by Mohammed Bello Doka
20 May, 2026.
When armed men on motorcycles stormed three schools in Oyo State’s Oriire Local Government Area on May 15, 2026, and walked away with at least 46 children and teachers – later beheading a teacher, Michael Oyedokun – the nation was plunged into familiar grief. But for the South-West, this was not a distant tragedy from the North-East or North-West. It was a brutal homecoming of a crisis that political and traditional leaders in the region had long treated as someone else’s burden.
For years, prominent voices from the South-West, including chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), traditional rulers, and activist groups, have pointed accusing fingers at northern governors and the Sultan of Sokoto. The Afenifere Renewal Group has accused the Northern Governors Forum of sacrificing Nigerians in the interest of Fulani herdsmen infiltrating the country. Former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose slammed northern governors for hypocrisy – choosing to dialogue with bandits while demanding the arrest of Sunday Igboho. Some Yoruba commentators have accused the Sultan of Sokoto of being among those masterminding Christian genocide in the North and has blamed him for failure to take concrete action against banditry in the region. The implication has been clear: their leaders are responsible for their violence.
Now that the kidnappers have struck in Oyo, a South-West state governed by Seyi Makinde, the question writes itself: Will President Tinubu and his party now apply the same logic to Southwest governors and the Ooni of Ife?
A President Who Sees Conspiracy, Not Crisis
Before the Oyo abduction, President Bola Tinubu had already signalled how he views the nation's security collapse. On April 30, 2026, in a national broadcast, he declared: My enemies want to use insecurity in the country to get rid of me. But I'm a stubborn politician who refuses to go, and I will campaign for my second term. The president, speaking just a day after obtaining his nomination forms for re-election, did not announce a new military strategy or summon security chiefs for accountability. He framed escalating kidnappings, beheadings, and banditry as a plot by his political opponents.
If the president sees bandits as agents of his enemies, then where does that leave Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State – a vocal opposition leader who has just declared his intention to run for president in 2027? Makinde's PDP has already blamed the Tinubu-led administration for the Oyo abduction, calling it yet another indication of the helplessness that has defined the Tinubu-led APC Federal Government in the management of the nation's security. If Tinubu's enemies are weaponising insecurity against him, and a political opponent like Makinde presides over a state where 46 people are abducted, does the president's logic not demand that Makinde be held accountable – not as a victim, but as a co-conspirator?
The Ooni's Dilemma
And what of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi? The foremost Yoruba monarch has condemned the Oyo abduction, describing it as heartbreaking, disturbing and unacceptable and calling for swift security action and a united national nor regional effort against kidnapping and violent crimes across the country. He has issued statements, convened meetings, and performed his ceremonial duties. But if South-West traditional rulers, including the Ooni, have moral authority to demand accountability from northern leaders, they cannot claim immunity when bandits behead a teacher in their own backyard.
To be clear, there is evidence that the Ooni and other traditional rulers have repeatedly called for action. Oyo monarchs have called on the Federal Government to urgently establish a military base in Oriire, noting that communities in the area have suffered repeated fear and displacement following the latest attack, with many residents abandoning their homes and farmlands over insecurity concerns. The Alaafin of Oyo has urged the government to strengthen native intelligence mechanisms as part of efforts to tackle the growing insecurity. Traditional rulers have warned that banditry, once associated mainly with parts of northern Nigeria, is gradually spreading into the Southwest, thereby creating fear among rural dwellers and threatening agricultural activities.
But the warnings have been issued for years. Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, has accused South-West governors of ignoring his repeated warnings and proposals on regional security, lamenting that for the past two years, they have not replied to him. Adams revealed that in November last year, he specifically mentioned Ondo State, Ekiti State, Osun State and Oyo State as states that had been infiltrated by criminal elements. Yet the governors sat on their hands.
The Accountability That Never Comes
Here is the hard truth that no region can escape: bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists do not carry maps of geopolitical zones. They follow weak governance, porous borders, and profitable targets. The same criminal networks that terrorise Katsina and Zamfara have spread to Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, and Osun. The Gani Adams alerts in November 2024 warned of this infiltration. The ten kidnappings in Ondo within four weeks in March 2026 proved it. And now, the Oyo school abduction has confirmed it beyond doubt.
If the president treats insecurity as a political conspiracy, he will never defeat it. If governors – whether in the North or South-West – treat kidnapping as another region's problem, they will never secure their own states. If traditional rulers issue statements but refuse to demand consequences, their crowns will lose their weight.
The Inescapable Spread
Gradually, no one can escape when things deteriorate. The kidnappers who took 46 souls in Oyo will not ask for a northern governor's apology before they strike again in Lagos or Ibadan. The rot spares no region that pretends it is immune.
So, President Tinubu and the APC face a choice: continue the blame game that has failed Nigeria for a decade, or do the hard work of securing every state, every local government, every school. That means holding all governors – including those in the South-West – accountable for their security architecture. It means funding and reforming police, intelligence, and military responses without regional bias. It means admitting that a beheaded teacher in Oyo is no less a national tragedy than a slaughtered farmer in Borno.
And for the Ooni of Ife and all traditional rulers: your crowns carry the weight of protection, not just ceremony. If you can host world leaders and command media attention, you can also convene security summits, demand actionable intelligence, and name the criminals in your domains – regardless of their ethnicity or religion.
The next time a Southwest leader points north, Nigerians should ask: And what have you done to secure your own home?
Because the kidnappers are not listening to geopolitical blocs. They are listening for silence, for excuses, for the sound of leaders blaming others while the children disappear.
That is the question hanging over Oyo today. And it demands an answer, will the government do the needful or negotiate as usual.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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