The Price of Complicity: From “Where Are the Cows” to the Slaughter of Oyo’s Teachers – Video
There is a well-known maxim in data privacy and modern economics: “If you don’t know the product, then you are probably the product.”
In the brutal theatre of Nigerian politics, this reality applies perfectly to human life. For years, the people of Southwest Nigeria have been systematically packaged, traded, and sold as political currency by their own elites. They are told who to fear, who to protect, who to hate and when to remain silent, all to serve the electoral ambitions of a select few. The horrifying security collapse currently unfolding in Oyo State is NOT an accident, it is the direct, liquidated interest on a debt of political complicity. And the origins of this systemic sellout trace back to a single, mocking deflection: Where are the cows?
Today, as the smoke clears from a devastating forest ambush and a community mourns a brutally executed educator, the semantic games of the past have officially run out of room.
The Reality of the Product: Treated Like “The Cows” in Oriire
On Friday, May 15, 2026, the ancestral heartland of the Yoruba race faced an unconscionable assault. Heavily armed bandits launched a coordinated raid on multiple educational institutions within the Ahoro-Esiele/Yawota axis of the Oriire Local Government Area in Oyo State. Marching into Community High School and surrounding primary schools, these terrorists abducted 39 schoolchildren and 7 teachers, marching them into the dense forests of the Old Oyo National Park.
By Monday, May 18, 2026, the crisis evolved from a nightmare into an unspeakable horror. A viral video released by the terrorists confirmed the brutal execution of Michael Oyedokun, a dedicated mathematics teacher from Community High School. He was slaughtered in captivity.
The grim, stomach-turning irony cannot be overlooked. For years, communities in the Southwest warned that a unique, nomadic security threat was mutating in their forests. They were told by political leaders to wait for evidence, to avoid ethnic profiling, and to stay calm. Today, an innocent educator who spent his life shaping the minds of Yoruba children was treated with the exact animalistic brutality usually reserved for Cows.
From Tinubu’s “Where Are the Cows” to a Verdict of Blood
To understand how a mathematics teacher could be slaughtered with impunity in Oyo State in 2026, we must look back to July 2019. Following the tragic highway murder of Funke Olakunrin, the 58-year-old daughter of Afenifere leader Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the Southwest was primed for an uprising against rampant highway banditry.
Enter Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Visiting the home of the grieving father, Tinubu stood before journalists and famously attempted to detach the identity of Fulani herdsmen from the crime. He asked the press:
“I don’t want to be political, but I will ask, where are the cows?”
To shield a fragile political alliance with the northern establishment ahead of his 2023 presidential run, Tinubu weaponized semantics. By asking “where are the cows”, he demanded physical livestock as a prerequisite for identifying a criminal syndicate. He deflected further by bringing up “Evans,” a notorious billionaire kidnapper from the Southeast, arguing that “crime has no tribe.”
NOTABLE TIMELINE:
[ 2019: THE DEFLECTION ]
Tinubu's Rhetoric: "Where are the cows?"
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[ 2022: THE REALITY ]
Ondo High Court convicts Usman, Lawal, & Adamu
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[ 2026: THE CONSEQUENCE ]
Michael Oyedokun slaughtered in Oyo forest
The public was rightfully outraged, but the ultimate vindication, and structural irony, came on June 10, 2022. An Ondo State High Court sentenced Muhammed Shehu Usman, Mazaje Lawal, and Adamu Adamu to death by hanging for Olakunrin’s murder. The convicted individuals were of Fulani background, operating an organized highway kidnapping ring. The court verdict proved that the local community’s instincts were correct, shattering the protectionist narrative built around the question, “where are the cows”.
Sunday Igboho: From Vanguard to Enforcer
When the state fails to protect its own, vacuums are filled by radical actors. In early 2021, Sunday Adeyemo (Sunday Igboho) emerged as a grassroots “messiah” after rogue herders brutally murdered Dr. Fatai Aborode in Igangan. Igboho famously issued a seven-day eviction notice to the Seriki Fulani, storming the settlement to forcefully evict them. He built his entire brand on being the uncompromised warrior of the Yoruba race, championing the Oduduwa Republic self determination struggle.
Fast forward to March 2026. Following an official pardon and removal from the federal watchlist, Igboho returned from exile. The transition from freedom fighter to political asset was instant and jarring. Within weeks, the man who once fought the federal establishment was spotted wearing an APC-branded “Asiwaju” cap, declaring a 100% endorsement for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.
More revealingly, Igboho shifted his targets. Instead of securing the volatile forests of Oyo State, his public energy in 2026 is spent issuing warnings to opposition political groups. In a viral video, he threatened:
“Tinubu for second term, 100 per cent. No more Atiku, Obi. Asiwaju for life… bring Atiku or Obi to Yorubaland, you will learn.”
While the Oriire local government faces an active siege, with joint tactical forces running into Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) planted by bandits in the Old Oyo National Park, the self-proclaimed “Warrior of Yorubaland” is entirely absent from the trenches. He has been successfully co-opted, transformed from an organic community shield into a partisan enforcer tasked with securing electoral territory for the 2027 ballot box.
Tribal Card: The Afenifere 2027 permutation
The hypocrisy extends all the way to the regional elders. Recently, Dr. Akin Fapounda, an Afenifere chieftain, delivered an incredibly cynical assessment of the current administration. He admitted plainly:
“On merit, Tinubu should hide his face from Nigeria — he has not delivered.”
Yet, in the very same breath, Fapounda warned that if an opposition coalition unseats Tinubu in 2027, it could trigger a “Rwanda-level” ethnic war between the Yoruba and the Igbo.
This is the ultimate manifestation of tribal hostage-taking. Regional elders openly acknowledge the catastrophic failure of governance, economic misery, and security collapses. Yet, they weaponize existential fear to force the local electorate into defensive compliance. They are effectively saying: “He may let your teachers be slaughtered, and your children be stolen, but you must keep him in power out of raw tribal self-preservation”.
Are Yoruba people the Product?
When leaders demand literal cattle to validate a tragedy, when grassroots activists trade their bows for campaign caps, and when elders trade performance metrics for ethnic scare tactics, the message is clear.
The people of the Southwest are being treated as a guaranteed, non-refundable product for the 2027 political marketplace. Every time an elite figure invokes regional solidarity while ignoring active insecurity, they are recycling the deceptive spirit of “where are the cows”. Until the electorate refuses to be the product traded for elite self-preservation, innocent citizens will continue to pay the ultimate price in the forests of the heartland.
Read More: Over 6,000 Terrorists Released: APC’s Rewards for Killers Destroyed Nigeria Security
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