By Augustine Aminu

On Friday, May 16, 2026, the world was jolted by news of the killing of top commander of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP), Abour Mainok and several other fighters. Also known as Abu Bilal al-Minuki, and considered the second-in-command of ISIL (ISIS) globally, the top terrorist commander was reportedly killed during a joint Nigeria-U.S. Counter Terrorism operation in Metele, Borno State.

Ever since the elimination of al-Minuki, considered one of the biggest blows in recent times to terrorists in the world over, torrents of encomium have been pouring in for the Nigeria -U. S. joint terrorism operations.

Posting on his Truth Social handle, U. S. President Donald Trump, wrote, “Brave American forces ⁠and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,”

Al-Minuki, added President Trump, “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had ‌sources ⁠who kept us informed on what he was doing.”

On his part, President Bola Tinubu stated that both countries had “recorded a significant example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism”.

Early assessments indicate that al-Minuki, along with “several of his lieutenants,” were killed during a strike on his compound in Metele, Borno State,” Tinubu said.

“Nigeria appreciates this partnership with the United States in advancing our shared security objectives,” he added. “I extend my sincere gratitude to President Trump for his leadership and unwavering support in this effort,” he added.

A few days after President Trump praised Nigerian Intelligence services for helping to hunt down Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a man he described as “the most active terrorist in the world,” US Air Force General, Dagvin R.M. Anderson, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, also spoke glowingly of Nigeria’s Intelligence services.

Remarked Anderson, “The Nigerians have been instrumental throughout the last several months, developing the target, helping us with the Intelligence and providing support. So, it could not have been done by our own Forces. We needed to do that in conjunction with them.”

Security sources who analyzed President Trump’s terse statement, alongside that of the to head of AFRICOM, General Anderson, were quick to point out that the “sources” who kept the United States and Nigerian Armed Forces informed of the movements of al-Minuki and his fighters, may be none other than Nigeria’s Intelligence agencies: the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Interestingly, six days before al-Minuki’s elimination, something crucial to the fight against terrorism happened in one North central town, well over 1,100 kilometres away from Metele, Borno State, where al-Minuki and over 175 of his fighters would meet their Waterloo.

Just as DSS, NIA and DIA operatives were helping US and Nigerian troops monitor the movement of Al-Minuki and his fighters around the Lake Chad region, a set of DSS operatives covertly captured a notorious leader of one of ISWAP’s critical cell in Nigeria . His name is Abdulrahman Ozovieh Muhammad alias Abu Ghozi.

Abu Ghozi, security sources believe, masterminded the December 2020 attack on a military checkpoint in Okene, killing two naval personnel and carting away their weapons.

Additionally, Abu Ghozi is believed to have masterminded the 11th March, 2021 bank robbery at Okuku, in Oda-Atin LGA of Osun State; carried out several attacks on police formations in Okene, Okehi and Adavi LGAs. He didn’t spare security checkpoints along Okene-Auchi, Okene –Kabba and Okene-Ajaokuta roads.

Also believed to be behind several kidnaps, including the October 2025 kidnap of a Chinese national in Okpella, Edo State, during which eight personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were killed, is Abu Ghozi.

In January, 2026, his group reportedly attacked and burnt down the house of the Chief Priest at Uhodo area of Okehi LGA. Members of his suspected terrorist group were, before his arrest by the DSS, reportedly set to attack detention facilities in Kainji and Abuja, to release detained members of their group.

Security sources believe that Abu Ghozi’s capture by DSS officers may have greatly helped the Nigerian Intelligence Services (DSS, NIA and DIA) gather further Intelligence that was ultimately used to nail al-Minuki and his fighters six days later in faraway Metele, Borno State.

No doubt, Nigeria’s Intelligence community and their military counterpart again proved very invaluable to the recent successes in the global fight against terrorism, and helped position Nigeria as a very trusted ally in the fight against terrorism.

For the first time since Nigeria began fighting terrorism circa 2010, the country has now fully turned the heat on terrorists, smoking them.out on a daily basis.. The recent successes recorded shows that with our Armed Forces increasingly relying on the intelligence supplied by the DSS, NIA and DIA, Nigeria will sooner than later overcome her security challenges.

Aminu has been online editor of several newspapers, and lives in Abuja

In Nigeria’s modern political and media environment, public figures often find themselves subjected to intense scrutiny. Criticism, accountability, and public debate are essential pillars of democracy. However, there are moments when criticism crosses the line into calculated campaigns of disinformation, propaganda, and deliberate character assassination.

