Andy Ezeani
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Nigeria’s terrorism conundrums under the presidency of Bola Tinubu are getting steeper by the day. The governments, at the centre and of the component states, appear anything but in control. Their words sound increasingly hollow now, offering nary comfort to terrified citizens. This, surely, is no way for a sovereign state to live.
Last week, Tuesday, June 9,2026, under the title, ‘What is a general worth?’, this column discussed the intensified assault on Nigerians by terrorists and sundry bandits.
Of particular concern in that discourse was the frequent humiliation of the Nigerian military by bandits.One of the most prominent and recent of this was the abduction in Katsina on May 30,2026 of former Director of Defence Headquarters Information, General Rabe Abubakar and his wife.
Although cases of kidnapping, sacking of communities and subjection of innocent Nigerians to unimaginable violence by bandits have become the sad story of Nigerians in recent times, General Abubakar’s matter obviously caught attention for what it represented and who he was.
As it turned out, kidnapping General Abubakar was not enough for the criminals.They took manifest steps to further besmirch the authority of the government, acting in a manner that showed them to have neither restraint nor respect for the land.
While he was in captivity with his wife, General Abubakar was compelled, obviously, to make a public plea to the government to negotiate with the bandits, to spare his life and that of his wife. The image was saddening.
Sometime around late Friday, June 12,2026, General Rabe Abubakar died in captivity. The bandits, responding to the development with an interesting sense of respect for culture, promptly informed the Katsina State government about the death of their VIP captive. Pronto, the government of Katsina state, issued a statement, relaying the death of the General to the public.
What the Katsina State government statement said about the death of General Abubakar turned out, unfortunately, to aggravate the tragedy of the incident. The statement signed by Dr. Nasiru Mu’azu, the Commissioner of the Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, informed the public that the “The deceased Retired General died a natural death from complications of diabetes and hypertension”.
The statement also informed that the State Governor (the supposed chief security officer of the state) “extended his deepest condolences to the family of the late General and the country at large”
On Saturday, June 13,2026, the day after General Rabe Abubakar died, the bandits who held him captive unto death, delivered his body to some persons in Katsina and returned to their base in the Matazu forest, seamlessly. No friction. No challenge. No exchange of hostility. The remains of the General were simply brought back by those who abducted him and presided over his death. And that was that.
General Abubakar was buried late the same Saturday, June 13,2026 at Gidan Dawa cemetery in Katsina. The burial was reportedly attended by the deputy governor of Katsina State, Faruq Lawal-Jobe, commander of the 17 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Kaduna, senior government officials and traditional rulers.
Following the death of General Abubakar and the return of his body by the bandits, President Tinubu issued a statement in which he mourned the dead General and declared that, “While the terrorists have done their worst, they should know that the government will never bow to their demand to release their members held by our security agencies”.
Taken together with his speech on June 12, 2026, in which the Commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces called on “Bandits, kidnappers and sponsors of terror (to) surrender or face the full force of the Nigerian state”, as “No mercy will be shown to those who trade in the blood of Nigerians”, it is clear, strangely so, that President Tinubu does not yet appreciate the enormity of the challenge at hand.
Extending an unending benefit of the doubt to terrorists to repent or… is not a hallmark of decisive leadership by any means. The matter has gone beyond flowery speeches. The resort to poetry by the Tinubu presidency in response to a danger that is fast consuming the country is, at best, awkward.
What exactly is the meaning of the call on killers and terrorists “to surrender or face the full force of the Nigerian state”? Where is this full force of the Nigerian state that can not be activated until Nigerians are decimated? What is the value of a might that will not be invoked while generals of the Nigerian Army are being kidnapped and killed, and villages and town are been sacked and burnt down, and schools are being attacked from Oyo to Borno, with students and teachers herded into the forest? Bandits and terrorists must find Tinubu’s speeches very entertaining. To them, those are mere huff.
If the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces has the last bomb for the terrorists and bandits, let him throw it without further delay. The situation is dire. Not to take any decisive action with manifest impact up till this point, including the harshest response technology can offer, is to confirm a total lack of capacity to act.
Back to poor General Rabe Abubakar. The circumstances of his death have further highlighted the reign of cant and the calamity of governance in Nigeria, presently. How does anyone explain the inexplicable role of Katsina state government in the plight of one of the prominent sons of the state?
First, the State government declared that General Abubakar died a natural death of diabetes complications while in captivity. There was no indication that any doctor was near him in captivity to confirm the cause of his death.
Now, Ishaka Rabe Abubakar, son of the deceased General, has pointedly said that his father was never diabetic. So, what was the basis for the Kaduna State government’s declaration of his natural death in captivity?
The family of the general also says they do not even know how his body was brought home. Who received it from the bandit- kidnappers and under what agreement?
Finally, and no less shockingly, Ishaka Abubakar confirmed that their mother, kidnapped alongside their father, is still being held in captivity by the kidnappers, contrary to the impression that she has been released. So, what is going on in Katsina State? Who is on the side of the bandits?
If it is possible for President Tinubu to brace up, he should do so. His government needs to up their ante in the fight against terrorism. Every possible measure, including hiring mercenaries, as some have suggested, should be explored. Nigerians are going through horror. At the moment, the Tinubu government has not proved to be up to the challenge of protecting citizens in their own land.
