“The selective amnesia that characterises public stewardship… is a national threat. When we erase the past to soothe the present, we mortgage the future.”
When Chibok happened, it was the fault of President Jonathan. Hashtags crossed oceans. CNN ran it. The world was asked, “Bring Back Our Girls.” The presidency was put on trial in real time.
But when Oyo State happened, the narrative shrank. Suddenly it was “the irresponsibility of the state governor and the state government.” The burden moved from Aso Rock to Agodi. The world went quiet.
This is the problem: in Nigeria, we don’t have one standard for tragedy. We have two. One for when it is politically convenient, and one for when it is not.
Criminality does not check the constitution before it strikes. Abduction is abduction. A girl taken in Borno in 2014 bleeds the same as a citizen taken in Oyo in 2026. Pain has no federal or state code.
Yet we politicize the response. When it happens “under them,” it is a national failure and a referendum on the president. When it happens “under us,” it is federalism, state policing, and local governance.
That is cowardice dressed as analysis.
Leadership, at every level, must be held to the same light. If Jonathan was responsible for Chibok because he was Commander-in-Chief, then the current president cannot be exempt when blood is spilled on his watch. And if a governor is responsible for Oyo, then governors in 2014 also owned their security gaps.
The moment we make geography the basis of accountability, we tell kidnappers one thing, location determines noise. Some victims will get the world. Others will get a press release.
Nigerians are tired of this template. We do not need trending hashtags for some and silence for others. We need systems that work in Maiduguri and Ibadan.
Because the day we decided some abductions are presidential and others are “state affairs” was the day we normalized both.
Either every child is our child. Or none of them are.
+2348039289375
bcradle@ymail.com
