Oriire: Beyond Makinde…

Are Nigerian lives being tossed on altar of politics?

Governor Makinde’s call for an international probe into the Oriire abductions has sparked a political firestorm, with the presidency and Senate accusing him of politicising insecurity even as victims of kidnapping in Kwara and Borno have continued to count months in their abductors’ dens. PHILIP IBITOYE examines the justification in Makinde’s call, the hue and cries the call has generated, and why the real failure may lie in whose captivity gets noticed.

WHEN federal security forces retrieved the 44 students and teachers of schools in Oriire Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State from their captors on Friday, July 10, 2026, Governor Seyi Makinde was quick to lavish praises on the officers involved and thank the commander-in-chief, President Bola Tinubu, for his steadfastness. Going by the accounts of the security agencies, some operatives even paid the supreme sacrifice to ensure that the 44 victims, including a toddler, were reunited with their families.

However, the Oyo governor’s conciliatory tone did not last more than three days. In a broadcast last Monday, July 13, his tone shifted from gratitude to accountability, thus kicking off a political firestorm. He noted that the “circumstances surrounding this incident are sufficiently grave and unusual to warrant independent scrutiny beyond our domestic institutions.” He, therefore, called on the “appropriate international human rights organisations and accountability mechanisms, including those within the United Nations system, to closely examine the facts surrounding this abduction and the circumstances of its resolution.”

Although Makinde’s ask on its own signalled a degree of distrust in domestic institutions, he nonetheless attempted to soften the blow. “Such scrutiny is not intended to undermine our institutions; rather, it is intended to reinforce confidence, that truth be established, and that every person found to bear responsibility, regardless of office, influence, or affiliation, would be held accountable,” he said.

But what could have changed Makinde’s mind to query the whole kidnap saga and demand accoubtablity? Could the individual accounts of the victims, detailing how they were released and what they underwent while in captivity, which somehow sharply contradicted the security narrative be the reason?

Interestingly, there is indeed a huge gap in the accounts of some of the freed victims on how they were eventually granted freedom and what was fed to the public initially by the Federal Government. Could this gap and the need to ensure it is filled for the purpose of posterity be raison detre for Makinde’s action? 

Predictably, this call for international attention did not go down well with the Federal Government and some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who were quick to accuse him of politicising the security incident. President Tinubu’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, questioned the rationale behind the governor’s request, arguing that no security agency would deliberately allow schoolchildren to remain in captivity for 56 days. Onanuga also accused the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) of attempting to weaponise the incident for political purposes.

Similarly, on Tuesday, the Senate adopted a resolution asking Makinde to withdraw his request for an international probe. Adams Oshiomhole, a senator representing Edo North, who introduced the resolution, described the governor’s action as politics taken too far.

But the Oyo State governor is not without his own supporters. Many Nigerians who felt riled by the appalling state of insecurity in the country insisted his call for probity is in order. Besides, they argue that those who are crying foul today were the same individuals who carried placards, roused civil society groups and international community against the government they opposed in a not too distant past in the country’s history.

A retired two-star General, Ishola Williams, did not see anything wrong in Makinde’s action. Speaking on a radio programme, General Williams affirmed that the Oyo State governor’s action is right to speak out on perceived infraction though he may lack the authority to directly call on the UN being the head of a sub-national government.

The ghosts of 2013 and 2014

However, the Oyo governor is hardly the first political leader in the country to seek international probe into domestic affairs. Recallingthe Goodluck Jonathan era when international bodies were often invited to probe national security incidents, Williams said Makinde’s call was neither unprecedented nor inappropriate.

READ ALSO: After 56 days in terrorists’ den: Their commander came smiling and said we were free —Oriire teacher

For example, in April 2013, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) — one of the parties that would later merge to form the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party currently chastising Makinde — called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate killings in Borno State linked to a clash between security agents and Boko Haram insurgents.

In a statement, then ACN’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, argued that the killings “may constitute crimes against humanity which should attract the attention of the International Criminal Court,” and said the federal government under then-President Goodluck Jonathan was “either unwilling or unable to prosecute those involved, going by precedence.”

The ACN, which had President Tinubu as its national leader, blamed Jonathan directly for the killings, accusing him of “failing to distinguish between support for security agencies battling the insurgents in the north and the incitement of the same forces against civilians.”

Equally, Makinde is not alone in hinting that a security incident is engineered by people with “office” and “influence.” In fact, then-President Jonathan was said to have doubted that Boko Haram terrorists abducted over 250 schoolgirls from their hostels in Government Secondary School, Chibok, in the early hours of April 14, 2014.

