Oríire Rescue Operation: The Conversations After

Since the release of the pupils and teachers abducted at Oríire, Oyo State, I have seen what I can only term mass cynicism towards the rescue operation. While distrusting the government is well-placed, given the repeated disappointments and failed promises, downplaying a progressive development such as the rescue is to condition goodness as an alien event in one's Nigerianness. The danger is not in the thrill of political games in which the conversations that enable this belong, but in the fog of ideals towards a better country. When we expect failure, because we have always seen failure, to the point that what works becomes an appearance of failure, it is no gainsay to say that our way of seeing is faulty. This way of seeing will distract us from the better, more consequential concerns.

Rightly so, we ought to ask questions and assess how it happened. But for a moment, it is best that we leave political game play out of it. In the past two days, I have seen such takes as the president being the mastermind of the kidnapping, the kidnapping being fake just because the people in captivity "looked okay". I would not venture to defend the President, I am sure his mouthpieces are at work. I will also not attempt to answer how the terrorists cater for the people they abducted, I am sure the security agents will drill answers out of the ones reportedly arrested. What intrigues me in the entire conversation is the supposed scheme devised by the security forces to redeem the kidnapped individuals. In Yorùbá, there is an adage that explains it better: Apani kìí fẹ́ kí wọn mú idà kọjá ní àtàrí òun.

The idea of tracking down the families and associates of the kidnappers and holding them hostage until they budge is impressive. I find it impressive for three reasons. For one, it allows proper identification of the terrorists (some of whom have been said to be foreigners), thereby allowing a delineation of nationality/race/tribe involved in terrorising Nigerians. It will put to rest generic profiling across ethnoreligious lines while making the actual culprits pay. Another reason is the containment possibility that this tactic opens up — a person of terror now knows that their actions will be answered to by even their family and associates; it stands promising that the wild increase in terror groups may subside. The third one, which is perhaps my favourite, is the wakeup call that this approach serves for families. It is that the approach will impel families to do better at raising more responsible men and women who value the lives of others.

When I read the background stories about the infamous leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, his upbringing had the traces of a troubled childhood with fractured family ties. For quite too long, the Nigerian State has treated terrorists (in all of their guises) as mysterious people. The disillusionment that this approach reinforces should go a long way to serve as a wake up call to all and sundry. Irate youths on the streets, jobless hands, and suspicious folks should no longer be treated as spoilt humans without a lineage to trace. The government should leverage this approach to address key issues in national identity management and citizen databases. Effective as it is this one time, it is an instance of playing the baboon to catch a monkey.

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If a terrorist has completely lost touch with familial ties, who is to say that they will not take innocent lives, even when their family members and associates are taken hostage? Would the government execute a family member if it fails to catch a terrorist who has taken another person's life? To what extent does this approach guarantee fairness or complicity of families and associates hostage?

At best, this approach works for the identification of networks and the concentration of terror groups. In realistic ways, given the large and increasing numbers of terror groups in Nigeria, the government cannot hope to take all of their families, for the enormous scale of provision that this will require. As the conversation on State Policing reaches a new legislative height, the event of this release should serve as an important point for the formulation of operational powers of the Force. It is indeed a light bulb moment for policy making and for a political shift.

The political shift here, hopefully, when it takes root, will not only affect Nigeria in its domestic affairs but also in its foreign affairs. In the past, former Governors and politicians have been pointed at as sponsors of insurgency, with little to nothing achieved to bring them to account. The conversation that this new development starts will necessarily condition political jobbers of terror to weigh their options: be a menace and destroy yourself and your loved ones, or respect the sanctity of human lives. One would also expect that political actors who have long benefited from the country's insecurity will be forced to adopt more humane and issue-based methods.

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When #BringBackOurGirls trended in 2014 and the Christian Genocide narrative took centre stage in late 2025, the overall ambience was accusatory and bitingly political, to say the least. A section of the country was seen as terrorists based on religious and ethnic differences. This invited international actors, who many feared meant no good for the country. This trend can be stopped with more successful security operations like the Oríire rescue. Nigeria needs more successful security operations to prevent a repeat of the past sad events, to correct and to ameliorate where necessary. This will shape things for the country as a safe place for the citizens. It will also reduce divisive identity politics, baseless arguments all of which feed the potency of international conspiracies. Bí ikú ilé ò bá pa ni, tòde ò le pani. When the country fixes itself by its own means, statecraft works, and foreign interference reduces.

For President Tinubu, and even for Governor Seyi Makinde, it is making statecraft work that should matter more than any other agenda. The political developments surrounding the kidnapping at Oríire are essentially the result of their fallout. Governor Makinde's outbursts suggest an interest in political conversations more than in being an effective CSO and President Tinubu's approach to the situation reeks of a performance of supremacy. The political gyrations surrounding the whole situation are what seem to have continued even after the victims are rescued. But we must remind ourselves that the safety of people supersedes political interests. The linking conversations about 2027 ambitions and the current event takes away the gravity of human lives and trivializes Nigerian lives. But Nigerian lives matter, whatever the political climate looks like.