Last month can be described as the most horrific mass abduction crisis in Nigeria. While President Bola Tinubu and his allies in Abuja were probably brainstorming on who makes the list of ambassadorial nominees, terrorists struck in Papiri community, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, abducting 315 students and staff of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools. The Papiri kidnap was the largest single abduction since Nigeria’s mass abduction crisis started in Chibok in 2014.

Four days earlier, the terrorists kidnapped 25 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State. After that, mass abductions occurred in several states such as Kwara, Kogi, and Zamfara, among others.

In all the mass abductions, there have been some successful rescue missions, such as the rescue of 38 worshippers who were kidnapped on November 18, 2025, by a terror group at Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Eruku, Kwara State, and the successful rescue of all the Maga schoolgirls.

However, the successful rescue missions are filled with misgivings. For instance, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, claimed that, “After the incident, the DSS and the military were involved in the rescue effort. They got in contact with the bandits to release the captives unharmed.”. The government made similar claims about the rescue of the Kebbi schoolgirls without paying a dime, but the lies didn’t last for 24 hours before the terrorists released a video boastfully debunking the government’s claim - meaning the government has been negotiating with terrorists all along.

To all Tinubu apologists who have cited collateral damage as an excuse, or asked, “If your family were among the victims, would you have supported the government bombing the terrorists along with their captives?” - they either do not know that there have been successful rescue missions around the world without collateral damage.

For instance, Operation Entebbe or Operation Thunderbolt or Operation Yonatan, the Israeli-led counter-terrorist mission in Uganda in 1976, was a successful one. If 1976 feels too distant, consider October 2020, when U.S. special forces rescued their 27-year-old citizen, Philip Walton, on Nigerian soil without collateral damage. The special forces successfully neutralised his captors in Northern Nigeria. That’s how to deal with criminals.

Toeing the path of negotiating with terrorists, bandits, militias and other criminal gangs is a sign of a weak security system and one of the indicators of a failed state. It indirectly gives legitimacy to terror acts. No wonder these criminal gangs continue to spread their camps across Nigeria. In Zamfara, for instance, reports indicate that the state houses more than 30 bandit groups, each comprising between 40 and 2,000 members. That is how terrible it becomes when government negotiates with criminals. They will continue to spread their nets if government continues to encourage negotiation.

Although insecurity began long before Tinubu came to power, that is not an excuse. He knew the country he promised to lead faces multifaceted problems, which he not only vowed to solve, but also swore, under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), to protect all lives and property. Negotiating with criminals is not the way to protect lives or end insecurity.

The government has persistently talked about a non-kinetic way of ending insecurity and insurgency. I don’t know what that really means or what results the government has achieved with such a model. For instance, in Borno and Yobe, where the government’s deradicalisation programme has been in effect for years, insurgency has not been quenched. Rather, there are media reports that some “repentant” terrorists, who were accepted back into society, now serve as foot soldiers and informants for die-hard ideological radicals in forests across the Northeast.

From all indications, deradicalisation has failed, if terrorists now use drone to attack Army bases in Borno State, according to Governor Babagan Zulum in Octover 2025. Negotiating with terror groups not only gives them legitimacy and makes Nigerian soil a breeding space for terrorism; it may also give birth to more criminal gangs in other parts of the country.

As former President Olusegun Obasanjo advised at the Plateau State Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival in Jos, “Nigerians have the right to seek help elsewhere if their government has failed them.”

Even though there has been progress in collaboration between Nigeria and the United States in eliminating terrorists, especially in Borno, Nigeria under Tinubu cannot solely rely on the Donald Trump-led government to solve insecurity. Will U.S.-led operations in Borno end insecurity in Kwara or Kogi when the government continues to pamper terrorists through its failed non-kinetic model?

Negotiating with criminals is a sign of weakness. It emboldens criminality. It gives birth to more criminal gangs. It is like postponing the evil day. For instance, in Zamfara communities such as Maradun and Anka, where terror groups like Lakurawa and Mahmuda operate, residents report that when ransoms are paid, the criminal gangs return a few days later to carry out another kidnap — and resistance is met with deadly consequences.

While the government continues to seek help from countries that know how to deal with terrorists, it must also review its security architecture and the welfare of soldiers at the battleground. Security votes must be audited to unravel the circumstances behind several claims by soldiers on the frontline that they do not have sufficient and sophisticated weapons compared to those in the hands of terrorists.

Nigeria is burning under your watch, Mr President. Terrorists are carving out territories within Nigerian soil and imposing taxes on local residents. It’s time to eliminate them. The time to act is now. Postponing the evil day may lead to Nigeria being overrun by terror groups.