By: OSIFO, Osa Washington, Ph.D.
Yesterday, at the Senate chamber, Three Arms Zone, FCT Abuja, Nigeria’s upper legislative house confronted what should be our single national emergency: insecurity. Banditry, kidnappings, and boundless attacks have ceased to be isolated incidents. They are now a pattern, a system, a siege on the Nigerian state.
*Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole*, representing Edo North, did what duty required. As usual, he stood and made sound, logical, and consequential statements on the subject. But Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole did not stop at rhetoric. He moved the only motion that made sense at this moment: a probe into military budget and defense spending. In law, we call that “accountability in the face of crisis.” In governance, we call it “administrative reasoning.”
Then the Senate President put the question for procedure: *“Any seconder?”*
All hands stayed down. Conspiratorially down. Conspicuously down.
In that silence, Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s motion died. But more tragically, the hopes of millions of Nigerians under siege were set aside for convenience.
*1. The Legal and Constitutional Imperative*
Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution declares: “The security and welfare of the people shall be the supreme purpose of government.” This is not a suggestion. It is a command. It is the foundation of the social contract. When government fails in this primary duty, every other promise becomes meaningless.
In administrative law, accountability is not optional when public funds are deployed. Billions are appropriated annually for defense. Yet attacks multiply. Kidnappings industrialize. If expenditure does not produce security, then expenditure must be interrogated. That is basic public finance law. That is basic legislative oversight.
Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s motion was not an attack on the military. It was a defense of the Constitution. To refuse a second is to refuse the Constitution itself. To choose convenience over inquiry is to choose politics over people.
As I always remind us: *“A Constitution that is not enforced becomes a cemetery of good intentions.”*
*2. The Blood on the Ground: From Orile-Igbon to the North*
This is not theory. This is blood.
Just weeks ago, in Orile-Igbon, Orile Local Government Area of Oyo State, South West Nigeria, school children were kidnapped in their classrooms. Teachers were abducted alongside them. One teacher was beheaded — executed with merciless cruelty meant to terrorize an entire community. The maltreatment of those adopted, both children and teachers, has been described by survivors as heartless, dehumanizing, and designed to break the spirit of a people.
This is South West. The same pattern overwhelms the North. In Niger, Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, and Borno, “overwhelming adoptions” have become the phrase we use to avoid saying “mass kidnapping.” Schools are shut. Farms are abandoned. Entire villages are displaced. Killings are no longer news. They are routine.
When a teacher is beheaded for teaching, and no senator will second Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s probe into how we fund the fight against it, we must ask: what has become of us? When convenience trumps conscience, the blood of children cries louder than the silence in the chamber.
And as I say: *“When the state fails to protect the child, the child will learn to protect himself from the state.”*
*3. The Efforts of the State: The Commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Our Security Forces*
It would be intellectually dishonest and legally unfair to write this essay without acknowledging what Mr. President has done and is doing.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has, since assumption of office, placed national security at the center of his Renewed Hope Agenda. He has repeatedly declared that no Nigerian will be left at the mercy of bandits and kidnappers. In law, that is a presidential undertaking to the people under Section 14(2)(b).
The efforts are visible and measurable:
1. *Command Restructuring*: The President has rejigged the security architecture, appointing new service chiefs and charging them with measurable targets to degrade terrorist and bandit networks.
2. *Operational Intensity*: The military, under the Defence Headquarters, has intensified kinetic operations across the North West, North Central, and North East. Operation Hadarin Daji, Operation Forest Sanity, and Operation Whirl Stroke have recorded significant neutralization of bandit leaders and recovery of arms.
3. *Inter-Agency Coordination*: The NSA’s office has improved synergy between the military, police, DSS, and civil defense. The creation of the “Theatre Command” model allows for faster decision-making at the front.
4. *Welfare and Morale*: Mr. President has approved improved welfare packages, insurance, and allowances for troops. He has visited bases and commended soldiers publicly — a critical morale booster in counter-insurgency law.
5. *Diplomatic and Regional Push*: The administration is engaging ECOWAS and the Lake Chad Basin Commission to choke cross-border supply lines for arms and fighters. Critically, Mr. President has deepened a *deliberate security partnership with the United States*. This collaboration has delivered intelligence sharing, surveillance support, training for special forces, and counter-terrorism capacity building. In ongoing operations, U.S. technical assistance has enhanced targeting of bandit leaders and disrupted kidnapping networks in the North West. This partnership reflects administrative reasoning: no nation fights transnational crime alone, and Mr. President has refused to fight alone.
These are not small efforts. They are the actions of a Commander-in-Chief who understands the weight of his constitutional oath. Our soldiers, police officers, and intelligence operatives are making daily sacrifices. Many have paid the supreme price.
But as a lawyer and administrator, I restate this principle: *effort without audit breeds waste. Sacrifice without oversight breeds abuse.*
To audit defense spending is not to indict Mr. President or the military. It is to strengthen Mr. President’s hand. It is to ensure that the Commander-in-Chief’s directives, including international partnerships, are fully resourced, properly applied, and not diluted by inefficiency. Legislative oversight is the partner of executive action, not its adversary. Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s motion was meant to protect Mr. President’s investment in security, both domestic and international.
And again: *“Policy without monitoring is prophecy. It may be right, but it will not save lives.”*
*4. Representation, Social Order, and the Death of Courage*
The principle of accountable representation demands that every senator speaks for the kidnapped child in Orile-Igbon, for the beheaded teacher, for the farmer who cannot access his land in Zamfara. Parliamentary practice is not empty ritual. A seconder is not a formality. It is the first line of collective responsibility.
When 109 senators sit in a chamber and the Senate President asks *“Any seconder?”* to Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s motion, and none will answer, social order is threatened. Because people who feel unprotected will either flee, or arm themselves, or lose faith in the state entirely. That is how nations unravel.
As I often say: *“Greatness is not announced. It is proven.”* Nigeria will not prove greatness by press releases. We will prove it by opening the books, by auditing the billions, by asking hard questions while Mr. President is deploying troops.
And again: *“The weight of leadership is lighter when shoulders are shared.”* Yesterday, when the Senate President asked *“Any seconder?”*, the shoulders of the Senate refused to share the weight Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole carried alone for Mr. President’s security vision.
I also remind us: *“Silence in the chambers of power is permission for evil in the villages of the poor.”*
*Conclusion: The Verdict of History*
Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole asked the right legal question. Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole moved the right administrative motion. Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole invoked the right constitutional principle to support Mr. President’s fight. History will record that one man stood while 108 others chose convenience and looked away when the Senate President simply asked *“Any seconder?”*
The hands that stayed down yesterday must rise tomorrow. Not for politics. Not for party. But for the kidnapped child in Orile-Igbon. For the beheaded teacher. For the soldier executing Mr. President’s orders at the front. For the Constitution Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole defended yesterday.
Silence in the face of insecurity is not neutrality. In law, it is complicity. In governance, it is abdication. In humanity, it is betrayal.
Nigeria deserves better. Our people deserve better. Mr. President deserves a Senate that matches his effort with courage.
OSIFO, Osa Washington, Ph.D_
LL.B; B.L; LL.M; MPA; Ph.D (Comparative Economics & Development Studies); Ph.D (Environmental Law _in view_)
Lawyer | Political Scientist | Public Administrator | Policy Analyst.
