The following are the views expressed by Olufemi Oguntokun in the July 14, 2026 episode of the On the Lord’s Side Podcast — Christian perspectives on news and current events.
ON THE ORIRE ABDUCTION — MORE DEATHS, MORE QUESTIONS
Good morning to you once again. It is Tuesday, the 14th of July 2026.
I want to begin by returning briefly to the story of the release — or the rescue, as may be the case — of the teachers and students abducted in May at a school in Oyo State, who, after about 57 or 58 days, have now come home. Time will tell what actually took place. Yesterday we engaged with it extensively, reminding ourselves that our response should be thanksgiving that these people have returned, but also, at the same time, remembrance of those who are mourning because their own loved ones did not make it back — not only regarding this episode, but the many other kidnappings where victims were killed despite ransom, or where families could not raise the ransom. We must continue to pray for our country and to witness to the glory of God and His sovereignty over all the affairs of men.
When we had that engagement yesterday, we were speaking only of the one teacher who was beheaded gruesomely on video, on the very day of the abduction — no doubt to make the abductees and all of us afraid. But yesterday, as the government allowed Mrs. Rachel Folawe Alamu — the principal who became the face of the abductees, always in the videos released by the captors — to speak to the press, she revealed that the terrorists killed others too. So, whereas we were told all the abductees had been released, that was not the whole truth. In her words: “They tried a lot with us, but we are grateful for a government that thought much of us. We discovered that the whole world was interested in our case. We want to say thank you to everybody — the officers, the governor, the president, everyone involved. We have scars already, but we believe with time we will heal. And we pray that God will console the families of those who lost their lives. On behalf of everyone, we say thank you from the depth of our hearts.”
That was Mrs. Rachel Folawe Alamu, the rescued principal of the Community High School in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State, saying that while they were held, one teacher — a Mr. Michael — was killed on the second day of the abduction, and another, whom she referred to as “the Deacon” (probably a deacon in the Baptist church, since one of the raided schools was owned by a Baptist church), was killed on the first Sunday of June. This reminds us how deeply these abductees have been traumatised, and we should bear that in mind as we pray for them, and as their families gradually reintegrate them. But it should also reinforce our praying for the relatives of those who did not return from that horrible experience. This is the kind of situation where relatives will have so many questions. Anytime a person loses a loved one, questions arise naturally; but in a case like this, even more — for the one who knows and loves the Lord will look up and wonder: “You have shown that You have the power to rescue people; some were rescued. Why did You not rescue my own husband, my brother, my friend?” A pastor will ask, “Why did You not rescue my own member?” Why does God save some and not others? These questions afflict any human mind.
We should pray that the Lord will send His Holy Spirit to minister to the loved ones of those who were killed. There is a level of comfort no human being can give; there are things for which we have no explanation. We can point to the sovereignty and wisdom of God. David wrote in Psalm 119 that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether — when taken all together, when you can see the whole picture, they are true. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, the Preacher, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reminds us that God makes everything beautiful in its time, that He has set eternity in our hearts, and that no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. The more you look at what God does, the more challenging it is to understand in full; He grants us understanding from time to time, but even that is only in part. Paul wrote that now we see dimly, as through a mirror, and know in part; but the time will come, if we are patient, when we shall see clearly and know in full. On this side of eternity, we can only see and know in part, even when we think we have known so much about the Lord and His ways.
So the relatives of those killed will not only be sad in the general sense; they will have questions — about the justice of God, the wisdom of God, about “why.” And it is our duty not only to weep with them, but to pray that God Almighty will send His Holy Spirit to comfort them as only He can. What can I say to such a person? How do I explain why this happened to one woman’s husband while other teachers made their way home? It is possible that in the same church, in that local government, there is a family whose member was taken and returned alive, and another whose member was taken and did not return — imagine the delicate task for the pastors leading such churches. Let us remember them too, and pray that we will not experience these things again.
