Last Saturday was supposed to be a day of triumph for Governor Seyi Makinde. The hall in Ibadan was filled with party colours and political symbolism. Delegates rose to their feet. A new political movement announced itself. The Allied Peoples’ Movement handed its presidential flag to the governor of Oyo State and presented him as its standard-bearer for Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.
It should have been a day of celebration. Instead, it was a day of solemnity. As Makinde mounted the podium to accept his party’s nomination and unveil his “reset Nigeria” agenda, his face showed what some homes feel currently. Somewhere in the forests and hideouts of terrorists, nursery and primary school pupils remained in captivity. Their teachers were still missing. Families waited in anguish. Mothers could not sleep. Fathers counted the hours.
In his acceptance speech, Makinde acknowledged the tragedy. The governor submitted that what should have been a joyous occasion had been overshadowed by the worsening security situation in his state and across Nigeria. “This should have been a moment for celebration,” he said. “But the recent security situation here in Oyo State has turned this into a moment for deep introspection and reflection.”
The governor’s words captured the mood of contemporary Nigeria. This is a country where weddings are interrupted by kidnappers. Farmers cultivate fear alongside their crops. Travellers set out on journeys, uncertain whether they will arrive. Schoolchildren who should be learning multiplication tables and nursery rhymes now haunt their parents’ nightmares. Even burials get complicated with more deaths from the bullets of invaders. Nigeria is a nation increasingly compelled to celebrate with one eye on tragedy.
Makinde’s speech was, therefore, more than a campaign address. It was also a diagnosis of a country in distress. He spoke of hunger. He spoke of insecurity. He spoke of rising transportation costs. He spoke of citizens weighed down by uncertainty.
“Our nation is hurting,” he said.
What he said is difficult to dispute. Across the country, there is a growing feeling that Nigeria has become trapped between immense promise and persistent disappointment. The nation possesses abundant human and natural resources, yet millions struggle daily with the basic requirements of life. Citizens who once dreamed of prosperity now often settle for survival.
Hence, the appeal of Makinde’s central message, ‘Nigeria must reset’, is apt, timely and appropriate.
The governor argued that old methods of governance can no longer solve new problems. He called for competence, accountability, courage and compassion. He promised reforms in security, petroleum pricing, transportation and food production.
Whether Nigerians agree with his prescriptions or not, the diagnosis resonates because the symptoms are visible everywhere.
Yet the most compelling part of his speech was not the promise of economic reform or the restructuring of state institutions.
It was the admission of helplessness.
Makinde lamented that governors were called chief security officers of their states while lacking direct constitutional authority over the security agencies expected to combat insecurity.
The complaint is not new. For over 20 years now, governors across political parties have made it repeatedly. But it carries special significance in moments of crisis. What is the meaning of responsibility without authority? How does a governor answer grieving parents when he lacks direct command over the institutions responsible for rescuing their children? These questions became painfully real only hours later when Makinde travelled to Ahoro-Esiele community in Oriire Local Government Area. There, what pervaded the air was sorrow. Only sorrow.
At the open field of L.A. Basic School, the governor met families whose lives had been shattered by the abduction of pupils and teachers. The families he met were interested in only one thing: the safe return of their loved ones. A grandmother stood before the governor carrying a burden no elderly woman should bear. Mrs Funmilayo Ojo told him that four of her grandchildren and her son’s wife were among those abducted. Imagine that grief.
Imagine the silence in that home. Imagine the empty beds. Imagine the unanswered questions.
Makinde’s message to the community was careful and restrained. “This is not the time to trade blame,” he said. Those words were important. Nigeria’s insecurity crisis has become fertile ground for political point-scoring. Every tragedy quickly degenerates into partisan arguments. Governments blame predecessors. Opponents blame incumbents. Citizens are trapped between accusation and counteraccusation. Meanwhile, victims remain victims.
The governor insisted that rescue efforts required unity rather than recrimination. He disclosed that he and security commanders had been meeting twice daily, sometimes late into the night, coordinating efforts to secure the release of the abductees.
“I have not been sleeping well myself,” he told the community.
“I understand the pain and anxiety that many of you are experiencing at this moment. As your government, we share your concerns, and we are fully committed to securing the safe return of our children and their teachers,” he stated.
Makinde explained that the abductors were dangerous and unpredictable, making it impossible to disclose certain operational details without jeopardising the rescue mission.
“The people we are dealing with are dangerous and unpredictable. Because this is an ongoing security operation, there are certain details I cannot disclose. However, I want to assure you that every available resource is being deployed to secure the release of the victims,” he said.
He stressed that while some people might feel authorities were not doing enough, security agencies were carefully handling the situation to avoid putting innocent lives at risk.
That statement was a reassurance that the people have a leadership that cares. Leadership, at its most serious level, is often an exercise in carrying burdens that refuse to disappear.
The governor’s challenge illustrates a larger national dilemma. Nigeria today faces an insecurity crisis that increasingly defies familiar categories. For years, the country became accustomed to reports of school abductions involving secondary school students. Terrible as those incidents were, they gradually entered public consciousness as recurring features of national life. But nursery and primary school pupils? That strikes a deeper nerve.
“There is nowhere in Nigeria where we have seen this sort of situation where nursery primary school pupils are kidnapped,” Makinde observed. The statement reflected a society crossing yet another painful threshold.
Each generation of Nigerians seems condemned to witness a fresh escalation of the unimaginable. What once shocked us becomes normal. What once seemed impossible becomes routine. That process of adaptation may be among the greatest dangers confronting the nation. When insecurity becomes ordinary, society begins to lose not only its safety but also its moral sensitivity.
The crying grandmother in Ahoro-Esiele reminds us that this must never happen.
Her tears should remain unacceptable. The captivity of children should remain intolerable. The nation must never become comfortable with either.
And that is perhaps where the two events of Saturday intersect. Makinde’s presidential ambition and the suffering of the abducted children’s families are connected by a common question: what kind of Nigeria should exist?
The answer is embedded in Makinde’s call for a national reset.
Whether he eventually occupies the Presidential Villa is a matter for God, the future and for voters to decide. But he has done very well with his current mandate.
- Mohammed Aina writes from Moniya, Ibadan, Oyo State
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