Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of “appeasing and enabling terrorists” by engaging with armed groups instead of decisively defeating them.
The former Minister of Education and ex–World Bank Vice President made the allegation in a press statement following the abduction and release of pupils and teachers from St Mary’s Private Catholic School in Niger State.
Ezekwesili said governments at federal and state levels were “rewarding criminal behaviour” through repeated negotiations with terrorists.
“It is accurate to state that our federal and state governments… are, by their appeasement strategy, enabling terrorists by rewarding their criminal behaviour,” she said, insisting that a capable Nigerian state would not “cuddle terrorists” when it had the chance to eliminate them.
She argued that successive administrations have failed in their constitutional duty to secure citizens, particularly children, since terrorism escalated in 2009.
“All who persist in harming our country and people, especially our children, would have long been finished off by a caring and competent government,” she said.
Ezekwesili criticised government officials for celebrating negotiated releases without transparency about who was engaged, at what cost, or under what terms.
She described the current situation as an “abduction industry” fuelled by weak governance and corruption.
“The serial lack of transparency in our insecurity crisis is enabling cancerous and deadly corruption on all sides of the so-called negotiations,” she stated, adding that failure to arrest and prosecute perpetrators had emboldened criminals.
She urged Nigerians to demand accountability and stronger security responses, warning that the problem would persist “until citizens confront the reality that those in power have run out of ideas to secure the country.”