I now bring you the press statement by the governor of Oyo State, Governor Seyi Makinde. Since this episode began, everyone noticed the disconnect between the federal government and the Oyo State government. The governor is not in the All Progressives Congress, the ruling party at the federal level. One would have supposed that mature, God-fearing leaders would set politics aside and work together at a time like this. But even before the abductees were released, the governor said in public that he had questions about the abduction and about the credibility of the federal government’s statements regarding the so-called rescue. He had said earlier that he found it disconcerting that he declared his intention to run for the presidency at 4 p.m. on a certain day, and by 9 a.m. the very next day something that had never happened in the southwest in that manner then happened — so he suspected it was politically motivated. And yesterday he went further, calling on the international community to investigate all aspects of what is now called the Orire abduction. In his words: “The facts of the Orire abduction are sufficiently grave and unusual to warrant independent scrutiny beyond our domestic institutions. I therefore, with a full sense of responsibility as the Executive Governor of Oyo State, call on the appropriate international human rights and accountability mechanisms, including those within the United Nations system, to closely examine the facts surrounding this abduction and the circumstances of its resolution. Such scrutiny is not intended to undermine our institutions, but to reinforce public confidence that the truth will be established, and that every person found to bear responsibility — regardless of office, influence or affiliation — will be held accountable. The Nigerian people deserve a full and transparent account of what happened, who was responsible, whether there were institutional failures, negligence or collusion at any level, and what measures must be taken to ensure that no community is ever subjected to such an ordeal again. This is not about politics. It is about justice for the victims, reassurance for our people, and restoring public confidence that every Nigerian child can go to school without fear.”
I fully agree with the governor. This should not be about politics; it should be about justice — and about restoring confidence in our institutions. Because if we cannot be confident that certain things simply could not happen, we are in trouble. There are things that, if you heard them, you should be able to say, “No, that cannot possibly be.” If you heard that the government manufactured or staged an abduction to rubbish a political rival, or to ram one law or another through the National Assembly, you should be able to say, “No, that cannot happen” — the kind of confidence good people have in one another; the things that, to use Paul’s expression, should not even be named among you. Of course, when we speak of politicians and the world at large, we are not talking about people on the Lord’s side — and maybe it is a wake-up call that when you are dealing with unregenerate minds, nothing is out of bounds.
The presidency has responded to the governor’s call. According to Punch newspaper, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy said the governor’s request suggested a lack of confidence in Nigeria’s security institutions. Please. This is quite weak — I am reading it for the first time. The only people who claim to have total confidence in Nigeria’s security are those in government who control those very institutions. The fact of the abduction itself, that it lasted almost 60 days, that it is not the only one — that there are still perhaps hundreds held captive across the country, that ordinary citizens are raising millions to pay ransoms — all of that should shake the confidence of any rational person. We all lack confidence in our security institutions. We do not want to; it is our prayer and desire that these institutions be empowered and manned by competent, God-fearing, noble people, so that citizens can have real confidence in them. The presidency also insisted that the military had already provided explanations for the rescue operation. But, as we said yesterday, those explanations have not filled the gaps — and once you withhold relevant information, people fill the gaps themselves. In other countries, after such an operation there is a briefing: when did it start, what was the extent and the target? And when you say you “rescued” people, the question is — from whom? These abductors, where are they? Did you kill them? Did you arrest them? In Nigeria, when it concerns abductions and the so-called rescues the federal government claims, you never hear anything about those from whom the victims were rescued. Were they asleep when you got there, so that you rescued the people and left the captors sleeping? There is this sense that the government treats these abductors with kid gloves. And if they have been left untouched, and ransom has been paid, we all know what will happen: they will feast on what they received, regroup, and look for an opportune time to strike again. That speaks to the complicity of many people in government.