The controversy surrounding former Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, now appears to be one of those moments.

For months, Nigerians witnessed a relentless media campaign aimed at discrediting the former police chief. From sensational headlines to coordinated social media narratives, the objective appeared obvious: damage the reputation of a man whose policing career spanned decades of service, sacrifice, and professional commitment to the Nigerian state.

Today, however, the sudden silence from many of those voices has exposed the campaign for what it truly was.Among the loudest promoters of the attacks was Omoyele Sowore and his media platform.

The moment Egbetokun attained the age of 60 in September 2024, he was immediately branded an “illegal IGP” by activists and commentators who neither possessed constitutional authority nor the legal mandate to interpret the law beyond the courts.Yet Nigeria is governed by laws, not media outrage, activism, or social media campaigns.

The legal position regarding the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police was already clear. Section 7(6) of the Nigeria Police Act guarantees a four-year tenure for an appointed Inspector-General of Police. More importantly, the Nigeria Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, introduced Section 18(8A), which expressly clarified that an Inspector-General of Police shall complete the statutory tenure attached to the office regardless of retirement rules concerning age or years of service.

That amendment became law in July 2024, months before Egbetokun turned 60.This single legal reality fundamentally weakened the narrative being aggressively promoted in certain political and media circles. The amendment was neither hidden nor ambiguous. It was publicly enacted legislation designed specifically to avoid instability and unnecessary disruptions in police leadership.

What makes the entire episode even more revealing is what did not happen.Despite the daily outrage, media pressure, protests, interviews, and repeated declarations that Egbetokun was “occupying office illegally,” no serious legal challenge was successfully pursued against his tenure. Ironically, many of those leading the media attacks were already frequent visitors to the Federal High Court in Abuja on various matters.If the appointment was truly unconstitutional, why was there no decisive judicial confrontation?

The answer appears increasingly obvious: those driving the narrative likely understood that the law itself did not support their claims.Even more revealing is the silence surrounding the current Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, who reportedly turned 60 on April 13, 2026. During interviews around the Federal High Court, Abuja, Sowore publicly threatened to also label Disu an “illegal IGP.”Yet weeks later, that threat has remained largely rhetorical.

No sustained media outrage. No coordinated campaigns. No daily headlines. No dramatic accusations.That silence has unintentionally exposed what many Nigerians had already begun to suspect: the attacks against Egbetokun may never have been about constitutional principles alone, but rather selective outrage shaped by other motives.

Today, Egbetokun appears more peaceful and relaxed in retirement. Curiously, many of the dramatic allegations and sensational “exposés” that once flooded social media have suddenly disappeared. The circulation of questionable police documents has faded. The orchestrated scandals have evaporated. The noise has reduced because the mission the propaganda served has apparently ended.

History, however, has a unique way of exposing conspiracies and separating truth from manufactured narratives.The Holy Bible states in Proverbs 24:8: “He who plots evil will be called a schemer.” Proverbs 26:27 further warns: “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.”These verses resonate strongly with the events that unfolded around the former police chief.

Many of the allegations levelled against Egbetokun gradually collapsed under public scrutiny, reinforcing the belief among his supporters that much of the campaign was carefully designed to tarnish the image of a career police officer who devoted much of his life to national service.

This is not to suggest that public officials should be shielded from criticism. Far from it. In every democracy, scrutiny remains necessary for transparency and accountability. But there is an important distinction between constructive criticism and a coordinated attempt to destroy reputations through misinformation, exaggeration, and politically motivated propaganda.

As Nigeria continues to strengthen its democratic institutions, the media and civil society must also recognize the responsibility that comes with influence. Activism is powerful, but when mixed with selective outrage and unverified narratives, it risks undermining public trust and weakening legitimate democratic engagement.

Now retired, Egbetokun can enjoy the peace that often accompanies a clear conscience and years of service rendered to one’s nation. More importantly, Nigeria still needs experienced professionals like him. His institutional knowledge, policing expertise, and strategic understanding of national security remain valuable assets that can still contribute meaningfully to the country’s security architecture and public sector development.

In the end, truth possesses a stubborn quality that propaganda can never permanently suppress.Campaigns fade. Narratives collapse. Silence eventually speaks.And sometimes, silence exposes the conspiracy more loudly than words ever could.

