By Agbeze Ireke Kalu Onuma, AI-KO
I am sick. I am physically sick to my stomach.
While we were all going about our business, arguing about politics, and chasing the Naira, two more unforgivable things happened. And the silence is so loud it’s deafening.
FIRST, THE NEWS FROM BORNO: A Brigadier General. A GENERAL of the Nigerian Army. BRIGADIER GENERAL M. UBA, commander of the 25th Brigade in Damboa. He wasn’t just killed in a firefight; he was ambushed, captured, humiliated with photographs by ISWAP, and then EXECUTED.
A BRIGADIER GENERAL.
Let that sink in. These animals, these terrorists, ambushed a senior officer, took him alive, and had the audacity to ANNOUNCE his execution. And what did our own military do? On Saturday, they called the reports of his capture “fake narrative.”
FAKE NARRATIVE.
They lied. They lied to us, or they lied to themselves. Either way, they failed to protect their own commander.
Now, ISWAP has the greatest propaganda victory in years, and the morale of every soldier on that front line is in the mud. A General is gone, and the entire defence high command is silent. What a disgrace.
SECOND, THE NEWS FROM KEBBI:
As if the blood of a General wasn’t enough, terrorists rolled into the GOVERNMENT GIRLS’ COMPREHENSIVE SECONDARY SCHOOL IN MAGA yesterday. They killed a staff member and abducted 25 SCHOOLGIRLS.
Twenty-five.
Read that again. It’s happening AGAIN. Chibok. Dapchi. Kankara. Jangebe. Birnin Yauri (also in Kebbi!). And now Maga.
It’s the same disgusting, predictable script. The government will “condemn” the attack. The security forces will be “in hot pursuit.” The President will be “saddened.” And we? We will be “cool.”
This is my indictment. This is the running commentary in my head, and it should be in yours.
THE INDICTMENT
TO THE GOVERNMENT:
You are a colossal failure. You are a committee of shame. You have failed in the singular, primary duty of a state: to protect its people. You collect taxes, you fly in private jets, you award contracts, and you hold endless meetings, all while your citizens are butchered and your children are stolen.
Your military is being humiliated by a band of fanatics. Your intelligence has failed. Your political will is non-existent. You are more concerned with optics and “fake narratives” than with the truth: YOU HAVE LOST CONTROL.
TO THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE (US):
We are a joke. We are a nation of 200 million people who have mastered the art of “moving on.” We are numb. Our capacity for outrage is dead.
We will trend a hashtag for 48 hours. We will type “This is sad” and “Our thoughts and prayers…” and then we will go back to watching comedy skits. We are not angry; we are just inconvenienced. We have accepted that children being stolen from their beds is a “cost of living” in Nigeria.
We will not shut down this country. We will not occupy the National Assembly. We will not demand the immediate resignation of every single person responsible. We will just “manage.” Our silence is our complicity. We have failed those 25 girls. We have failed that General.
TO EVERYONE: We are all guilty. The politician who sees security votes as a personal ATM. The religious leader who stays silent because the President is from his region or religion. The citizen who is more outraged by a celebrity breakup than by a state’s collapse.
Nigeria is a shame today. A deep, penetrating, and undeniable shame. We are all standing by, watching it burn.
THE “NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY CLOCK”
A friend asked me what I thought.
Here it is.
Hashtags die. Outrage fades. We need something that does not.
I propose we create a “National Accountability Clock.” It’s not a protest; it’s a permanent, digital monument to our failure and their incompetence.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:
* A PUBLIC DIGITAL LEDGER: A website and a network of social media bots (on X, Facebook, etc.) are created.
* LOG THE FAILURE: The moment a national tragedy like this occurs, it is logged.
Entry: “Abduction of 25 Schoolgirls, Maga, Kebbi State.”
Entry: “Execution of Brigadier General M. Uba, Borno State.”
* START THE CLOCK & ASSIGN ACCOUNTABILITY:
A clock starts counting. But most importantly, it lists the names of the people DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for this failure.
A daily post would look like this:
DAY 1
25 DAUGHTERS OF NIGERIA are in the hands of terrorists.
The Accountability Clock is ticking for:
President of Nigeria
National Security Adviser
Minister of Defence
Governor of Kebbi State
Chief of Defence Staff
They have failed. The clock does not stop until every girl is home.
We do this every single day. No commentary. No emotion. Just the cold, hard, public fact of their failure, tied directly to their names.
It is no longer a faceless “government” that has failed. It is THIS Governor. It is THIS Minister. It is THIS President. It moves the shame from a vague national problem to a direct, personal, and unavoidable indictment on the specific individuals in power.
They can’t delete it. They can’t call it a “fake narrative.” It’s just the truth, on a loop, forever, until they do their job.