So we have our work cut out for us. Continue to pray for this country; we must never tire. I will say again what I have always said: former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, when he sought the APC nomination for president at the convention that eventually chose the person who is president now — the people who have demonstrated a lack of competence, character and compassion, who are complicit in much of the corruption and insecurity, with unexplained wealth — yet the very people who pray to God for good leaders choose these people. We are always praying, “God, help us, give us good leaders,” but when it comes to it, we vote for these people; and when someone else says, “I also want to be president,” we say, “No, no, you can’t do it.” We are always voting in the opposite direction of our prayers. That does not fully explain the Nigerian situation — people also point, rightly, to an electoral system prone to abuse, and my wife always insists Nigerians did not actually vote for the government we have, that the politicians manipulated the system, which is a partial explanation. But it must also be said that many people who pray for good leadership continue to make the wrong choices. Which is very sad.
So we bring up these stories — the two teachers, one killed on the second day, the other (the Deacon) on the first Sunday of June — to impress it more on our minds to pray for their loved ones, that the Lord will console them, and to hope the government will not forget them but will immortalise their names and support their families. And we bring up the governor’s statement: if someone in that vantage position has doubts about the federal government’s claims, then indeed there are questions, and it is incumbent on the government to answer them. In the absence of clarifications, the government has not done its work — which is why we keep calling it the so-called rescue. The fact that we have questions is itself disconcerting, a reminder that there is fire on the mountain. But this much we know: the Lord is God; He rules over all the affairs of men; and we pray it will please Him to intervene in the matter of this country, in Jesus’ name.
ON GOOD NAMES AND BAD LIVES
Next, some lighter stories from which we can still reflect on consequential matters. First, a sermon clip some called humorous and one person called “brutal” — the person who posted it said “this pastor is brutal.” The pastor said, in effect: “In the USA you see names like Stone, Bush, Bucket, Cricket, Mr. Cow — yet they make progress. But in Africa, Blessing is begging for data, Happiness is suffering from depression, Wisdom has no sense, Victory fails his exams, Courage is scared of an ordinary dog. We bear good names, but we live bad lives.” Many in the congregation laughed, and I am sure you chuckled too. He said in the US and Europe people bear names like Stone and Bush and Cricket — I have not personally come across a “Mr. Cow,” but it is not beyond reason. Some of these are just names, for identification, without much meaning; and even English names often do have meanings we miss as non-native speakers — I randomly think of a former British prime minister whose surname means something like a field or meadow. But the pastor’s point stands: in Africa, and certainly in Nigeria, we are so concerned about choosing names like Happiness, Blessing, Wisdom — yet, he says, Blessing is begging for data, Wisdom has no sense; we bear good names but live bad lives.
This is a reminder of one of the overarching themes of Jesus’ preaching: He was always pointing people away from a preoccupation with appearances — with how we look, what name we bear, what people see us do — toward how God sees us; and when the Lord looks, He looks not at the apparent but at the heart. This is not to say people bearing plain names in Europe and the US are better in their standing before God, or more godly in character — that is not the point. The point is that you who chose to bear names signifying the things you want are not, on that account, doing well or being godly. That is why it is always sad when, on the list of people doing horrible and sinful things, you find those bearing Christian and biblical names — John, Moses, Joshua, Elijah — doing wicked things. It teaches us, as Jesus taught His day, that the apparent does not matter; what matters is who you are.
When the heart is good, when it has been transformed, that transformation affects everything — how you look, how you talk (your speech seasoned with salt), your appearance and dress marked by moderation, as the Bible teaches. But that should not be the starting point. The name you bear, the way you talk, your appearance — none of these is the starting point. The starting point is to know Christ, to surrender yourself to be transformed and renewed by Him; and then it flows from the inward to the outward. That is the Christian life: it starts in the heart and shows itself outside in fruits all can see. We were reading Galatians 4 at the Readers’ Club on Saturday, reflecting on verse 6, where Paul writes that because God has made you His sons, He has put His Spirit into your hearts. That is where God works — in the heart, where He starts. Whereas we human beings want to start from the outside: a name people will like, a dress that catches attention. But God works the opposite way. He told Samuel that the Lord does not look as men look — men look at the outward ap