The release of the 39 pupils and six teachers abducted in Oriire Local Government, Oyo State, on Friday sent Nigerians into collective rejoicing, confirming the universality of grief. Yet, amid the euphoria, a reflection on an ancient fable about the tortoise and the leopard reveals deeper truths about deception and justice.
The Fable of Ijapa and Ekun
Long ago, Ijapa the Tortoise, jealous of Ekun the Leopard's popularity as the forest circumciser, devised a plan to ruin him. He hid a stolen calabash of palm wine in Ekun's den, then called a town meeting, feigning heartbreak over a theft. Leading the animals to the planted evidence, they gasped in disbelief and condemned Ekun as a greedy thief. But Ogongo, the long-necked bird, revealed from her hiding spot in the Iroko tree that she had watched Ijapa plant the evidence. She pointed to palm wine stains on Ijapa's shell and his reeking fingers. The animals banished the wily tortoise and exonerated Ekun. The moral: he who digs a pit for another will fall into it himself.
56 Days of Collective Sorrow
For 56 grueling days, Nigeria was wrapped in a shawl of collective sorrow over the abduction of 39 pupils and six teachers in Oriire. This tragedy momentarily united Nigerians, echoing philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's observation in his 1961 work Totality and Infinity that suffering uniquely unites a people, allowing them to recognize their shared fragility. Matthew Ratcliffe, a professor at the University of York, UK, notes that losses radically alter our shared world, giving us new ways of connecting.
Since 2014, weaponizing school abductions has become an inescapable factor in Nigerian politics. On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State. While over 190 escaped or were rescued, approximately 80 to 90 remain missing. President Goodluck Jonathan initially doubted the authenticity, as the area had extensive security. The then-opposition, led by Bola Tinubu, demanded Jonathan "bring back our girls," internationalizing the campaign and recruiting Barack Obama. They challenged Jonathan as Commander-in-Chief while leaving Governor Kashim Shettima alone.
Hypocrisy in the Oriire Case
In the 2026 Oriire case, yesterday's opposition, now in government, shifts blame from the Commander-in-Chief to Governor Seyi Makinde, who sits in Shettima's exact shoes. During Chibok, no reference was made to Shettima's responsibility. Now, state governors not in the ruling party are blamed for local abductions, even though they cannot give binding directives to the Police, DSS, or Military without federal approval. Their security votes, never an issue during Shettima's era, are now central. This hypocrisy sickens.
On April 28, 2026, 15 church members were abducted in Eda Oniyo, Ekiti State, spending two months in captivity until July 4, with one victim dying. From an initial ₦1 billion demand, abductors collected unnamed fees. Yet Governor Biodun Oyebanji was not harassed. Unbiased logic must convict those who harangued Jonathan in 2014 but now claim Tinubu is guiltless while children spent 56 days in captivity.
Tinubu's Response and the Gbajabiamila Scandal
Jonathan invited Governor Shettima to the Presidential Villa in May 2014 to discuss rescue efforts. Tinubu, by contrast, seemed too locked in his own grievances. Peter Obi revealed that the president never even called the Oyo governor. Sources claim that when the governor reached out, he met impenetrable walls. Instead, Tinubu sent political surrogates to fly choppers over Oyo State.
The greatest beneficiary of the Oriire rescue may be President Tinubu's Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, embroiled in a scandal over the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC). An alleged impostor, Adeniyi Adeyemi, penetrated the presidency, running a sophisticated fraud operation for over a year. The presidency cleared Gbajabiamila, calling Adeyemi a con artist, but questions remain: how did a conman infiltrate without an insider?
Tinubu, acting like an Ijakumo—a fierce, elusive nocturnal animal that cleans its bum-bum before excreting—ordered the ICPC to investigate, despite having already cleared Gbajabiamila. This mirrors the Murtala-Obasanjo government's handling of the Cement Armada scandal, where a judicial commission's report was never made public, and Obasanjo was cleared.
Questions Surrounding the Rescue
Pictures of the rescued children showed them remarkably well-fed, except for Mrs. Alamu. Their clothes looked not too roughened for 56 days in a forest. Questions abound: Did rescuers change their clothes? How were they fed? Where is the body of the neutralized abductors? Can the eight arrested suspects be paraded? How true is the military's claim of no ransom payment?
Hundreds of others remain held in Nigeria's forests. To stem this scourge, we need the Oluganbe leaf—ask the native doctor nearest to your bunker.
Gbaja Gets a Reprieve
The Oriire rescue may have deflected attention from the Gbajabiamila scandal. In communication strategy, a problematic issue can be dissolved, deconstructed, or re-contextualized. The presidency seems to have used the rescue to re-contextualize the scandal. But as the Yoruba say, the Babalawo divines every five days because tomorrow's realities may not align with today's. We must conduct a rigorous post-mortem on the abduction and ask critical questions.
