BEFORE TIMUBU LEAVES NORTHERN ELITES BEHIND By Martins Oloja
Governor Idris wept this week as terrorists killed soldiers, police in night ambush in Kebbi state…
According to a credible report, Nasir Idris, Governor of Kebbi State could not hold back tears in public on Wednesday morning this week after witnessing another devastation caused in the state by terrorists who ambushed a group of security operatives on duty. The deadly ambush resulted in killing nine soldiers and one policeman.
The attack was carried out on Tuesday night in Giro Masa community in the Shanga Local Government Area of Kebbi State, where the security operatives, who had responded to a distress call were suddenly targeted by the assailants. According to reports, the security men fell to the ambush after tracing the hoodlums to a construction company’s yard. Sadly, two military trucks were also set on fire by terrorists.
The devastated Governor Idris, who visited the mortuary and the accident and emergency unit of the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi, where victims of the attack were kept told reporters that the attack was barbaric. The governor who later assured that the state government would cover the medical bills of the injured and provide support to the families of the deceased security personnel said, “This is a sad incident. These are the soldiers who protect the lives of Kebbi residents, yet they found themselves in this situation…”
There have been persistent attacks by bandits and terrorist groups across northern Nigeria, with several incidents involving fatalities among troops. On June 25, 2025, the Nigerian Army confirmed that 17 soldiers were killed during a fierce gun battle with suspected bandits in Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State. The troops had responded to an attack on the Bangi community when they were engaged by heavily armed fighters, resulting in significant casualties. In the North-East, attacks by insurgent groups have also persisted, as on multiple occasions in 2025, fighters linked to Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), carried out ambushes on military formations in Borno State, leading to the deaths of soldiers. One such incident occurred in late 2025, when troops were killed during a coordinated raid on a military base.
#Zamfara Tragedy: College director killed after paying N25.7m, motorcycles to rescue family from bandits… The killing of Malam Bashar Sani, a senior administrator at the College of Education, Maru, by suspected bandits has once again exposed the grim reality of insecurity in parts of Northern Nigeria, where families that pay huge ransoms to rescue loved ones often remain trapped in a vicious cycle of abductions.
Investigated reports revealed that the late Sani had paid a whopping ₦25.7 million in ransom and other demands over a long time to secure the release of family members kidnapped by bandits before he was eventually killed by the same criminal network. Family members and community sources disclosed that the chain of attacks against the family began a few years ago when armed bandits abducted Sani’s two wives from their residence at Tsohon Tasha in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. In a desperate bid to secure their freedom, he reportedly paid ₦2 million to the kidnappers.
Months later, the criminals returned and kidnapped his younger brother, Hassan Sani, forcing the family into another round of negotiations. Speaking earlier, Hassan Sani confirmed that his brother paid ₦3.5 million to secure his release. “In addition to the ₦3.5 million he paid for my freedom, the kidnappers also demanded airtime recharge cards and mobile phones, which he also facilitated and delivered,” Hassan told PRNigeria.
What is more traumatic, the repeated attacks forced Malam Bashar Sani to relocate his household to a more populated area in search of safety. His brother’s words: “My brother and his family moved to a house close to our relatives at Shiyyar ’Yan Hudu in Maru town, hoping he would be safe from these marauders, but unfortunately, he could not escape them”. For about 18 months, the family enjoyed relative calm before the bandits traced their new location and struck again. During the raid, the attackers abducted Malam Bashar Sani, one of his wives who had previously been kidnapped, and his daughter, alongside several other residents of the neighbourhood.
Hassan disclosed that the bandits also killed the wife of a policeman and abducted her five children during the same attack. The kidnappers demanded ₦20 million for the release of Sani and his family members. According to the family, the ransom was eventually paid in full. In addition to the cash payment, the abductors also demanded motorcycles, airtime recharge cards worth ₦200,000, and four mobile phones, which were delivered to them. However, the criminals continued to escalate their demand: “They later demanded 15 motorcycles, but after negotiations they reduced it to three motorcycles, which we also bought and delivered to them,” Hassan said.
He added that after the additional motorcycles were handed over, the bandits asked the family to return home and wait for further communication regarding the release of the hostages. “Unknown to us, my brother had already been killed at that time,” he said.
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PRNigeria reported that the kidnappers later directed the family to Gidan Kano village in Maradun Local Government Area to pick up their relatives. Upon arrival, behold they found his wife, daughter and other freed hostages, but Malam Bashar Sani was missing. “When we asked about him, his wife told us that he had already died while in captivity,” Hassan revealed. Further investigations indicated that the late Sani died in the bandits’ camp after prolonged torture and serious medical complications, including an untreated fractured leg sustained during captivity. Residents of Maru described the incident as a heartbreaking example of the insecurity plaguing rural communities across Zamfara State, where bandit groups continue to abduct victims for ransom with devastating consequences.
