It’s a pure scandal the amount of fake and recycled videos currently in circulation in Nigeria, obviously calculated to accentuate the spate of insecurity in the country. Most of the terrifying videos appear to have been created by some characters for both political and commercial reasons and willingly shared by some concerned but ignorant folks.
This seemingly reckless trend has gone into overdrive since the unfortunate but long-foretold invasion and abduction of some pupils, including toddlers, from the Oriire Local Government in the Ogbomoso area of Oyo State and the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren in the Askira Uba LG of Borno State about three weeks ago. Shortly after, a deluge of fake, old and manipulated videos and photographs of other non-existing violence, arrests, and other attempted abductions has surfaced daily, said to have been shot in Ikorodu, Ajah, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun, other remotest areas and even in the kidnappers’ dens in Oyo National Park, Sambisa Forest, and Niger State boundary communities, among others.
Unfortunately, most of our kinsmen hardly know that the major fuel of terrorism is publicity, while propaganda keeps the engine running. The lunatics behind these hell-inspired vices employ these tools, ordinarily reserved for conventional warfare, to drive fear into the hearts of the people and paint the picture of having the upper hand, especially in this era of social media.
It is not for the fun of it that several scholars described modern terrorism as media terrorism, essentially because these two, though not cousins, are intertwined; one drives the other. A former Officer-in-Charge of the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, Alex P. Schmid, said, “Modern terrorism is media terrorism. The media are attracted by extreme terrorist acts not only because it is their duty to report on any major event, but also because the dramatic and spectacular aspect of terrorism fascinates the public. Today’s terrorists exploit this and act in a way which will attract maximum attention around the world.”
The difference between Schmid’s submission and Nigeria’s current scenario is that these deranged minds are not playing drama at all; they are not interested in choreography, nor are they aware of theories couched in beautiful languages, while their attacks are no longer isolated.
These days, the sons from hell brazenly advertise their Libya-imported, Israeli-made weapons and show off ransoms collected from hapless victims on social media platforms, such amounts so small that they would pay workers of the eight local governments in Bayelsa State. After all, Katsina State, a very strange entity in Nigeria, spends much more on terrorism in the name of peace deals and release of bandits, a two-pronged approach that keeps funding the deadly attacks on the citizens of the state and empowering killers to overrun the North-West.
At a time during my days in the newsroom, when Nigerian authorities looked unconcerned as Boko Haram leaders formed terror alliances across the globe – from Mali to Libya, to Syria, Lebanon and Iran – there was a good reporter Boko Haram element could confide in. As the guy narrated this dangerous ‘relationship’ later, the insurgents threatened to stop supplying him with ‘exclusive stories’ because they believed their nefarious activities were not enjoying the kind of publicity they desired.
Over the past few days, there have been a few incidents that suggest that the government at the state and federal levels are hardly aware of the level of complication that has crept into the raging insecurity in the land originally birthed by misplaced priorities and criminal delay in taking actions to tame a threatening monster. Am I deceived that they are not aware? Let us assume for once, abi? Sadly, this trend of aloofness and treating a dislocated hip disc with ‘aboniki’ hasn’t stopped; it has always been.
I hardly take seriously some video clips shared by some characters due to some people’s penchant to create fear and draw illogical generalisations or comparisons, without forgetting the overriding desire of many to generate traffic and make a few dollars rather than helping to lift an already fallen state and its people. In the course of the week, I came across a video clip shared by one D English Alhaji, where a narrator shared an insert of a helicopter which flew into a bandits’ enclave in broad daylight, allegedly supplying arms to scores of excited terrorists in the unnamed location in Borno State. I couldn’t see the ‘official number’ allegedly claimed was on the copter.
He claimed that the terrorists overran a military base in the area just a few days after the supply, in which a high-ranking commander and some hardworking soldiers paid the supreme price because they chose to defend the sovereignty of the nation and protect its terrorised citizens. I got in touch with some people in government who should be able to ask tough questions; not because I expected a response or looking for materials to aid my column. I’m not a YouTuber or an influencer, especially in the mould of a notorious one claiming a dangerous affliction like cancer where none exists.
This scenario raises a critical observation, like D English Alhaji pushed forward, “We don’t know who we are fighting anymore.” Even if one can’t verify the ‘supplies’ supplied by this helicopter, may I ask what the flying bird was looking for in a bush without a helipad and among strange fellows armed to the teeth? If it’s possible to get this video clip by an individual, why is it difficult for the nation’s agencies to work on and curtail frequent bandits’ attacks across the country?
Have we forgotten so suddenly that Governor Nasir Idris told a stunned nation that an unnamed military commander (definitely a terror sympathiser like a notorious Islamic cleric who is obviously above the law) in Kebbi State withdrew troops guarding the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, on Monday, November 17, 2025, about 30 minutes before bandits invaded the school, carting away 25 female students? Human beings o! As of the time of writing this, the identity of this collaborating commander remains unknown, let alone being held accountable for working in cahoots with terrorists. Did I hear you say the Federal Government is seriously fighting terrorism? I hear you!
At a time in Maiduguri, during the former President Jonathan’s era, some soldiers mutinied against a brigade commander. The troops were furious after losing scores of their fighting colleagues as the commander allegedly refused to give the troops orders to fight bandits when the soldiers came under fire in an ambush. You may wonder what the intention of the commander was. Some soldiers are alleging this trend is on the rise again, which has led to recent attacks on military bases in Borno State and the serial killings of scores of gallant soldiers, including high-ranking professionals. Is this not more complicated than ever imagined? If you ask me, na who I go ask?
