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Nearly three weeks after gunmen seized 42 students from a school in Askira Uba, residents of Borno State are accusing the national government of ignoring their plight while mounting a high-profile response to a similar kidnapping in southwestern Oyo State.
Abubakar Suleiman, chairman of the Network of Civil Society Organisations in Borno, said the disparity in national government attention is impossible to ignore.
“The federal government visited Oyo State with a high-powered delegation, including the national security adviser, minister of defence, chief of staff to the president, among others, with a helicopter and landed at the local government where the abduction took place,” Suleiman told Punch on Monday.
“In the case of Borno, around 416 people were kidnapped in Ngoshe on the 3rd of May. There has not been any federal government intervention. We also had another incident on the 16 of May; 42 students were kidnapped in Askira Uba. There was no federal government delegation. This doesn’t demonstrate that the federal government is treating victims equally.”
Political analyst Abubakar Kareto noted that both mass abductions occurred on May 15, yet the government’s reactions could not be more different.
“Both abductions of the 42 pupils from the Mussa community in Askira Uba, Borno State, taken by Boko Haram insurgents, and the Oriire in Oyo State, where 46 students and teachers were taken, are heartbreaking reminders that rural schools remain highly vulnerable soft targets and are exposing how unsafe it is to send kids to school in Nigeria,” Kareto said
“The Oyo State attack also occurred on the very day that of Askira Uba. While the government launched a rapid, high-profile response to the Oyo incident, including a federal visit led by the Chief of Staff and accompanied by the National Security Adviser, which also followed with a decision to immediately deploy 1,000 forest guards, the Borno abduction has mostly received standard rhetorical condemnations with no visible energy that can be compared in any way to the Oyo State incident.”
He warned that such an uneven approach will create unease among the neglected communities and clearly signal a tiered security priority.
“Therefore, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the military high command should deploy the exact intensity of kinetic and intelligence resources to safely rescue the Askira Uba children. This will make everyone, not only the victim, feel belonged.” he stated.
Samaila Kaigama, president of the Borno South Youths Alliance Forum, also criticised the state government’s response, contrasting it with Governor Seyi Makinde’s engagement in Oyo.
“Governor Zulum, where are our 40-plus Askira Uba children? Is Governor Makinde of Oyo State doing something you ought to have done to get federal intervention?” Kaigama asked.
He noted that the only visible effort from Borno authorities so far has been the presentation of ₦10 million to traditional rulers.
“The people are asking: for what exactly? Is it compensation for the pain and suffering the affected families are going through?” he said.
Kaigama also accused the state government of being swift to deploy military force against protesters while moving slowly on the abduction.
“Let the world know and remember: no life is better than another, and no zone in Nigeria is more important than another,” he said.