Community leaders said the late Sani was widely respected as an educator and administrator who dedicated his life to public service and the advancement of education in the region. Now he is lost to wickedness of the wicked in Zamfara State. Citizen Sani’s death has renewed calls for stronger security interventions to protect vulnerable communities across Zamfara and other parts of Northern Nigeria battling banditry. What is more gruesome, the Nigerian president himself in late 2025 confirmed that a Brigadier General was killed by a terrorist group while in captivity, days after the senior official was kidnapped by ISWAP militants following an ambush in northeastern Borno State that also led to the killing of four soldiers.
President Bola Tinubu confirmed Brig. Gen. Musa Uba’s death in a statement released by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, on that black Tuesday. Earlier local media reported Uba was kidnapped and four soldiers were killed after the Boko Haram faction known as ISWAP ambushed his team, which included operatives from the Civilian Joint Task Force, on a Friday night in the northern Chad region. However, the army had earlier denied that Uba had been kidnapped and claimed that he was safe after soldiers successfully repelled the ambush. The military also denied that terrorists killed soldiers.
Strangely, the terror group later announced that it had captured and killed Uba. The group also shared photos to prove their criminal activity. While the military still kept mum about the incident, President Tinubu confirmed it, stating that he is “depressed with the tragic death of our soldiers and officers on active duty.” The Nigerian military has faced challenges in its fight against terrorism, but that was the first time a high-ranking military officer had been captured, interrogated, and murdered. The killing of General Uba coincided with abduction of schoolgirls in Kebbi State.
There have been more sordid stories from Kwara, Katsina, Kogi and Borno states in recent weeks but I just selected the above samples just to draw attention to the urgency of elite consensus on how to work with the federal authorities in Abuja to end the wickedness of the wicked in northern Nigeria Sheik Gumi and other crisis merchants in the North would like to exploit. Here is a simple message to the northern leaders: there is no reason to be silent about the ‘thesis’ of Gumi that terrorists should be appeased and paid ransom. The Project-Gumi 2025 is poisonous and unconscionable. It won’t be tolerated after election. That should b noted by elders in the North.
This ‘InsideStuff’ serial should not be treated as an academic article. It should also not be read as a piece to cast aspersion on the North. It is a wake-up call for the elders of the land in the North to wake up and freeze political statements and interviews in Kaduna and Abuja and face existential threats in the region that can feed the West Coast of Africa. The rest of the country, specifically the more developed South will not slow down their regional development plans just because there is fire on the mountain in the North and no one seems to be on the run.
There should be immediate elite consensus on how to face and fund education robustly the way the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, etc have boldly faced quality in education of their people even as Islamic states. Let’s recall how the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo once warned about the northern elites’ attitude to education.
In his remark after an election, Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote:
‘In 1959, during the election that was to usher in independence in 1960, I embarked on an elaborate campaign in the North. I was using helicopter to campaign in every nook and corner of the North. The most important aspect of the campaign of the Action Group was free education, life more abundant for the generality of the people etc, etc. Our manifesto was centred on the development of man. We worked so hard that the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, was forced to campaign, a thing he was never used to. My hope at that time was to liberate the North from illiteracy, ignorance and the ‘ranka dede’ mentality. If I had won the election, I would have put a lot of money educating the North in order to bridge the educational gap between that region and the Western and Eastern Regions. This was because I saw the lack of education as a stumbling block against political enlightenment of the whole region.
But I think that the sooner than later the leaders of the North will see the repercussion of their selfishness and carelessness in their attitude towards Western education. But the time will not be too late, and if they don’t regret it or blame themselves for lack of foresight, the Northern youth may ask their leaders some questions when they see the rate of development that goes with education in many parts of Southern Nigeria. They may then wonder whether it was in their stars or in the selfishness, carelessness and lack of foresight of their leaders. If I had been given the chance in 1959 or 1979, I would have changed the fortunes of the North as a place that can be compared favourably with the South in terms of educational, social and economic developments…’
** Let’s continue with this discussion points next week on strategic and development plans to revive mass education and agriculture in northern Nigeria. That can be another game changer, lest this grandmaster of politics, this hurricane BAT, the artful dodger, will surprise all federalism-sceptic politicians soon and very soon with what ‘The Guardian’ (Nigeria) in 61 editorials launched in November 2023 as ‘Federalism Is The Answer: The Guardian Federalist Paper’, a classic compendium all northern leaders need to read. After all, the IGP, Olatunji Disu has just submitted to the Senate a 75-page document on state police, a federalism idea whose time has come.
Martins Oloja is a columnist with the Guardian
