Mr President, Nigeria Needs Unity Now More Than Ever

Terrorism is really a test of whether a country stays together or falls apart. The people who kill teachers believe Nigeria will fall apart. They think we will turn on each other and see our neighbors as enemies while they continue their attacks. Every politician who uses the pain of kidnapped children for their gain is betting on this too.

The terrorists want people to feel that the government cannot protect them. The blame game in Abuja supports their claims.

Last month, a mathematics teacher named Michael Oyedokun went to work in Oyo State and never came back home. Armed men attacked three schools in Oriire local government area. They took many pupils and teachers hostage and killed him. Just days before that, in Katsina, bandits ambushed Rabe Abubakar, a retired Major General. They took him and his wife at gunpoint on a busy road. In Ekiti State, sixteen worshippers, including two young boys, have been in a kidnapper's camp for over a month. They paid a ransom, but the kidnappers want more.

This is Nigeria in mid-2026. After the Oyo abduction, what did our leaders offer to the grieving families? Not unity, but blame.

I have spent my career looking into terrorism and national security. I want to say clearly what this violence aims to achieve. Boko Haram and ISIS affiliates in Nigeria are not fighting a typical war. Instead, they want to create a false image. Their goal is to convince everyday Nigerians that the government cannot protect them. They want people to think the soldiers and police are powerless, and that the government in Abuja is just watching their suffering. Every beheading shared online, every General taken in daylight, and every empty classroom sends a message not to the battlefield but to the minds of the nation.

On that battlefield, Nigeria is losing. This is not because our troops are failing. Our soldiers are dying in numbers the public does not see, and they deserve better than the belief that their sacrifices are pointless. We are losing because we have lost control of the story, and we have done it to ourselves.

Think about the response to the Oyo State incident. Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of Ekiti State, went on TV and said the Oyo State government planned the abduction to embarrass President Bola Tinubu. He offered no proof. He even said he might be wrong. But the damage from such a statement is not about proving it right or wrong. It teaches a scared nation that murdered teachers and kidnapped children are not a shared grief but a tool to attack a rival. When a public figure says this, they are not just targeting the opposition. They are doing the terrorists’ work for them.

Sun Tzu taught that victory comes from finding the chance hidden in a problem. He said good leadership needs five qualities: intelligence, trustworthiness, kindness, courage, and firmness. Right now, that firmness is missing. A president who allows the politicization of dead teachers by people close to him is not being generous. He is being weak when the nation needs strength.

The blame is not just on one person or one party. Everyone is pointing fingers while the captives remain in the forest. It is worrying that even Nyesom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory minister, had to say that insecurity should not become a political issue. When we need to hear that, it shows how deep the problem is.

I understand what unifying leadership can do because it changed my life. After September 11, 2001, an American president stood in the wreckage and brought a nation and much of the world together for one cause. I was one of many who got interested in homeland security and defense work. Regardless of what followed, that act of unifying was real, and it was a choice made. That same choice is in President Tinubu’s hands today, and it seems he is not making it.

Nigeria has watched this threat grow for fifteen years. It started in the North-East. At first, it was contained there, even pushed back with a mix of force and talks. Now, it is everywhere. The South-West, once thought safe, now buries its teachers. The South-East lives in fear of gunmen. Kidnapping and banditry have become a national problem that empties farms, closes roads, and scares parents from sending kids to school. A danger once local has become national. The longer we think it is someone else’s issue, the bigger it grows.

So what should the President do? Four things, and they cannot wait.

First, he needs to stop the blame game within his own party. A quiet chat won’t cut it. The country must see that turning this bloodshed into a political tool has consequences, no matter who does it.

President Tinubu still has the chance that Sun Tzu talked about, the one hidden in this disaster. He can become the leader who brings Nigerians together against a common enemy, or he can oversee the proof that the enemy knows us better than we know ourselves. Technology will not save us. A united Nigeria might. The choice is yours, Mr President, and time is running out.

Second, he must combine force with accountability. When hundreds are taken, and not one person is arrested or punished, it sends a message that Nigeria is open for business for criminals. Impunity is a way to recruit new gang members.

Third, he must create a plan that is more than just technology. We hear that drones and cameras will save us. They won’t. The key issue is public trust, which is built by protecting people and telling them the truth, not just by buying equipment.

Fourth, he must stop acting like 2027 is the only goal. If the country falls apart, there will be no election worth winning.

Terrorism is really a test of whether a country stays together or falls apart. The people who kill teachers think Nigeria will fall apart. They believe we will turn on each other and see our neighbors as enemies while they keep attacking. Every politician who uses the suffering of kidnapped children is betting on this.

President Tinubu still has the chance that Sun Tzu described, the one hidden in this disaster. He can become the leader who unites Nigerians against a common enemy, or he can oversee the proof that the enemy knows us better than we know ourselves. Technology will not save us. A united Nigeria might. The choice is yours, Mr President, and time is very short.