In a decisive response to the latest outbreak of insecurity in northwestern Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Bello Mohammed Matawalle, to immediately relocate to Kebbi State until further notice. The directive comes in the wake of the brazen abduction of twenty-five female students from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Kebbi State, by suspected armed bandits in the early hours of Monday morning.
According to security sources and government statements, the gunmen stormed the school hostel around 4 a.m., overpowered the few guards on duty, and herded the terrified students into waiting vehicles before disappearing into the surrounding forests. Although initial reports mentioned 24 abducted students, subsequent headcounts by school authorities and security operatives confirmed that 25 girls were missing, with one additional student discovered to have been taken during the chaos.
President Tinubu, clearly angered by the incident, instructed Minister Matawalle to establish a temporary base in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, from where he is to personally oversee and coordinate all military and intelligence operations aimed at securing the unconditional release of the abducted schoolgirls and restoring calm to the affected region. Matawalle, who is scheduled to arrive in Birnin Kebbi on Friday, will work closely with the Kebbi State Government, the Nigerian Army’s 8 Division, the Department of State Services, and other security agencies already deployed to the area.
The choice of Dr. Matawalle for this sensitive assignment is hardly surprising. Between 2019 and 2023, he served as the Executive Governor of Zamfara State, a period widely regarded as the epicentre of banditry and mass abductions in Nigeria. During his tenure, Matawalle adopted a controversial but initially effective combination of dialogue, amnesty offers, and repentant-bandit integration programmes alongside sustained military pressure. One of the most high-profile incidents he managed was the February 26, 2021, abduction of 279 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe, Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State. The girls, aged between 10 and 17, were released six days later on March 2, 2021, after intense negotiations backed by security operations. While critics questioned the terms of that release, supporters credited Matawalle’s hands-on approach and deep understanding of the terrain and criminal networks with preventing a worse outcome.
President Tinubu’s decision to keep the Minister of State for Defence physically present in Kebbi State signals a return to the practice of deploying top political and security figures to crisis zones for on-the-ground supervision, a tactic previously employed during the peak of the Chibok and Dapchi abductions under past administrations. It also underscores the administration’s determination to treat the resurgence of school kidnappings as a national emergency requiring extraordinary measures.
The Kebbi abduction has once again thrust the issue of school safety in northern Nigeria into the spotlight. Despite years of promises, military operations, and the Safe Schools Initiative launched in the aftermath of the 2014 Chibok abduction, armed criminal gangs continue to target educational institutions, viewing them as soft targets for extortion and terror. Parents in rural communities now live in perpetual fear each time their children return to boarding schools, while many girls have been forced to abandon education altogether.
In a related development, President Tinubu has indefinitely postponed a scheduled diplomatic trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, and Luanda, Angola, where he was expected to hold bilateral talks and attend investment summits. Presidential spokespersons confirmed that the President opted to remain in Abuja to receive real-time briefings on the Kebbi schoolgirls as well as another disturbing security incident: the attack on worshippers at the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, where gunmen opened fire during a mid-week service, leaving several congregants injured and the community traumatised.
As search-and-rescue operations intensify across Kebbi and neighbouring states, with air and ground patrols combing thick forests and known bandit hideouts, Nigerians await news of the girls’ safe return. Civil society groups, women’s rights organisations, and opposition figures have called for more than symbolic deployments, demanding a comprehensive overhaul of rural security architecture, better intelligence sharing, and an end to the culture of ransom payments that continues to incentivise mass abductions.
For now, all eyes are on Dr. Bello Matawalle as he returns, albeit in a different capacity, to the familiar theatre of banditry and kidnapping that defined much of his governorship. Whether the experience gained in Zamfara will translate into swift success in Kebbi remains to be seen, but the stakes could not be higher: the lives and future of twenty-five young Nigerian girls hang in the balance, along with the nation’s fading hope that the nightmare of school abductions might one day come to an end.
