Tinubu Delays G20 Trip After Kebbi Abduction and Kwara Attack

Tinubu delays G20 and AU-EU trips after 25 Kebbi schoolgirls are abducted and a Kwara church is attacked. An urgent security review exposes lapses and political cost.

Atlantic Post

November 19, 2025

4–6 minutes

Brigadier General Musa Uba, Christian Persecution, Eruku, G20 Postponement, Kebbi abduction, Kwara Attack, National Security, Nigerian Security, school kidnappings, Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s sudden decision to postpone his departure for the G20 summit in South Africa and the AU-EU meeting in Luanda is more than a scheduling hiccup. It is a tacit acknowledgement that Nigeria’s security architecture is under acute strain.

The president has delayed his trip. He is awaiting detailed briefings on the abduction of schoolgirls in Kebbi State and the brutal attack on worshippers in Eruku, Kwara State. These incidents crystallise a pattern of violence. The state has long promised to stamp out this violence but has repeatedly failed to prevent it.

Officials say Mr Tinubu is waiting for first-hand reports from Vice-President Kashim Shettima. He has visited Kebbi on the president’s behalf. Mr Tinubu is also waiting for updates from the police and the Department of State Services on the Kwara attack.

His spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed the postponement. He said the president had ordered an immediate deployment of additional security personnel to Eruku and the wider Ekiti Local Government Area. This action followed a request from the Kwara governor.

That directive, however, reads too much like damage control — a late manoeuvre after communities have already bled.

The facts are stark. In the early hours of Monday, gunmen on motorcycles stormed Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State. Security sources and international wire reports say about 25 girls were seized and the school’s vice-principal, identified in local reports as Hassan Makuku (or Makaku in some outlets), was killed while trying to protect pupils.

Nigeria’s security services have mobilised search and rescue operations but, as with past high-profile abductions, the clock is the enemy.

At roughly the same time the north-west was reeling, an attack on worshippers at a Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku was streamed live on social media, according to local reporting.

Eyewitnesses and police accounts confirm fatalities and abductions, and video footage circulated online shows the chaos of a sanctuary violated — a chilling reminder that even houses of worship are not spared.

President Tinubu ordered security agencies “to go after the bandits who attacked worshippers,” a command that sounds decisive on paper yet will be judged by results on the ground.

Two broader threads make these incidents more than discrete crimes.

First is the persistent vulnerability of schools and places of worship — soft targets whose protection is a core state responsibility.

Second is the political context: critics and international observers say the recent toll on Christian communities in central and northern Nigeria represents a widening humanitarian crisis, one that some advocacy groups and analysts describe in terms approaching “persecution” or even “genocide”.

Influential monitoring bodies such as Open Doors and Genocide Watch have documented rising numbers of attacks, killings and displacements in 2024–25. At the same time, continental and national authorities push back against the label of “genocide,” warning against hasty terminology and urging calm diplomacy. The divergence of views underlines how volatile the debate has become.

The administration faces two immediate tests.

The first is operational: can the Nigerian security forces, with assistance from local vigilantes and community intelligence, recover the abducted girls and secure Eruku before more lives are lost?

The second is political and moral: can the government demonstrate credible, sustained leadership that goes beyond reactive press statements and piecemeal deployments?

The memory of Chibok lingers like an accusation — the 2014 mass abduction that exposed systemic intelligence and coordination failures and whose aftermath still colours public judgement of successive administrations. Comparing Maga with Chibok is uncomfortable but necessary; repeated school strikes reveal a policy failure, not merely bad luck.

The death of Brigadier-General Musa Uba, reported killed while on active duty in Borno State, adds another layer of urgency. Senior military casualties on operations against ISWAP and Boko Haram signal that the counter-insurgency is exacting a high price from the armed forces even as insecurity spreads geographically.

The army’s losses should concentrate minds in Aso Rock on the need for a fresh operational strategy and improved soldier welfare, not only for morale but for effectiveness in the field.

For a readership that prizes order, the imperative is plain. State legitimacy rests upon the monopoly of legitimate force and the protection of citizens. When schoolchildren can be kidnapped, clergy and congregations attacked, and senior officers slain, the social contract frays.

The president’s postponement of foreign engagements is understandable; international summits mean little if the state cannot reassure its own citizens. Yet postponing travel is not the same as fixing the problem.

Immediate rescue efforts must be matched with transparent investigations, credible accountability for intelligence failures, and a national strategy to harden schools and churches against attack.

International actors will watch closely — from humanitarian agencies to governments expressing concern about the safety of religious minorities. They will want evidence of sustained reform.

Nigerian civil society and victims’ families will demand answers. The moment calls for resolute action and clear communication, not platitudes.

If Mr Tinubu’s wait for briefings produces decisive policy change and real results, history may judge the delay kindly. If it produces only a few token troop movements and more funerals, the postponement will have been a hollow gesture.

Additional reporting by Suleiman Adamu & Osaigbovo Okungbowa.