We don’t know how many more hostages are still alive among those kidnapped near Ogbomosho a few weeks ago. One teacher, Adesiyan Adegboye, was killed. He was buried in Ogbomosho on Friday, 22 May. It is raining across Nigeria. The soil is wet and slippery, and about 30 children and adults are still in the care of the kidnappers, sleeping in the forest among some of the most dangerous people in the world.
They are citizens of a free and independent Federal Republic of Nigeria. The kidnappers had raided three schools in the Ahoro-Esinle/Yawota axis of Ogbomosho on Friday, 15 May, and captured their victims. Then they killed Adegboye, the mathematics teacher. A few days later, they descended on the old Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Abanla, near Ibadan, and seized two officials. Earlier this month, bandits also attacked the office of the National Park at Oloka village, killing five Forest Guard officers.
In recent months and weeks, bandits and terrorists have left their marks in Kwara, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, and Ogun States. The criminals are testing our resolve and capacity to defend the land of our ancestors. They are testing the ability of President Bola Tinubu to defend the land as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Terrorists who have operated in the North for many years are drawing a line in the sand and daring our leaders to cross it.
Politics is in the air, and the annual Muslim festival, Eid al-Fitr, will be celebrated next week. The kidnappers would soon ask for money, which they expect the grieving families to pay. To show that they mean business, they posted online the killing of Adegboye.
We are dealing with the children of evil. Engineer Oluseyi Makinde, the Governor of Oyo State, would now know the meaning of sleeplessness in dealing with this horror. This is a tragedy that has been foretold many years ago. Let the governors of the South-West states act in unison with the governments of Kogi and Kwara to secure the West. It is not going to work to rely mainly on the efforts of the Nigerian Police and the military. The solution is largely with our people and not with Abuja. We must act.
The police and the military would do their best. But their command centre is in Abuja, far from the theatre of action. To rely mainly on the efforts of the Federal defence system is to delude ourselves and live in a fool’s paradise. We should not wait until they turn Oyo State into another Benue State or Taraba with Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), camps.
Governor Makinde said the Oyo State government has already paid for a patrol plane that would help with security in the state. The impression he gave is that Oyo State is going solo in protecting its citizens against this new kind of security threat. I want to remind His Excellency that Oyo State is part of the South-West and it cannot treat its security issue in isolation.
This is a threat that cannot be confined to a state border. It requires collective action. Geography does not permit any state to act alone. Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos share borders with the Benin Republic. Oyo, Osun, and Ekiti share borders with Kwara State. Ekiti and Ondo share borders with Kogi State. Therefore, no state can quarantine its kidnappers and terrorists and deal with them in isolation. It is impossible.
Indeed, the rain has been beating us for a long time. In October 2000, there was a clash between some Fulani herdsmen and Yoruba farmers in the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State during which some people were killed. Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, the former military dictator, led a delegation of the Arewa Consultative Forum to Governor Lam Adesina in Ibadan, accusing him of aiding the Yoruba, whom he said had an upper hand in the clash with the Fulani. Imagine the flip side of this event: a group of Yoruba farmers going to Sokoto to fight Fulani herdsmen and then the leader of Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, leading a delegation of Yoruba leaders to the governor of Sokoto State, accusing him of bias! That happened to us in the year 2000! The issue was later settled, and the dead were buried. But the problem remains alive.
The late Professor Akin Mabogunje, Nigeria’s pre-eminent geographer, advised then that there were too many unmapped spaces in Nigeria. He said every state government should know who is occupying, or has ownership of, every piece of land within its territory. Baba Mabogunje was very passionate about this, saying it would allow each state to have access to higher internally generated revenue. The governors, including Governor Adesina, have copies of the paper. I don’t know whether anyone has read the paper or taken action about it.
Today, all former elected governors of Oyo State, except our Baba, Kabiyesi Rashidi Ladoja, the Olubadan, are dead. Governor Makinde should consult him. He would know what solutions have been hidden in the files and in the memories of past leaders.
In this modern era of biotech and the internet, how can the government claim it does not have data on who is living on its land? How can there be no database on the army of okada riders, cattle rearers, and sundry merchants of mayhem in Yorubaland? Not all members of these people are involved in crimes, but we need to get the statistics and identify the genuine citizens from those with criminal intent and record. We must not allow some elements to abuse and undermine the traditional hospitality of the Yoruba people. We must not allow these criminals to turn Yorubaland into their theatre of operation.
It is a good thing that all the state governments have embraced the Amotekun regional security initiative. What is necessary now is for the states to create a central command for Amotekun so that information can be shared across borders and, when necessary, operations can be carried out across state boundaries. Criminals do not respect geographical boundaries. We should take steps to be ahead of them.
The problem would not go away unless we make it clear that there will be consequences for kidnapping and violent crimes in Yorubaland. The consequences must be swift, sure, and severe. They may run, they may hide, but they will be hunted to the end of the earth and brought to justice. While Yorubaland should remain welcoming and hospitable to all non-Yoruba, we should make it unambiguous that those who make themselves odious to humanity will be dealt with decisively and without mercy. When they get to God’s Headquarters, they can ask for forgiveness! There are enough resources, especially in the traditional setting, to deal with these criminals hiding among us. It is time for the governors to take collective and immediate action.
