by Olaitan Babatunde
Today is Global Parents Day, a day set aside to celebrate the bond between parents and their children, a day filled with photographs, family messages, school tributes, and social media posts reminding people that family remains society’s first institution. But somewhere in Oyo State today, some parents are not celebrating. They are waiting. Waiting for a phone call. Waiting for news. Waiting for children who still have not returned home.
For many Nigerians, the kidnapping that happened in Oyo within the last two weeks was just another headline in an endless stream of insecurity reports. But for the affected families, it is not a headline. It is a living nightmare. Every hour feels longer. Every unknown phone call creates panic. Every knock on the door raises hope before disappointment settles in again.
The situation gained even more national attention after a heartbreaking video surfaced showing a school principal emotionally pleading for help and intervention. The video did not look like politics. It did not look like public relations. It looked like fear. Raw fear. The kind of fear that comes when people begin to realise that the institutions meant to protect them may not be moving fast enough. Nigerians watched the video and many could hear something beyond the principal’s words. Frustration. Exhaustion. Helplessness.
Governor Seyi Makinde later visited the affected community. The visit was important. In moments of tragedy, leadership must be visible. Citizens need to know that those in power understand the weight of what has happened. But beyond the photographs, handshakes, and official assurances, families are asking a more painful question. Where are the children?
That question is now echoing across the state.
Residents have taken to the streets in protest, demanding urgent action and faster results. Their anger is understandable. No parent wants to hear promises when their child is still missing. No community wants to be told that efforts are ongoing while bedrooms remain empty and school uniforms hang untouched. At some point, citizens stop measuring government response by statements and begin measuring it by outcomes.
The tragedy also exposes a deeper problem within Nigeria’s security architecture. Communities are increasingly learning about kidnappings through social media videos before hearing concrete rescue updates from authorities. Parents are forced to become investigators. Residents become unofficial security analysts. Rumours spread faster than verified information because fear always moves quicker than bureaucracy.
What makes this case particularly painful is that these are children. Not politicians. Not powerful businessmen. Not people surrounded by security convoys. These are young lives whose biggest concerns should be school assignments, friendships, football, cartoons, and future dreams. Instead, they have become part of Nigeria’s growing insecurity statistics.
The silence surrounding their whereabouts is becoming its own form of trauma.
As Global Parents Day is being marked around the world, some parents in Oyo are facing a reality no mother or father should experience. There are no celebrations in homes where children are still missing. There are no joyful family gatherings when uncertainty has occupied the dining table. There is only anxiety.
Government officials often remind citizens that security operations take time. That may be true. But citizens also have a right to demand urgency when children are involved. Every passing day deepens public anxiety and weakens public confidence. People are beginning to ask difficult questions. How did this happen. Could it have been prevented. Are enough resources being deployed. Is the country becoming too comfortable with responding after tragedies instead of preventing them.
The danger of repeated kidnappings is not only the lives they threaten. It is the trust they destroy.
Because when parents begin to fear sending their children to school, when communities begin organising protests instead of relying on institutions, and when principals start begging publicly for help, the issue is no longer just about crime. It becomes a crisis of public confidence.
Tonight, while many parents hold their children close, some families in Oyo are holding photographs instead.
And until those children return home safely, Global Parents Day will feel incomplete.
