Self-Help Tackles Insecurity in Ohuhu, Abia: Insights by Adekunle Adekoya

Last week I asked fellow Nigerians, the readers of this column, what further actions we could take against insecurity that we have not yet tried. It was a rhetorical question. In reality, there are many measures still unimplemented. Are we no longer Nigerians? The most resilient people on earth? Are we not the ones who thrive where others flee? We are Nigerians! Recall how we reacted when armed robbers took our country hostage and launched serial sieges.

With the central police system failing us, we turned to our ingenuity and devised home‑grown solutions that persist today. First, we formed vigilante groups. We established community development associations that launched initiatives to combat insecurity. One such initiative was hiring night guards to patrol neighbourhoods while residents slept. We also introduced access‑control measures in residential areas. Today, very few streets in our towns and cities lack gates. These gates are locked by midnight and usually reopened between 5 am and 6 am. Some neighbourhoods even restrict generator use after certain hours at night.

In the face of relentless kidnappings, we must dig deeper into our creativity to develop even more effective solutions. I am particularly impressed by the experience of the people of Ohuhu in Abia State. Last week, two locals were kidnapped. One abductor handed a phone to one of them to make calls and state ransom demands. The person given the phone dialled a number he could remember, but chose to speak in Igbo, the language the abductors did not understand. In doing so, he inadvertently revealed the location of the hideout where they were being held. He was beaten severely by the abductors, but the residents of Ohuhu mobilised their youth, stormed the kidnappers’ hideout, and rescued their people.

The lesson is clear: a strong sense of community is beneficial. Another lesson is for those of us who still ignore indigenous languages and raise children exclusively in English. Stop this practice, because you never know when a child will need his or her mother tongue—the language of their ancestors—to save their life.

Just before I began writing, I watched a video of residents of Anchau town in Kubau Local Government Area of Kaduna State mobilising and driving away bandits who had invaded their peace. That, along with the Ohuhu experience, shows that we are the only ones capable of saving ourselves. People have long drilled boreholes, dug wells, bought and fueled generators, and now are shifting to solar power for electricity. They expect too much from a government that seems wired to loot the commonwealth for selfish benefits and provide adequate security. By now, we must agree that all our governments have scored a disgraceful F‑9 in governance on the WASCE scale. Even the security agencies cannot protect their own.

If they could, why did they sit idle in their barracks while Major‑General Rabe Abubakar was kidnapped and later died in a captor’s den? The terrorists returned the general’s body, handed it over, and walked back to their hideout unchallenged. That is sickening. I cannot fathom how, in Nigeria in 2026, under the Renewed Hope Administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, outlaws can run such an operation.

As you read this, the calendar shows it is June 19. That is 34 days after terrorists stormed communities in Oyo State, kidnapped teachers and schoolchildren, and beheaded a school teacher. The rest remain captive. Amid this horror, the political group that manages our affairs remains fixated on elections. When they win, who will they rule over? People in kidnappers’ dens? Or schoolchildren at home for fear of being kidnapped if they go to school? Who?

Again, I commend the spirit of my fellow countrymen. Amid all this horror, some people still try to make us laugh. I saw a skit online in which a child was asked why he did not go to school. He replied that they have a holiday. “What holiday?” the questioner asked. “We have bandits holiday!” the child answered.

Going forward, communities should organise their youth and form defensive phalanxes against terrorists. The terrorists are not spirits or ghosts; they are real flesh and blood, like you and me. Let us confront them. From here, let communities be warned. Because our rulers have weaponised poverty against us, many of us are selling our patrimony. Ancestral lands are being sold in many towns and villages. It is suspected that terrorists are buying lands in forested parts of our states and creating hideouts there. Beware who you sell land to. Where possible, let people delve into the recesses of their culture, as some traditional leaders have suggested, and seek solutions to this insecurity problem, the earlier the better. We cannot continue like this. TGIF.

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