The blood hasn’t even dried in Kebbi, Zamfara, Kwara and Kano and already the country has moved on to the next tragedy.
Within 72 hours:
A Vice-Principal was killed and 25 schoolgirls were abducted in Kebbi.
An APC chieftain, Umar Moriki, was murdered in Zamfara, and families were abducted.
Terrorists attacked communities in Patigi, Kwara, killed a police officer and a vigilante, and abducted two chiefs.
A serving Brigadier General, M. Uba, was killed by ISWAP just four years after Brig-Gen Dzarma Zirkusu fell in a similar battle in 2021.
Two Brigadier Generals, same month of November, four years apart, same war, same enemy and Sambisa and the wider terror infrastructure are still breathing fresh air.
Anyone still saying “we are winning this war” is either delusional, dishonest, or benefitting from the chaos. This is not success. This is managed failure.
A Country Bleeding in Slow Motion
Let’s put emotions aside for a moment and look at the pattern:
Schools are no longer safe from Chibok (2014) to Dapchi (2018), Kankara, Jangebe, and now Maga in Kebbi, the kidnapping of students has become a recurring business model.
Security personnel are being hunted when Brigadier Generals are tracked and killed, it means the terrorists have intelligence, confidence, and capacity.
Communities are abandoned Shanono in Kano, villages in Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger… people pack their lives into bags and flee their ancestral lands because the state has quietly surrendered those territories.
This is not governance. This is a gradual collapse with press releases. And the most insulting part?
The same political class that cannot protect schoolchildren is flying delegations abroad to lobby for convicted politicians, while soldiers are dying in the bush and villagers are making their own deals with bandits just to survive.
When a Country Pretends It Is at Peace
Nigeria still behaves like a normal country campaign posters, political rallies, decamping ceremonies, empty speeches, “reform” talk but the reality on the ground is that parts of this country are active war zones.
This is war, but the political elite are treating it as a PR inconvenience. You cannot be losing Brigadier Generals and still be talking like this is just “another security challenge.”
You cannot have mass abductions within 72 hours in multiple states and still be recycling the same language: “We condemn… we assure… we are on top of the situation…”
No, you are not.
If terrorists:
Can intercept the location of a General,
Ambush him successfully,
Withdraw without being annihilated,
it means:
1. They have human intelligence inside or around the system.
2. They have the audacity to treat Nigerian troops as prey, not threat.
3. The state has failed to impose fear on those who should fear it.
A state that cannot make terrorism a suicidal career choice is not serious.
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