Oyo’s 56-Day Siege, Military As National Treasure and Osoba At 87

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.” — Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933-, 30th US President from 1923-1929).

The thrust of today’s piece, despite the title, is nowhere near the precinct of the acclaimed ancient city of Oyo Alaafin. It is about the banditry siege that occurred in the Ogbomoso area of Oyo State, which is a component entity within Nigeria’s federating jurisdiction. It is also about the less than dignifying treatment of our military in terms of adequate remuneration for their toil and labour against external and internal threats when occasion demands. A living encyclopedia of Nigeria’s journalism also clocked 87 midweek.

Between May 15, 2026, and July 10, 2026, a period of 56 days, the nation was on tenterhooks due to outrage emanating from the wanton insecurity in Ogbomoso in particular and across the country as a whole. Surprisingly, banditry, with its associated abductions, kidnappings, and other acts of criminality, has for about two decades been a sad routine occurrence within the country’s jurisdictions, cutting across successive governments.

Nonetheless, the one that happened recently in Oriire Local Government Area of Ogbomoso in Oyo State actually overshadowed the prevailing economic challenges and the accompanying public grumblings for fifty-six days. That incident, without doubt, put the image and ratings of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, to a test of intense public scrutiny. Not even the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping of April 14, 2014, caused so much public hullabaloo, social media harassment and mockery.

The western part of the country, in particular Oyo State, remains the political hotbed of the country, with a known but unwritten norm that anything that affects that state, vis-à-vis the western part of the country, affects the soul of the nation. This perception was reinforced by the unprecedented outrage that accompanied the recent abduction of thirty-nine pupils and seven teachers from Oriire Local Government Area in Ogbomoso.

With the return of the abductees, the socio-security temperature of the country, which had been at its highest, immediately reduced to a manageable level. The “Wild, Wild Western Region’s” reactions that trailed the Ogbomoso kidnapping no doubt affected the image of the leading figures in this administration. Every word, statement and action of these figures were not only taken out of context but also deliberately misconstrued with mischievous intent by traducers.

The rage is over and Nigerians are now entrapped in the euphoria of the return of the abducted Ogbomoso pupils and their teachers. The emotional trauma and tears of grief from parents, relatives and public sympathisers have disappeared and have now been replaced with backslaps, smiles, joy and laughter, while life continues as if nothing happened when something avoidably grievous actually happened.

While it is worthy of praise that anger and tears have disappeared, it should not be easily forgotten that the abduction had a price, paid with the blood of two of the abductees: Adegboye Adesiyan, killed during the bandits’ raid, and Michael Oyedokun, who was gruesomely slaughtered in captivity by the bandits, as well as that of an unstated number of soldiers and an officer, Lieutenant Felix Adele Isaac, who lost their lives during the rescue operations. It is sad to lose any officer, but worse to lose tens of uncelebrated soldiers, because all lives are equal before Almighty Allah. Going forward, the tradition of celebrating an officer more than dead soldiers in the line of duty is inhuman in contemporary times. After all, General George S. Patton, one of the most successful combat commanders in United States’ history, once admonished: “The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers.”

The loss of beloved soldiers and officers should be mourned in the same way and manner. Sadly, parents and families of the officer and soldiers who lost their lives in the Ogbomoso abduction rescue operations will forever be enmeshed in the arduous task of mourning and missing them.

Yet again, the nation moves on as if nothing ever happened and may never do anything meaningful for the memory or the well-being of the loved ones left behind. The question is: will the nation truly mourn enough the departed soldiers in appreciation of the ultimate sacrifice they and others in turmoil-engulfed parts of the country paid for our collective freedom from criminality? Those soldiers and an officer amongst several others who died in the line of duty could not be said to have enjoyed, while alive, remuneration that is in tandem with the risk associated with their soldiering duties to the nation.

The foregoing brings one to the question of what actually is the true worth of a soldier within this jurisdiction. A glimpse into the ascribed deprecating official worth of a soldier was given recently in a widely reported African Central Television interview where Christopher Musa, Minister of Defence, disclosed that Nigerian soldiers now earn a heart-wrenching monthly salary of N100,000. This paltry amount, given the risk and sacrifice that soldiers are exposed to and the prevailing inflationary pressure, is grossly inadequate. Handing over guns and other sophisticated weapons of war to avoidably disgruntled and poorly remunerated officers and soldiers is tantamount to a nation orchestrating its own suicide. Relying on such ill-motivated soldiers to ward off sophisticatedly armed and well-nourished bandits is nothing but a wilful mockery of our collective security.

The fact that soldiers were hitherto paid N49,000 monthly pittance in a country of abundance is shameful. Other countries in Africa, including South Africa and Ghana, give their soldiers a better and more meaningful deal. Yet, these two countries are not as resource-endowed as Nigeria. Despite Nigeria’s N51,000 salary addition to a soldier’s pay, it might not be hyperbolic to state that incidents of military personnel going AWOL or being found engaging in criminal activities will be on the increase, since they and their families cannot sustain anything akin to a decent lifestyle with such a pittance under the prevailing harsh economic realities.

With such unhealthy conditions of service in place, maintaining an effective military that is professionally committed and patriotically motivated might remain a mirage. And in view of the precarious security situation in the land, effective curtailment of banditry and meeting the demands of obliterating insecurity might be difficult.

