There has been a very alarming surge in Terrorist attacks and kidnapping of School children in Nigeria, the world’s most populous African Nation in the past few months. And to think that the Government of Nigeria is unable to quell these happening is very questionable. This is not including the many killings going on in churches and other gathering across the Country. From the North of Nigeria, to now south it has just been one chaos after another. So it is either that the Government is unable to act …. Or to play devil’s advocate…(The elephant in the room – could they be complacent in this ?)
Nigeria’s military arsenal is the 3rd most powerful in Africa and ranks 33rd globally. It comprises over 230,000 active personnel divided across three primary branches: the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy, and the Nigerian Air Force
Nigerian Army (Land & Ground Forces) Armored Vehicles & Tanks: The Nigerian Army operates over 2,000 armored vehicles, including roughly 376 main battle tanks (such as the Vickers MBT and T-72) and a mix of Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs).
The Nigerian Army inventory features over 400 artillery units, including towed artillery, self-propelled guns, and rocket projectors.
Nigerian Air Force (Aviation & Aerial Assets) Fleet Size: The Nigerian Air Force fields around 142 active aircraft, consisting of combat jets, transport, and training aircraft. This includes Chinese Chengdu F-7s, Dassault /Dornier Alpha Jets, and the modern A-29 Super Tucano for close air support and counter-insurgency operations. Not forgetting, Helicopters & Drones; The Nigerian Helicopter and Drone arsenal features Mi-35M and Mi-24 attack helicopters, along with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like the locally assembled and imported strike drones.
Now to the Nigerian Navy. The Nigerian Navy is recognized as the strongest navy in Africa, its fleet consists of over 70 warships (including frigates and corvettes like the NNS Aradu), Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), and fast attack craft. The Nigerian Navy utilizes the Falcon Eye system, unmanned aerial drones, and long-range helicopters for maritime domain awareness and anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Guinea.
So then upon all these, why then are these kidnappings, abductions and killings going on and worse still increasing alarmingly almost every other month.
Or is it globally renowned Diplomats that Nigeria does not have?
Nigerian Diplomats who can mediate in this matter to bring about a more amicable resolution and solution to this crisis?
Here are Personal accounts from Mothers of the Kidnapped Children and Victims
It was mid-morning when Aduke Balogun noticed a masked man in military fatigues walking towards her children’s school. Minutes later, gunfire erupted, more gunmen appeared and residents fled.
In the chaos, her six-year-old daughter Feranmi managed to escape but another daughter, eight-year-old Kausarat, was not so lucky – one of more than 30 students and a teacher seized and spirited into the bush near Yawota, a town in southwest Nigeria’s Oyo state.
Videos of kidnapped children are circulating but Balogun cannot bear to watch and it is unclear if they are from her children’s Baptist Nursery and Primary School.
“Every day, I pray and hope for their safe return,” she told Reuters as she manned a stall selling soft drinks, bread and biscuits across the road from the school.
The May 15 raid – and simultaneous attacks on two other nearby schools – have jolted a region long seen as relatively safe compared to more unstable regions further north, fuelling fears that kidnapping-for-ransom gangs are expanding their operations far beyond traditional hotspots.
Widespread kidnappings and the ever-expanding presence of armed groups across Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country – are likely to be key issues in the run-up to Nigeria’s next national elections in January.
“The Oyo abductions mark a dangerous escalation from a crisis once largely confined to Nigeria’s north and Middle Belt into the southwest,” said Cheta Nwanze, partner at security consultancy SBM Intelligence. “As the 2027 elections approach, Nigerians will judge politicians primarily on whether they can keep classrooms and communities safe.”
One of the teachers who was trying to escape was also shot.
Nigeria’s government has struggled for years to tackle insecurity, ranging from herder-farmer conflicts across its centre to the mix of bandits, Islamist militants and community defence militia that operate across northern states.
Amid the violence, armed groups frequently kidnap motorists, clerics and schoolchildren, holding them until ransom payments are made. SBM Intelligence said kidnappers collected at least 2.57 billion naira ($1.89 million) in ransom payments in Nigeria in the year to June 2025.
Two weeks after the Yawota kidnappings, schoolbags, books, food flasks, water bottles and children’s footwear lay scattered across classroom floors at the Baptist Nursery and Primary School. A police patrol van was parked outside, with armed officers keeping watch under a fig tree.
At the LA Primary School, 5 km (3 miles) from where Balogun’s child was seized, one teacher was shot dead as he tried to escape through a classroom window during another attack, said Lamidi Waheed, a teacher in the school.
In the third raid, another six teachers and seven students were kidnapped from the nearby Community High School in Ahoro-Esinele, Waheed added.
Days later, a video circulated online apparently showing gunmen beheading a teacher seized in this attack.
Fearing the insecurity and lacking mobile phone networks to call for help, many who live in farming communities in Oyo’s Oriire district, about 300 km northeast of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, have fled, local chief Tajudeen Abioye said.
So our questions again, ‘why is the Nigerian Government is so unable to solve this problem after all these years…?’ Or are they complacent?
The Answers, my dear follow Africans… is blowing in the wind.
We wish all the kidnapped Nigerians a safe return home..as we always remember them in our prayers…
Additional Source: Reuters