In a May 2014 interview with Bloomberg TV Africa, former President Olusegun Obasanjo alleged that Jonathan spent 18 days after the abductions questioning whether they happened or were a ploy by his political opponents to unseat him. Similarly, the BringBackOurGirls coalition, which was campaigning for the release of the girls, in a 2016 interview, alleged that Jonathan’s disbelief for 18 days had complicated a timely rescue mission.

But since that time, the shock of school abductions have waned and Nigeria has recorded dozens of them.

On the same day of the Oriire abductions, May 15, 42 school pupils in Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School, Askira Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, were captured and have remained in captivity. Less than two months later, on June 29, terrorists invaded the Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, in Askira/Uba LGA of Borno State, where they kidnapped 36 students who were among candidates writing the National Examinations Council (NECO) examination. They also remain in captivity, leading some observers to suggest that international pressure on the federal government may well be justified.

But beyond politics, is the governor’s call justified?

Political analysts who spoke with Sunday Tribune said yes, although they fault the manner in which Makinde made the call.

Dr Fatima Aliu, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), does not believe Makinde is playing politics, though she faults how he went about it.

A domestic matter, she argued, should ordinarily pass through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before an appeal to an international body, even as she acknowledged that Nigeria’s “bureaucratic bourgeoisie” often delays such responses. “I don’t think what he has done is just playing politics,” she told Sunday Tribune. “We really need to commend him for going the extra mile… if his colleague in Kwara too can emulate what he did.”

However, Mubarak Jamiu, a Political Science lecturer at Kwara State University (KWASU), was less convinced of the governor’s motive. He questioned why Makinde did not seek international involvement while the Oriire victims were still in captivity, rather than after their release. “Why is it that it was after the release of these people from captivity that the governor is now seeking for probe?” he asked.

Jamiu argued that Makinde’s stated goal, of preventing a repeat of the Oriire kidnapping, would be better served by improving domestic security capacity than by probing what has already happened, although he acknowledged that results of a probe could help plug the holes in the state’s security architecture to prevent future attacks.

Williams, who maintained that the governor’s call was justified, said that he expected the Oyo governor to also invite the Amnesty International which he said is well known worldwide “for doing independent and thorough investigation of the sort of situation Oyo State found itself.”

On his part, Bashir Ashura, Deputy Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, took a more forgiving view of the call itself, arguing that demands for independent investigation should not be dismissed on account of who makes them, so long as they are pursued in good faith.

“Calls for an independent or international investigation into insecurity should not be dismissed simply because they come from political leaders,” he said. “Where serious security failures have occurred repeatedly, every legitimate avenue that can help uncover the truth, strengthen accountability and improve the nation’s security response deserves consideration.”

Ashura, however, turned the same standard on his state’s governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, whom he accused of having “turned his back” on Kwarans in captivity and being “only interested in politics.”

The forgotten people of Kwara and Borno?

Sunday Tribune had previously reported how 16 worshippers abducted during a church crusade in Eda Oniyo-Ekiti, Ilejemeje LGA of Ekiti State, secured their release after paying more than ₦25 million, bags of rice, 150 litres of fuel, and other items. It was evident from their physical conditions after they were released that they were badly treated and subjected to harsh living conditions while in captivity.

But while the Eda Oniyo and Oriire abduction victims have now regained their freedom, hundreds of such victims remain in captivity different parts of the country.  On February 3, terrorists invaded Woro community in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State, killing nearly 200 people and abducting 179. The captives, who include pregnant women, nursing mothers and children, remain in captivity 166 days later. The 42 schoolchildren of Mussa have also spent 65 days in captivity, while the Lassa 36 have been without their freedom for 20 days.

The last that was publicly heard of the Woro captors, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect, was a threat to carry out a mass execution if the federal government failed to meet their demands within one week in April. Observers and families of victims say that there is a sense in the communities that the captives have been abandoned by the government.

Both Aliu and Jamiu traced this abandonment to an attention gap. Aliu noted that Kwara is officially classified as North-Central, a designation she said obscures that roughly half its population is Yoruba, leaving Kaiama without a natural media constituency in either the South-West or the core North.

“Nobody is talking about what is happening in Kwara,” she said. “We are very few in Kwara that have this capacity to talk about it on air… People are not coming online to shout about it, to make the government do what is necessary.”