By Audu Moses

For several years, schools in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, and indeed it’s entire educational system were in ruins and rots. They were visibly and intentionally targeted.

Schools were burned, teachers and learners were killed, while thousands more were displaced or abducted, with entire communities left with an equal generation of children, whose only history and places of abode are IDP camps and displacement homes.

It has been over 15 years of traumatic and horrific stories. This reality confronted the entire country and even the international community. The insurgents did not only attack schools, the inflicted violence on the psyche, attempting to destroy it’s fundamental ideals, and fabrics through demoralizing and radicalizing the system.

Education is not just about grades and certificates, it’s about survival, and a generation.

It is within this context that the North East Development Commission’s educational program of rebuilding and sustainability, across Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba, and Bauchi States, deserve not just mere bureaucratic acknowledgement but public appreciation.

Since June 2016 through 2018, the story has been terrible and horrific; schools were reduced to rubbles, textbooks were burned, teachers and learners killed or displaced.

For the NEDC, the approach is not about press releases but the prioritization of actual reconstruction of classrooms, laboratories, libraries, conveniences, and protective perimeter fences. This is because, they understand that there can be no school without a roof, because no child learns under the tree, especially during the rains, or when the sun bites.

Truth is, a roof and a blackboard may not guarantee learning but the sure make it possible.

Those structures are clear testaments that something foundational and normal is already taking place, and that the initial barriers has been eliminated , and the people were never abandoned by their government.

For the people of the North East, the greatest challenge remains the “lost cohort”, those children who were within the 12 years to 17years bracket, who suffered the real pangs of insurgency, and had missed school for between 4years to 6years. To this group, the thought of jumping classes, or just being promoted notionally to the Junior Secondary School class will not just be counterproductive but stigmatizing. Hence, the innovative accelerated learning centres and integration program for IDPs and almajiri students.

Although critics will conclude that the plan is not a perfect one, but it remains the most pragmatic approach, as it gives the out-of-school children a second chance, with the possibility of not just eliminating the situation created by grown-ups sitting in the same class with children young enough to be their children, but granting the perfect ambience for formal education, an an alternative for vocational training, as it stops the cycle of permanent exclusion of thousands.

The focus on local capacity building remains cardinal approach that functions side-by-side with infrastructural development, as infrastructure without teachers will only be a shell or a museum.

Notably, fixing the teachers through retraining, is like fixing the pipeline which results in fixing the future. While, the incentives for educators to study educational courses abroad, with a return-to-serve condition, solves a job security challenge for the teachers who will now return back home to a sure ready job.

Through this local teaching workforce, sustainability is entrenched by a group of teachers who understand the context of the environment and are not afraid to remain, ensuring and consolidating the development of an enduring system who have a stake in the state.

This is a trite fact that, interventions in the educational sector are slow, expensive, and at times vulnerable to the setbacks against the sidelines of insecurity and conflict.

But by making education the core pillar of NEDC sustainability program, in its collaborative fight against insecurity and insurgency, NEDC has demonstrated it’s avowed commitment in ridding the region from child recruitment for instability by insurgents, at the same time stabilizing the region.

NEDC indeed has demonstrated that it is an agent of confidence and trust building as it continues to train and produce more graduates, thereby growing the human capital base that is necessary for the future sustainability of the region.

It stands to the NEDC that it has remained focused over the years on a sector that does not necessarily create or attract headlines.

However, the superlative works of the NEDC has to be amplified and applauded by well-meaning patriots, as this will certainly reenforce it’s focus and priority.

Indeed, NEDC has changed the narratives in the North East from destruction to rebuilding, and from displacement to reequiping and retraining.

They have also restored the dignity of thousands of communities who were told that the government has abandoned and forgotten them because they do not matter. NEDC has eliminated the supply chain of insurgents recruitment into violent groups, giving youths better positive alternative, while building huge human capital base needed by the region as it progressively recover from the years of destruction due to insurgency and conflicts.

A functioning school in town that was once a ghost town is good for all, no matter the political party, religion, or race. This is not flattery, it is a push to keep moving on, because the next generation needs education and the North East needs a chance to redefine itself beyond conflicts and insurgency.

Soon the narratives will no longer be “out-of-school children” but will become “what these graduates have achieved and produced.”

This conversation is worth having and the North East Development Commission (NEDC) is making it happen. This indeed is worth appreciating and supporting.

Moses wrote this piece from Abuja.