Two Nigerias showed up this weekend.
In one, APC politicians screamed over rigged primaries and fought for 2027 tickets. Delegates traded insults. Aspirants cried manipulation. The 2027 war has started.
In the other Nigeria, children and teachers fought for their lives.
Between 8am and 9am on Thursday, gunmen stormed schools in Oyo State’s Oriire Local Government Area. They dragged teachers into the bush. Michael Oyedokun, one of them, was reportedly beheaded when the ransom failed. Another staff member was killed on the spot. Videos now show a woman with a baby on her back in captivity.
That is the contrast. Politicians are counting delegates. Terrorists are counting hostages.
And Oyo wasn’t alone.
Borno bled too. In Mussa village, Askira-Uba Local Government Area, parents are still counting. At least 51 children are missing after terrorists hit the community. Most of them toddlers. Lower primary pupils. Kids who should be learning the ABCs, not survival. That’s not an attack on a village. That’s an attack on Nigeria’s future.
Katsina joined the horror roll. Sunday, 4 pm. Bandits walked into Gidan Wawu and Gidan Sarkin Noma in Bakori LGA. They left 11 dead. A local security man. A pregnant woman. Farmers coming back from the Guga market. They went to buy food. They came back in body bags.
Then Yobe delivered the insult. Gunmen hit the Nigerian Army Special Forces School in Buni Yadi at 1:15 am. They killed at least 17 police officers training to fight terror. Soldiers died too. Read that again: men sent to learn how to kill terrorists were killed by terrorists. In a military school. If the barracks aren’t safe, what street is?
Then came the “victory”. Authorities announced a joint US-Nigeria strike killed Abu Bilal al Minuki. ISIS’s global second-in-command, they said. Big press. Big win. Counter-terrorism is working, they insisted.
Except it isn’t the first time. Same name. Same rank. Same victory lap. Nigerian military reports in 2024 said Abu Bilal al Minuki was killed in the Kaduna forests. The Presidency later called it “mistaken identity”. Defence HQ blamed aliases. So, who died then? Who died now? Or did nobody die, and the terrorists are just laughing?
This is the crisis. When you can’t verify your enemies, you can’t protect your people. When governors start negotiating with kidnappers to free schoolchildren, the state isn’t governing. It’s bargaining.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State admitted it: “We are ready to listen to the demands of the abductors.” Seven students. Eighteen pupils. Seven teachers. One has already been beheaded. That’s not a security strategy. That’s surrender.
This is normal now. That’s the danger. Kidnap. Kill. Negotiate. Repeat. Governors bargain with bandits. Parents calculate ransom. Communities form vigilantes because Abuja isn’t coming. We’re not fighting insecurity anymore. We’re managing it.
Look at the feed. Every day, new blood. New videos. New names. SBM Intelligence and ACLED can’t even keep count. Thousands abducted. Ransom payments have crossed billions of naira, funding the next round of guns. Schools empty. Farms abandoned. Highways cursed. And we scroll past like it’s weather.
The cruellest part? Schools used to mean safety. Now they mean target practice. Chibok. Kankara. Jangebe. Kuriga. It was a “Northern problem”. Not anymore. Oyo proved that. Terror doesn’t respect the Niger. Once classrooms become killing fields, you’re not losing a security war. You’re losing the country. UNICEF says insecurity has pushed Nigeria’s out-of-school figure past 18 million. Children who grow up in fear don’t learn. Teachers who fear abduction don’t teach. Parents are pulling kids out, and the classroom is dying.
So here’s the question 2027 can’t answer: what’s the point of elections if citizens can’t stay alive? Democracy without security is a joke. Ballots don’t protect you from bullets. Voter cards don’t stop abductions. Fear empties polling units faster than INEC ever could. We saw it in 2023. Insecurity disrupted voting in parts of Borno, Zamfara, and Imo. Whole communities stayed home. Turnout collapsed where guns spoke loudest. You want 2027 to be different? Fix this first.
Yet look at the response. Press statements. Condolence tweets. Troops “deployed.” Same script after every massacre. Why do terrorists still walk into schools at 8 a.m.? Why do they sack military bases at 1 a.m.? Why is intelligence always late, and outrage always early? Because we’re reacting, not preventing. Because Abuja plays politics while the provinces bleed.
Nigeria cannot do both. You can’t normalise terror and expect to sustain democracy. You can’t trade classrooms for campaign posters and call it progress. The elite think they’re safe. They aren’t. Violence spreads. It always does. So, to every party plotting for 2027: put down the delegate lists. Pick up a security plan. Secure the schools. Secure the farms. Secure the barracks. Or don’t bother. Because if you win an election in a graveyard, you’re not president. You’re an undertaker.
