Bandits at the Akure Airport Confirm What Nigerians Already Know About Tinubu’s Government and Its Failures

Terrorism has so deeply infected Nigeria that nowhere is safe anymore. Not your home. Not your church. Not your farm. And now, not even the airport runway.

The numbers tell a story the government doesn’t want you to hear. Thousands of people have died nationwide as a result of communal and insurgent violence since 2011 according to Nigeria’s Security Tracker. Just last month, gunmen believed to be Islamic extremists killed at least 162 people in Kwara state, targeting Muslim-majority villages where residents refused extremist ideology. In Kaduna, 183 Christians abducted from their churches in January were finally freed in February, but not before the world watched and wondered how a country lets this happen to its own citizens . British MPs are now demanding that Prime Minister Starmer confront President Tinubu during his UK state visit over the killing of Christians, calling Nigeria one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians. One hundred and sixty-three Christian worshippers were kidnapped earlier this year in Kaduna alone, part of a wave of abductions targeting Christians in a country where sharia law operates in 12 northern states . The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion or Beat in the UK says the Nigerian state has failed to treat these attacks with the level of seriousness required.

And then Sunday happened.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria announced that four suspected bandits were apprehended within the vicinity of Akure Airport in Ondo State. According to reports, farmers working near the airport had to run toward the runway for safety after sighting armed men on motorcycles chasing them. Air traffic controllers noticed the unusual movement and alerted security personnel.  Think about that. Farmers running onto a tarmac, fleeing for their lives from men with guns. Bandits pursuing victims so close to a commercial airport that security teams had to launch a joint operation involving Aviation Security, the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Army, the police, Amotekun, and community vigilantes . Four suspects were arrested. Others fled. The airport perimeter, it turns out, was not so secure after all .

FAAN had the nerve to issue a statement saying this incident “further highlights the importance of strengthening airport perimeter protection” and announced that the Federal Government has “accelerated the provision of modern perimeter fencing and enhanced security infrastructure at airports across the country”. Work has already commenced in phases, they say.

Which brings us to the tweet someone posted that sums up this entire country perfectly. “Until bandits and terrorists enter airport is when the government will take this seriously.”

They were right. Aviation security expert Capt. John Ojikutu has been warning for years. In fact, he said just this month that the government needs to urgently reclaim all residential buildings constructed on airport land around the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, warning that the situation poses serious security risks . He reminded everyone that the International Civil Aviation Organization audits of 2004 recommended a proper security fence for MMA, a recommendation that to date has not been implemented . Twenty-two years. Twenty-two years of warnings ignored until bandits show up at an airport chasing farmers.

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Meanwhile, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja just last month, five security officers were arrested for accepting bribes to grant former Governor Nasir El-Rufai unauthorized access to restricted areas. They confessed to receiving money to facilitate entry into controlled sections of the airport, obstructing lawful security operations in what authorities called “an unprecedented manner” . So not only are the perimeters weak, the people paid to protect them are corrupt.

The pattern is undeniable. The government does nothing while Christians are kidnapped, while farmers are killed, while terrorists roam freely, while bandits chase people onto runways. But the moment an airport is threatened, the same government that ignored decades of warnings suddenly finds money for perimeter fencing. Suddenly they can “accelerate provision of modern security infrastructure.”

They don’t care about Christians dying. They don’t care about farmers fleeing their land. They care about airports because airports have cameras, because airports have international attention, because airports might embarrass them on a global stage.

Thousands dead. Kidnappings every week. Communities burned to the ground. And the government only moves when their own facilities are at risk.

Nigeria is not being governed. It is being managed by people who react only when the fire reaches their own doorstep. And by then, as we saw in Akure, the fire is already too close.