The Hypocrisy of Silence on Oyo Abduction

Three weeks have passed since the abduction of pupils and teachers from the LA Primary School and Community Grammar School in Oyo State by terrorists and efforts to rescue them by the federal government have not yielded any result.

Many Nigerians who witnessed President Bola Tinubu’s condemnations of the abduction of the Chibok girls cannot believe that abductions of school children are happening under his watch.

When the Chibok girls were abducted in Borno State in 2014 under the then President Goodluck Jonathan, President Tinubu’s voice was one of the loudest in the media space, as the then leader of the main opposition party against Jonathan’s government.

His party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and later the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its spokesman, Lai Mohammed, used derogatory and abusive words to describe Jonathan’s government – clueless, ineffective, and inefficient.

They also claimed that Nigeria was on auto-pilot.

In fact, Tinubu called for  Jonathan’s resignation.

But under the APC’s administration,  terrorists have been  abducting and killing people, including in places that were very safe under Jonathan’s government.

Unfortunately, those whose voices were the loudest during the Chibok incident are curiously silent.

After the abduction of the teachers and students in Oyo State, some have suggested that Nigerians should blame Governor Seyi Makinde and the local government chairman.

Someone even said Makinde should be replaced with a sole administrator by the president since he was distracted by his presidential ambition.

But there was no angry word that was not thrown at Jonathan’s government by the agents of the APC who exploited insecurity to sack the PDP.

However, these same actors did not raise their voice when insecurity heightened under President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023.

They did not raise their voice against Buhari during the Owo massacre in Ondo State, because Buhari was a member of the APC.

They have also not condemned Tinubu’s administration over the recent abduction in Oyo State and the massive spread of terrorism to South-west through Kwara and Kogi states.

Their silence is the height of hypocrisy.