The political scientist contrasted this with Oyo, where families mobilised online from the outset, and said news of the Oriire release left her wondering what would become of the Woro captives. “The day I heard that they released the Oyo abductees, I was like, ah God, what will happen to those abducted in Woro? They also have families too.”

Jamiu made a similar point, noting that social media activity around the Kwara case, including among victims’ own families, had gone quiet since the early weeks, unlike the sustained pressure that trailed Oyo’s case until the students were freed. “The heat coming from social media alone was enough for the government not to be at rest until they get these people out of captivity,” he said of Oyo.

“The issue of Kwara is just disheartening. Up till now, there is no update, everybody has gone silent, including the families of these people in captivity.”

Ashura also told Sunday Tribune that there is a “growing feeling” among many in Kwara that the Woro victims have been “largely forgotten” by the state government. “Every passing day raises difficult questions about the urgency being attached to their rescue,” the PDP deputy spokesperson in the state said.

Similarly, families of the Borno schoolchildren say they feel abandoned. “It is as if our children don’t matter. We have no one to stand for us,” the chairman of the abducted children’s parents, Mr Ishaku Suya, told Daily Trust last Friday.

Suya complained that the Mussa pupils were abducted the same day as the Oyo schoolchildren and teachers, but that the incident in the South got more attention, which according to him may have aided the rescue of the children and teachers.

“I have never seen such attention, zeal, and commitment by our security forces. The president made sure that all the Oyo school children and teachers were rescued unhurt,” he said.

Is politics hurting captives of terror attacks in other states?

This appears to be a difficult question to answer. While many have accused Makinde of politicising insecurity with his comments, some say the governor of Oyo State can be excused for speaking like an opposition. But the two states most affected by the spate of kidnappings in recent months – Kwara and Borno – are led by the APC, President Tinubu’s party. Borno State happens to be the home state of Vice-President Kashim Shettima, while Kwara State is governed by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), a forum largely dominated by the 31 governors of the ruling party. So, some have asked: who is politicising what?

Thus, while some political observers may view Makinde’s call as politicisation, others have stated that the government’s lack of attention to the kidnap victims in Kwara, Borno, Katsina, and Kaduna appears, in itself, to be the real politicisation of insecurity. Some analysts argue that the governors have not been as vocal as Makinde because they are wary of calling attention to negative incidents that may hurt their party months before the 2027 general election.

Jamiu tied the Kwara governor’s low profile to his position as the NGF chairman and his standing within the president’s party, and suggesting a governor in that position may be reluctant to embarrass the federal government the way an opposition governor would not be.

“Are our governors playing politics with our lives? Are they really serious with safeguarding our lives, despite the security votes they get?” he asked. “Out of loyalty, the governor is not mounting pressure. We are not hearing updates.” He noted that Makinde’s persistent public pressure preceded Oyo’s rescue, yet the Kwara governor has not attempted anything similar. For Jamiu, that gap is what makes AbdulRazaq’s silence hard to read as anything but the governor “being loyal at the expense of the lives of these people.”

The implication of this alleged conspiracy of silence is that these governors have placed politics and the interests of their party over the safety of the residents they swore an oath to protect.

The disparity is not only between states, but within Kwara itself. “The people themselves are okay with it. A region that created more awareness on governorship ticket than insecurity? In Kwara, the [Northern] region is the most hit with insecurity, but Kwara South gets more attention because the people place security above politics,” a Kwara resident, who preferred anonymity, told Sunday Tribune.

The remark indicts Kaiama, a town in Kwara North senatorial district, of spending the months since February’s deadly attack and abductions pursuing a different kind of visibility.

In May, Assembly Speaker Yakubu Salihu Danladi, a Kwara North indigene from Baruten LGA, clinched the APC’s 2027 governorship ticket, on the strength of the district’s long-standing case that it has never produced a governor since 1999. That campaign drew sustained mobilisation and public advocacy from Kwara North. The Woro captives, from the same district, have generated comparatively little of either, according to observers.

What the record seems to show is a country that reserves urgency for the captives that make noise. Oyo got a governor not staying silent in the media, a coordinated federal operation, and freedom in 56 days. Kwara got 166 days of silence; Borno’s Mussa pupils, 65. Makinde may yet be accused, fairly or not, of turning a rescue into a campaign pitch. But observers argue the sharper indictment belongs to governors who, whether out of party loyalty, political correctness, or plain convenience, have allowed their people to remain in the custody of terrorists unaccounted for for months.