By Dare Adelekan
The tragic death of retired Major General Rabe Abubakar while held captive by bandits in Katsina State is a devastating blow to the psychological fabric of Nigerian national security.
The Katsina State Government has stated that the former Director of Defence Information succumbed to complications from diabetes and hypertension.
However, let there be no semantic evasion: General Abubakar did not just die of medical illness; he was effectively executed by the structural neglect, trauma, and deprivation of captivity.
For ordinary citizens, this is a moment of profound terror. The military architecture is built on an implicit social contract: those who wear the uniform risk their lives for the state, and in return, the state leverages its ultimate power to protect them and their legacy. When bandits can comfortably ambush a two-star general and his wife on a major road, hold him for weeks, and watch him deteriorate until death without a decisive rescue operation, that contract is broken.
It sends a chilling message to the public: the security apparatus is failing to protect even its own institutional elite.
The audacity of these criminal syndicates has grown to an intolerable level. They no longer fear the weight of the state. While the government regularly touts the successes of its non-kinetic strategies—such as the controversial rehabilitation and reintegration of "repentant" insurgents—the reality on the ground reflects a stark asymmetry. To the average Nigerian, it appears that the state treats terrorists with kid gloves and diplomacy, while law-abiding citizens and retired patriots pay the ultimate price in forest hideouts.
If this tragedy is treated as just another unfortunate headline, it will confirm the worst fears of the citizenry: that the security apparatus only exists to guard those actively holding the levers of political power. The Federal Government and the military high command must treat the death of General Abubakar as a definitive turning point.
Nigeria cannot defeat terrorism or banditry by treating it as a standard policing issue or an economic negotiation. It requires an aggressive, unyielding reassertion of state power, a complete overhaul of intelligence gathering on domestic travel routes, and a transparent review of the reintegration policies that many fear are backfiring. The life of a general has been lost in the most degrading circumstances imaginable. If this does not trigger a radical, structural shift in the nation's defense architecture, then nothing will.
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