If the presidency’s account of how 38 kidnapped worshippers in Kwara were released is indeed true, then Nigeria has reached a level of collapse we can no longer sugarcoat. We are not just failing – we are indicting ourselves publicly, without shame, without caution, without even realising the implications.
According to the presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the DSS and the military contacted the bandits and negotiated their release. No ransom was paid (according to him), but communication lines between state security agencies and terrorists were open, functional, and effective.
Let us pause and ask the most basic question:
So all along, Nigerian security agencies had the capability to track, identify and communicate with terrorists – yet mass killings, mass abductions, and mass suffering continue unabated?
This is terrifying.
This is the kind of thing that, in a normal country, would spark a national emergency, parliamentary hearings, resignations, and a complete overhaul of the security architecture. But in Nigeria, it is explained on TV with a smile.
Unintended confession
Instead of reassurance, what Nigerians heard was an admission that:
We can track bandits.
We know their bases.
We know their movements.
We can reach them when we want something urgently.
They will even comply when the state makes a request.
If this is true, then why do we have thousands still in captivity – children, women, commuters, villagers, students – crying for help? Why do bandits operate freely for years, collecting taxes, running parallel governments in some communities, and slaughtering people without consequence?
The admission that breaks the country
Mr Onanuga said government warned the terrorists that if they refused to release the abductees, “kinetic action” might follow.
In other words:
We know where they are, but we choose not to strike – until certain categories of victims force our hand.
This confirms the fear of many Nigerians: We do not have a capability problem; we have a will problem.
And whenever government suddenly finds “the will,” the result is instant: abductees walk free.
What the government does not realise it confessed to
1. That security agencies can communicate with terrorists, meaning these criminals are not hidden, mysterious ghosts.
2. That the state’s inability to end terrorism is not lack of capacity but lack of coordinated political decision.
3. That the lives of the poor, rural, nameless abductees may not trigger the same level of urgency as high-profile cases.
4. That negotiating with terrorists – whether directly or indirectly – has become normalized, despite official denials.
This is beyond embarrassing.
This is dangerous.
This is nation-breaking.
A government that negotiates with bandits is a government that admits it has lost monopoly of violence
The state is supposed to be the only entity permitted to use force. When the same state acknowledges that violent criminals can be reasoned with, pleaded with, “warned,” and persuaded into compliance, it destroys the last fragile thread of national authority.
A victory with long-term consequences
Of course, Nigerians are relieved that the worshippers in Kwara – and pupils in Niger – were rescued unharmed. Any life saved is precious. Peter Obi and others who commended the rescue did what any humane leader should do.
But we cannot pretend that the method is normal.
We cannot celebrate a success that exposes the depth of our security rot.
We cannot continue in a country where terrorists can be dialed like business partners, while citizens are slaughtered like expendable statistics.
We must ask the hard questions now
If the DSS can track bandits, why have they not dismantled the networks?
If the military knows the bases, why are those bases still standing?
If terrorists obey government warnings, why has government not issued a final warning to end banditry altogether?
What differentiates victims who get urgent rescue from those forgotten for months and years?
Nigeria is bleeding from every corner, and every day, public officials keep indicting themselves with careless confessions.
We are running out of excuses. And they are running out of lies.
If indeed this story is real – as told by the presidency – then Nigeria is in deeper trouble than we imagined. Because it means the state can, but won’t. It means the security architecture works selectively. And it means banditry is surviving not because terrorists are too strong – but because government is too weak, too compromised, or too comfortable to end it.
A country that negotiates openly with terrorists has already lost control.
A country where officials confess it on national TV has lost direction.
And a country that accepts this as normal has lost hope.
If this story is true, then Nigeria is finished – kpata kpata.
Okechukwu Nwanguma is Executive Director of Rule of Law Accountability and Advocacy Centre, RULAAC