One recalls that recently, a fellow was arrested in Benin for manipulating the voice of President Bola Tinubu and sharing the clip online. One Very Dark Man equally helped the then faceless character to share it, making him as guilty as the originator. Less than 24 hours ago, the Ogun State Police Command arrested one Johnson Elleh for allegedly producing and circulating a video falsely alleging kidnapping and banditry in some communities in the state that drove embattled parents, residents and schools into commotion.
One Maureen Badejo gained notoriety for several years, sharing false allegations on social media (a United Kingdom court said so) against the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries, Dr Daniel Olukoya. A UK court fined Badejo a princely sum of £100,000 for her reckless acts. A young, jobless Nigerian recently picked up a cheap two-year jail term for sharing patent falsehoods about another person, while a 22-year-old was arrested (but released) in Osogbo for creating and posting a video falsely claiming that bandits had invaded Osun State.
I have taken you through this long route to ask a simple, predictable question. If it is possible to track and arrest defamers, slanderers, purveyors of falsehood and originators of video clips calculated to cause pandemonium in our communities, why is it impossible to track terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and their cousins, the killer herdsmen, causing havoc across the land and flaunting their blood money and weapons on social media platforms, and even creating and operating TikTok accounts? Haba!
Let’s examine the plight of a Yorulani (a combination of Yoruba and Fulani in one body) man, which might betray the complexion of the complication of this anti-terror fight. To avoid falling into the temptation of assumption, Yorulani (my coinage) refers to Fulani born and bred in Yoruba land, excluding the Ilorin area, as a herder. Not that they do not understand or speak Fulfulde/Pulaar, this generation of Fulani does not know any other place except their locality and the environs where they lead their cattle in the area, especially to people’s farms.
Narrating the ordeals of being a Yorulani (in the current scenario) somewhere in one of Oyo boundary towns, a herder said the Yorulani herders had equally become one of the victims of the criminal or killer Fulani herdsmen, the modern-day human traffickers, who have left herding cows to serially hunting and taking captive human beings as a commercial commodity. According to the Yorulani herder, the killer herdsmen, whom he claimed are foreigners, are responsible for rising serial kidnappings in the South-West.
You may like to ask me whose duty it is to police the country’s borders and guard it against the invasion of foreign criminals who are known to collude with locals to perpetrate their evil acts. The refusal of the government to secure the country’s borders for decades, especially with available modern technology, has now turned around to haunt the nation and has continued to cost Nigeria dearly.
In the North, especially, there is “no border” (every pun intended) between Nigeria and the Republic of Niger, Chad and northern Cameroon. Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina and Jigawa states (in the North-West), as well as Yobe and Borno states (North-East), share a 1,608km border with the Republic of Niger. It is equally significant to note that Borno State alone remains the only Nigerian state sharing borders with three countries – the Republic of Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Is this not complicated enough?
Tell me how manual efforts will succeed in policing such a complicated border line, especially when successive administrations, including the current one, have refused to take border security seriously. When Nigeria shut its borders during the immediate past regime, it was business as usual in the North; it only existed on paper and official pronouncements.
The flawed belief that the Fulani in Nigeria and those in its neighbouring countries are dealing Nigeria costly blows beyond imagination. This has made it so easy for terror arrowheads from Sudan, the Sahara Desert and Mali to seek to transform Nigeria into what they have made of Mali, where residents constantly dread living from day to day.
If you are still in doubt that kidnapping has become a lucrative business in this country, just consider the abduction of the younger sister of the immediate past Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, Mrs Olaide John-Paul and her twin sons in Ibadan, and the self-kidnap of a Vice Chairman of a local government area in Ekiti State. These unfortunate and shameful incidents were not carried out by bandits or terrorists, but by locals who have come to believe that hammers will not fall on offenders; that laws are not meant to be enforced to deter potential offenders.
Ekiti politics of aloofness
The outrage that followed the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers from the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State and from the Uba Askira LG of Borno State within 48 hours drowned the abduction of no fewer than 16 worshipers from a church in Eda Oniyo, Ilejemeje LG of Ekiti State, three weeks before the Oyo and Borno incidents. Like it has become customary for the state government, it has kept mute and ignored the incidents as if the lives of the worshipers do not count.
No one says the governorship campaign of Governor Abiodun Oyebamiji, who is seeking a second term, is not important, but must the state characteristically refuse to assist, empathise with locals and take decisive action towards freeing the captured churchgoers even after the poor residents have paid N10 million ransom without securing the release of their loved ones?
A few months back, when some residents of Oke Ako Ekiti in the Ikole LG of the state were abducted, the community had to raise money to free the abductees without the state government lifting a finger. A woman in Irele Ekiti, who was kidnapped around the same time, died in the kidnappers’ den.
Also, when some lunatics kidnapped the manager of a farm in Oke Ako, the young man never returned to the town after securing freedom by divine intervention and the support of his employers. Earlier, a serving officer with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Sunday Ayebulu, was killed by bandits in broad daylight along the Oke Ako–Irele Road by gunmen.
Little wonder that a vice chairman of a local government in the state could arrange a self-kidnap and audaciously demand ransom because she was aware the state government would play the ostrich in the abduction.
To date, the boundary towns of Ekiti State, the food baskets of the state, remain the most terrorised in the South-West. Sadly, the cases are either underreported or not reported at all. How does a state government stand aloof, refusing to stand with its residents in their hours of horror, but counting on them to turn in massive votes during an election?
I do not doubt that Oyebamiji will win his re-election (you can quote me), but the government must stop playing its customary politics of aloofness to avoid winning the election and losing the state to bandits.
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