By Our Correspondent
LAGOS, Nigeria — More than 50 days have passed since a band of armed kidnappers stormed a school in Nigeria’s southwestern Oyo State, dragging a group of schoolchildren and their teachers into the country’s vast, lawless forests.
For nearly two months, the families of the captives have endured an agonizing silence from the federal government. But on Friday, a fresh wave of political outrage erupted across Africa’s most populous nation following revelations that President Bola Tinubu has yet to make a single phone call to the governor of the affected state to offer coordination or condolences.
The revelation came to light after Peter Obi, the prominent opposition leader and former presidential candidate, traveled to Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, alongside the noted political economy professor Pat Utomi. The two-hour solidarity meeting with Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde was intended to assess rescue efforts. Instead, it unearthed what critics are calling a historic display of administrative negligence.
”To my utmost shock, I discovered that Governor Seyi Makinde had not received a single call from President Bola Tinubu,” Mr. Obi said in a scathing assessment of the visit.
“The situation reflects a total lack of capacity and compassion, compounded by glaring insensitivity. It is now an indisputable fact that governance has completely collapsed under this administration.”
The biting critique has intensified pressure on President Tinubu, whose administration is already battling severe economic turbulence and a compounding, multi-front security crisis that appears to be slipping beyond the control of federal forces.
For many Nigerians, the current crisis carries a traumatic sense of déjà vu, evoking memories of the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok by Boko Haram insurgents. That incident sparked the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign and permanently damaged the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan.
At the time, Mr. Jonathan faced fierce international and domestic condemnation for taking more than two weeks to publicly address the Chibok abduction or contact the governor of Borno State. Among the most vocal critics a decade ago was Mr. Tinubu himself, then an influential opposition leader, who led rallies demanding Mr. Jonathan’s immediate resignation over the delay.
Political analysts note the stark irony of the current situation. Under Mr. Tinubu’s tenure, Nigeria has recorded more than 13 separate school kidnappings, a grim metric that highlights how mass abduction has evolved from an ideological weapon used by Islamist terrorists into a lucrative, industrialized enterprise managed by disparate criminal gangs known locally as “bandits.”
”I vividly recall that the current President led a team of vocal critics who called for President Jonathan’s immediate resignation over the incident, citing his delay,” Mr. Obi noted. “That call for immediate resignation should actually be the case in this matter. Today, the President has found it difficult to call the affected state’s chief executive after more than 50 days. This is outrageous.”
The structural friction between Nigeria’s federal government and its 36 states often complicates responses to major security breaches. Under the Nigerian Constitution, policing and military control are strictly centralized under the federal executive in Abuja. State governors, though designated as the “Chief Security Officers” of their respective states, possess no direct command over the police or army units deployed within their borders.
This centralization means that when a mass kidnapping occurs, state governors are entirely dependent on federal authorization to mobilize the heavy hardware, intelligence assets, and tactical teams required for deep-forest rescue operations.
During his visit to Ibadan, Mr. Obi recounted how previous commanders-in-chief, including Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan, maintained active, round-the-clock telephone contact with governors during national emergencies to bridge this bureaucratic divide.
The absence of such communication from the current presidency, critics argue, leaves state governments isolated and functionally abandoned.
Growing Demands for Accountability
As the gridlock continues, the political cost for the administration is mounting. Beyond the immediate trauma inflicted on the families of the abducted Oyo schoolchildren, the federal government’s apparent detachment is shifting public frustration into volatile resentment.
The security crisis is further compounded by a biting economic downturn, marked by soaring inflation and currency instability following recent fiscal reforms. The combination of financial hardship and pervasive fear has left the populace increasingly disillusioned with the political class.
In a direct challenge to the presidency, opposition figures are framing the upcoming electoral cycle as a referendum on basic governance and human empathy. The call for the president to step aside or decline a bid for a second term is gaining traction among a coalition of civil society groups and political opponents.
”Amid such an apparent display of incompetence, the President should either resign or, at the very least, abstain from seeking re-election for the sake of our dear country,” Mr. Obi said, emphasizing that the crisis transcends partisan lines. “This call is patriotic, not political.”
As night fell over Ibadan on Friday, the state government continued to plea for local intelligence, while families held vigils for children who have now spent over seven weeks in the wilderness. In Abuja, the presidential villa remained silent, offering no immediate response to the growing chorus demanding answers—and a phone call.
