The blood hasn’t even dried in Kebbi, Zamfara, Kwara, and Kano, and already the country has moved on to the next tragedy. Within just seventy-two hours, a Vice-Principal was killed and twenty-five schoolgirls were abducted in Kebbi. An APC chieftain, Umar Moriki, was murdered in Zamfara, and families were taken. Terrorists also struck in Patigi, Kwara, killing a police officer and a vigilante, while abducting two chiefs.
A serving Brigadier General, M. Uba, was killed by ISWAP, only four years after Brigadier General Dzarma Zirkusu fell in a similar battle in 2021. Two Brigadier Generals, the same month of November, four years apart, in the same war, against the same enemy. Yet Sambisa and the wider terror structure continue to breathe freely. Anyone still claiming that “we are winning this war” is delusional, dishonest, or benefitting from the chaos. This is not success; it is managed failure.
If we set emotions aside, the pattern is impossible to ignore. Schools are no longer safe. From Chibok in 2014 to Dapchi in 2018, to Kankara, Jangebe, and now Maga in Kebbi, the kidnapping of students has become a lucrative business model.
Security personnel are also being hunted. When Brigadier Generals are tracked and killed, it signals that terrorists have intelligence, confidence, and operational capacity. They are not afraid of confronting the state.
Meanwhile, communities are being abandoned. From Shanono in Kano to villages in Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Zamfara, and Niger, people pack their lives into bags and flee ancestral lands. The state has quietly surrendered these territories, and citizens are left to fend for themselves.
This is not governance. It is a slow collapse accompanied by press releases. Even worse, the same political class that fails to protect schoolchildren flies delegations abroad to lobby for convicted politicians. Soldiers die in the bush, while villagers negotiate with bandits for survival.
Nigeria still behaves as though it is at peace. There are campaign posters, political rallies, decamping ceremonies, empty speeches, and endless “reform” rhetoric. Yet parts of the country are active war zones.
This is war, but the political elite treat it as a PR inconvenience. You cannot lose Brigadier Generals and still speak as though this is just “another security challenge.” You cannot witness mass abductions across multiple states in seventy-two hours and still recycle the same hollow assurances.
If terrorists can locate a General, ambush him, and withdraw without being crushed, it means they have insiders, they have audacity, and they do not fear the state. A country that cannot make terrorism a suicidal career choice is not serious.
By Sa’adiyyah Adebisi Hassan
