By Comrade Kunle Sodipo FICSSM, MNIMN, ANIPR
May 21, 2026
kdrexafricanchild@gmail.com
The increasing rate of kidnappings across Yorubaland is not random. It is not “insecurity” in the abstract. It is a message.
In Yoruba, we call it _Aroko_ — a symbolic, non-verbal communication sent when words are too dangerous or too direct. The messenger doesn’t speak. The act itself speaks. And for months now, bandits and kidnappers have been sending Yorubaland _Aroko_ in blood, in screams, in the silence of empty classrooms in Esiele, Ibarapa, Akoko, and Ondo.
The message is clear, and it is insulting:
*“Your land is no longer yours. Your roads are ours. Your children are our leverage. Your obas, your baales, your farmers — we decide who lives and who moves.”*
They send this _Aroko_ and we respond with press releases.
They send this _Aroko_ and we hold prayer vigils.
They send this _Aroko_ and our leaders issue “strong condemnations” from Abuja and Alausa, then go back to business as usual.
Yorubaland, wake up.
This is not the first time enemies tested us. When they came in the 19th century, our forefathers did not wait for Lagos to act. They organized. They fortified. They fought at Oyo, at Ogbomoso, at Ijaye. They understood that a people who cannot defend their soil become tenants on it.
Today, the soil of Yorubaland is being taken piece by piece — not by an army with flags, but by men with AK-47s who move freely through forests we once called our own. They kidnap our teachers. They rape our women. They demand ransom from farmers who can barely feed their families. And they do it because no one stops them.
Why? Because we have outsourced our survival to a centralized police force 400km away that arrives after the ransom is paid and the body is buried. Because we have allowed “freedom of movement” to become a license for invasion. Because we are too polite to call an occupation by its name.
This _Aroko_ they are sending is a declaration: *Yorubaland is undefended.*
So here is the response they should get:
*1. Stop pretending this is normal.*
Every time we say “it’s happening everywhere,” we excuse it at home. It is happening here, now, to us. And if we don’t stop it here, there will be no “here” left.
*2. Demand state police and community defense now.*
The National Assembly is stalling. The governors are negotiating. Meanwhile, our children are in the bush. Yoruba governors must stop asking permission to protect their people. Use the legal powers you have. Fund hunters, vigilantes, and community security with state backing. Give them intelligence, equipment, and legal cover. A people without teeth cannot complain when they are bitten.
*3. Break the silence on collaborators.*
Kidnappers don’t operate in a vacuum. There are informants, landlords, okada riders, and “scavengers” who know too much. The community knows them. The silence that protects them is the same silence that kills our children. Name them. Expose them. No more hiding behind “we don’t want trouble.”
*4. Reclaim the forests and the roads.*
Our ancestors never surrendered the forests. We will not start now. Organize, fund, and back coordinated patrols and clearances. Make it costly for any armed group to step foot in Yorubaland.
Yorubaland is not known for cowardice. We are the people of Oduduwa, of Ogun, of Sango. We are the people who built empires and defended them. If we allow this _Aroko_ to go unanswered, history will not call it misfortune. It will call it betrayal.
The sleeping giant must rise. Not with hashtags. Not with tweets. With action, with organization, with a refusal to let any foreign armed group dictate life in our land.
They have sent their message.
The question is: what is Yorubaland’s reply?
Share widely to all Yoruba sons and daughters home and abroad, the time to act is now!
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