Militants raided a football pitch where people had been gathering and opened fire at random. They burned houses. They burned places of worship. They torched motorcycles. When they finished, at least 29 people were dead.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack in north-eastern Adamawa State. The killing lasted several hours in Guyaku, a village in the Gombi local government area. The militants did not spare anyone.
And President Bola Tinubu’s government? Once again, it was nowhere to be found.
The Attack
Authorities and local residents say the militants opened fire on the crowd indiscriminately. There was no warning. No negotiation. No mercy. The attackers then set the village ablaze before disappearing back into the bush.
State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri shared photos of himself arriving at the scene, describing the attack as an “affront to our humanity.” His media office confirmed the attack lasted several hours. Surveying the damage, the governor’s spokesperson wrote on Facebook that the “atmosphere in the community remains tense, with grief and fear evident.” Many families “have abandoned their homes over concerns of further attacks.”
Fintiri posted on X: “We are intensifying security operations immediately to restore peace and ensure every resident feels safe in their home again.”
But where was the federal government? Where was President Tinubu? Where was the Nigerian military that has received billions of naira in security funding year after year? The answer, as always, is absent.
Tinubu’s Security Failure
The restive region bordering Cameroon has seen repeated attacks by local criminal gangs and affiliates of IS in recent years. This is not new. This is not unexpected. This is a pattern.
And yet, the federal government has no coherent strategy. Troops are deployed. Troops are withdrawn. Airstrikes are launched. Civilians are killed. Militants regroup. The cycle repeats. The only constant is the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.
Earlier this month, almost 400 people were sentenced during mass trials for their links with militant Islamist groups Boko Haram and its rival splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Mass trials are not a strategy. They are a headline. They do not stop the next attack.
In 2009, Boko Haram launched an insurgency in Nigeria’s north-east, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of more than two million, according to aid groups. That was 17 years ago. Seventeen years of death. Seventeen years of displacement. Seventeen years of government failure.
The jihadist conflict has spread to neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Nigeria is the region’s superpower. It has the largest military. It has the largest economy. And it cannot secure its own people.
International Scrutiny
The Nigerian government is under intense pressure to curb rising insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation. The pressure has also come from abroad, with international scrutiny mounting ahead of the country’s general elections in January.
Late last year, the US launched “powerful and deadly” strikes against militants linked to IS in north-western Nigeria. The Americans had to do the job that the Nigerian military could not.
That is the ultimate indictment. Foreign powers are now conducting strikes on Nigerian soil because the Tinubu administration is incapable of protecting its own citizens. The president does not need to send troops. He does not need to launch airstrikes. He needs a coherent strategy. He needs competent leadership. He needs to show that he cares.
So far, he has shown none of these things.
The Human Cost
Governor Fintiri’s response, while visible, is a state-level reaction to a national failure. A governor should not have to be the first responder to a terrorist attack. That is the federal government’s responsibility. And the federal government has abdicated it.
The people of Guyaku are not statistics. They are farmers. They are traders. They are mothers and fathers who wanted to watch a football match. Twenty-nine of them will never go home again. Their houses are ashes. Their places of worship are rubble. Their motorcycles are scrap metal.
“Atmosphere in the community remains tense, with grief and fear evident,” the governor’s spokesperson wrote. Grief and fear. That is the legacy of Tinubu’s security policy.
What Is Being Done?
The governor says security operations are being intensified. But intensified operations have been tried before. Militants adapt. They retreat. They regroup. They strike again. Until the federal government addresses the root causes of the insurgency — poverty, lack of education, weak governance, corruption in the security forces — the attacks will not stop.
The US strikes late last year were a temporary fix. They killed militants. They did not kill the ideology. They did not rebuild the communities. They did not address the grievances that drive young men to join extremist groups.
President Tinubu has been in office for years. The insecurity is worse than when he started. More people have died. More people have been displaced. More villages have been burned.
The Bottom Line
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a village in Adamawa State that killed at least 29 people. Militants raided a football pitch, opened fire at random, and burned houses, places of worship, and motorcycles. The attack lasted several hours. State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri visited the scene and promised intensified security operations.
The federal government has no coherent strategy to combat the insurgency. The US had to launch its own strikes in Nigeria last year because the Nigerian military could not handle the threat. Tens of thousands have died since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009. More than two million have been displaced.
President Tinubu’s administration has failed to protect the people of Adamawa State. It has failed to protect the people of the North-East. It has failed to protect the people of Nigeria. The attack on Guyaku is not an aberration. It is the predictable result of years of neglect, incompetence, and indifference.
