including generals, attacks on churches and communities, and the abduction of school children in large numbers despite repeated warnings.
This includes the 317 girls kidnapped from Zamfara State in February 2021; the abduction of 80 students from Federal Government College, Yauri, also in 2021; the 2020 seizure of 344 schoolboys in Kankara, Katsina State; and the 140 students taken from Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna.
In Dapchi, 110 schoolgirls were kidnapped in 2018. The Federal Government’s intervention led to their release, but one of them, Leah Sharibu, remains in captivity for allegedly refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
Under this current administration, 287 pupils were abducted in Kuriga, Kaduna State, in March 2024. These grim episodes, an SBM Intelligence report says, have led to ransom payments totalling N5bn.
Between July 2022 and June 2023, there were 582 kidnapping cases, with 3,620 people caught up in the incidents.
Yet, it appears the government is doing very little in response to any of these. Even with all the announcements made, nothing ever changes.
For the churches, the trend remains the same. The Owo massacre of 2022 stands as an example: nothing has happened to the perpetrators. Though some people were arrested in connection with the incident, there has been no full trial. From that incident to the present wave of church kidnappings, the pattern persists as Nigeria continues to deteriorate daily.
Brigadier-General Musa Uba, the commander of the 25 Task Force Brigade, and his men, including members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, were ambushed and killed in Borno State by fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province.
While clashes between rival terrorist groups over territory control often end with government-brokered peace deals. It now seems the terrorists are always kidnapping so they can continue negotiating such deals.
Meanwhile, when an ordinary citizen tries to criticise the government, the person is quickly tracked. Why can’t they also arrest the kidnappers, some of whom appear on live TikTok, bragging that nothing will happen to them? It raises the troubling suspicion that the government is hiding something from Nigerians.
There has been speculation that successive governments are in the grip of powerful cabals and that these governments know them but cannot speak because some leaders were part of these cabals before coming to power. They are believed to have been helped into office by such networks, which use insecurity as leverage whenever they feel their hold on power is threatened.
If this is not true, how can the government explain the following?
According to Governor Idris, the state government got credible intelligence that a school was likely to be attacked. He noted that the decision was that “we would provide round-the-clock protection”. Soldiers at the Ribah junction checkpoint, less than a kilometre from the school, were reportedly mobilised, but allegedly left the school by 12am, after which the terrorists struck in the early hours.
A military officer who joined the rescue effort for the Chibok girls recently claimed in a social media interview that they once arrested a man producing guns for bandits, but before they walked a mile, they received a call from the authorities ordering his release. He added that the military cannot save Nigeria because its hands are tied.
The government has not denied these allegations, and the cycle of insecurity creates fear, poverty and suffering among ordinary people, who are often deceived by the same cabal to remove one government only for the cycle to continue.
Could the government be reluctant to confront the crisis because their relatives are not in the country? What if they could not travel by air? What if one of their relatives were a victim?
Former President Jonathan made similar observations, saying many people used Boko Haram to remove him from power.
The question any sensible person will ask is this: the government knows all that is happening. Even if they do not know the people behind the attacks, they have seen what has always gone on. People are tired of pointing out problems and offering solutions while the government keeps watching.
What is the way forward, especially with accusations that foreign powers are major forces behind the instability, and the shifting balance of global politics leaves Nigerian leaders unsure as they swing from the United States to the China-Russia BRICS bloc?
Yet, the APC government cannot afford to be remembered as the leadership that led Nigeria into perpetual decline. They need to act, pursue the right persons and leave critics alone. After all, acceptance of criticism remains a defining marker of good leadership.
But if they cannot act, they should let Nigerians know and leave the seat like Jonathan did.
