By Dr. James Odaudu

It couldn’t have gotten worse for Nigeria with the dramatic upsurge in insecurity recorded in November 2025, featuring the capture and killing by insurgents of Brigadier-General Mohammed Uba, commander of the military brigade stationed at the hotbed of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-Eastern state of Borno. Hopefully; only.

There were to be further deterioration within the same week when other groups going by the name of bandits – specializing in similar tactics including banditry, abductions for ransom, wanton killings and arson, rape, cattle rustling among other infamous pastimes of terrorism; with the North-West and North-Central as their main operational theatre – raided and abducted hundreds of students including staff members; recording casualties, from boarding schools in the three states of Kebbi, Niger and Nasarawa.

Kwara State followed promptly just the following week. The situation looked so frightening that President Bola Tinubu enacted a nationwide state of emergency by midweek. Within 24 hours of the measure taken by the government, the insurgents responded derisively with more raids and abductions in Niger State, again.

The last few days of November saw the North-Central state of Kogi joining the list of infamy when a pastor with members of the congregation were kidnapped. Kogi State shares border with Kwara State.

Dr. James Odaudu

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