Yours sincerely can only beckon on the President to positively revisit his widely reported March 7, 2026, pledge of a decent salary increment for the military during an interfaith iftar with Service Chiefs at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Kudos should be given to the Nigerian military through its 2 Division alongside the Amotekun Corps and the local hunters for performing creditably in bringing back the Ogbomoso abductees. Alongside other soldiers and officers of the military across the country, they deserve a better take-home from the government. Just because former governments, which included two military generals as presidents under the ongoing civilian dispensation, did not do it does not mean a caring Tinubu should not do it. He must do it because the nation has the resources to do it, and posterity shall judge him accordingly.

Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the Ogbomoso 56-day siege is over, and to our gallant military warriors, the words of the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, suffice: “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.” To the dead and living military personnel, thank you all.

Olusegun Osoba at 87

“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” — Betty Friedan (1921-2006)

Olusegun Osoba, the Akinrogun of Egbaland and Aremo of Ijebuland, is a journalism generalissimo and a political Trojan with a human face. He clocked 87 on July 15, 2026. Osoba is a sui generis statesman.

Undoubtedly, he is an intrinsic and extrinsic journalist par excellence. In our clime, in which professionals, after becoming successful politicians, abandon their professions post public office, Osoba remains an exception to the norm.

Whereas many doctors, engineers and others have fallen for the lucre of politics, not so with Osoba, the journalism icon. He stands out as the locus classicus of the cliche: “Once a soldier, always a soldier.”

With unapologetic confidence, I can say that Osoba is, till date, a committed journalist with an undiluted fervour for journalism. He sleeps, dreams and eats journalism. He achieved everything attainable in his beloved field of journalism from being a reporter, editor, general manager and the managing director of the then biggest newspaper in Africa, Daily Times of Nigeria. Any contemporary history of Nigerian journalism without the name Segun Osoba is incomplete.

He remains the only journalist of his generation, a minuscule number of whom are still around, with successful incursions into politics but who never forsook the profession that made him what he is today.

At 87, he is still agile, alert and smart. Akinrogun personally picks his calls and returns every call and replies to every message from both high and low members of society without discrimination.

He still has a towering presence in everything journalism at his elderly age and stature as a statesman of high credo. The Nigeria Guild of Editors, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, and the International Press Institute can attest to his steadfast commitment and presence of mind to his beloved journalism profession.

Osoba’s greatest asset is his matured calmness under provocative circumstances. He is imbued with the spirit of contentment. Our current president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, GCFR, more than once personally told me that Osoba is one rare breed that never bothers him with financial requests. That is Osoba for you.

Yours sincerely is sufficiently close to him as a son, even when we don’t see every day. An incident happened in 2003. After Akinrogun left office as governor, his successor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, did everything under the sun to harass and frustrate him.

During a personal visit to Ilaro weeks after leaving office during his successor’s early tenure, and despite returning same day to Lagos, he got a foretaste of what was lurking ahead.

Otunba Daniel, his intolerant successor, sent the police after him in his Lagos residence. And on the day the cops came around 11 a.m. that fateful day, I was alone with Akinrogun in his house in Bourdillon, Ikoyi, Lagos State.

They attempted to take him away, but I insisted that the senior police officer who led the team must show us the warrant of arrest. He didn’t have it and, pronto, he and his team disappeared, only to reappear around the evening of the next day when nobody thought they would still be coming. The harassment intensified with traction throughout the despotic reign of Daniel.

As governor, Daniel also refused to pay him his statutory salary, insisting he must physically appear every month to sign for it. Osoba ignored Daniel’s puerile antics and his successor in office denied him his statutory dues for eight years. But he never capitulated because he is a professional in politics and had prepared for life outside office.

The temporariness of power dawned on Daniel after serving out his statutory eight years of two terms. Senator Ibikunle Amosun, whom he did everything to politically exterminate but failed, succeeded him in office. Amosun served a bit of the menu he inflicted on himself and Osoba and he had nowhere to seek refuge like the biblical sinner.

Osoba is now the leading statesman that Daniel looks up to to rescue him from Governor Dapo Abiodun’s infliction of what he as governor gleefully forced down others’ throats as Ogun State governor.

Yet, Daniel planted the seed of governance tyranny against, and harassment of predecessors in Ogun Government House that he is condemning today.

Indeed, “whatever goes around, comes around.” What Daniel is going through today that Osoba endured over two decades ago is nothing but the inherent message in the above classic idiom of karma.

Akinrogun, the ‘brother-in-purpose’ of President Tinubu, is having the last laugh as Governor Dapo Abiodun continues to teach Daniel the biblical teaching: “What you sow is what you reap.”

Shockingly too, Akinrogun deliberately did not include some of these things in his book. But some of us close to him, when writing about him in future, will include them in our writings and memoirs to underscore the ephemerality of power.

Looking back, I remain deeply grateful for the privilege of accompanying Akinrogun on many memorable drives, both in London and Nigeria. A man who loves to drive, he would personally take the wheel of any of his beloved sleek automobiles and drive us from his residence in North London to Old Kent Road in East London, where I stayed at some point during my annual visits. In Nigeria, I also had the honour of riding with him on several occasions as he drove us in his choice vehicles to the Metropolitan Club. Those journeys often became an extension of our conversations, as we reflected on matters concerning ourselves, the nation and humanity at large.

A lot of top-notch politicians and others who knew about our closeness had sent me to him to curry his support. He never waved my requests aside. I can easily remember, amongst others, Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the upcoming 2027 general elections’ approach to me a few years ago. I went to see the leader of Ogun State politics on his, the 2027 incoming governor’s behalf at that time, and issues raised were sorted, candidly. Akinrogun is a father to all and very accommodating and understanding.

As Pa Osoba turns 87, as usual, he should be in London by now. Once again, all I can wish this sui generis statesman is more fruitful years ahead. Congratulations, sir.

•Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp Only-07011117777