News
Plateau IDPs Commend First Lady’s Relief Aid, Urge Enhanced Security for Safe Return Home
Victims of recent armed attacks in Plateau State are expressing their heartfelt appreciation to Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the First Lady, for her generous donation of N500 million aimed at aiding their recovery.
Leaders of 7,000 residents displaced by recent attacks in the Daffo district of Bokkos Local Government Area on Sunday described the donation as unprecedented.
“We are very delighted with the efforts of the First Lady,” said Mr. Danlami Asado, the Deputy Chairman of the Daffo Mangai Community Development Association. “She did something we have never seen before,” said Asado in Daffo during a meeting of community members aimed at ensuring the community’s allocation gets to the right beneficiaries.
“We pray for good health and open doors for more of such interventions,” said Asado to reporters, calling for the deployment of security forces to enable the displaced villagers return to their homes.
“Our roads are not safe, we can’t access our homes and farms. Just today, a young lady was attacked on her way to the town,” he said.
“Even four days ago, two people were killed and three others injured in another attack in this village. We need more security deployments to enable us return to our homes and cultivate our farms. As I speak to you, there are thousands of our people that have been displaced since 2018 and cannot return to their homes in places like Wereng, Hottom and Mandung. Even to access our farms sometimes we have to be accompanied by securities otherwise you will not return,” he noted.
While the meeting was ongoing at midday in the town, a young schoolgirl walking from a nearby village to the town was brutally attacked and injured on the head.
“He first ordered me to stop and said your own has finished today I must kill you and started to race toward me with a big stick in his hand,” said Miss Uhoman Moses who identified the attacker a Fulani herder.
“There was no one there but me and him so I started running as he chased me down the road. When he caught up with me, he hit me on the head and I fell to the ground. He tried to hit me again and I blocked it with my hand and the stick fell far from him. I quickly got up and started screaming and running and then he ran into the bushes,” Miss Moses recalled.
The senior student of the Government Secondary School Daffo was the latest victim of such attacks in the community credited to Fulani herders.
Just on last Tuesday while the First Lady Senator Tinubu was having a meeting with the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang at the Government House in Jos where she presented a draft cheque of N500million as donation to victims of previous attacks, two people were killed and three others injured in an evening attack in Daffo town.
One of the injured victims, Mr. Mawiyau Emmanuel whose son was killed in the attack told our correspondent that eight armed Fulani militants opened fire on some residents at 7:30pm, and laid ambush for him and his son as they attempted to respond. Both Emmanuel and his son were members of a local vigilante unit. They were racing to rescue one of their colleagues who was killed in the initial shooting, he said.
“We didn’t know they had taken over the roads until they opened fire on us killing my son and injuring me on the neck and hand,” he said.
Leader of the local vigilante group, Mafwalal Abafaras appealed to government to equip and motivate volunteers to complement the conventional securities in safeguarding communities.
For more than three decades, Nigeria’s Super Falcons were the standard of African women’s football.
Ten Women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles. Every FIFA Women’s World Cup from the beginning of the competition. Generations of players who dominated the continent.
Read Also: 14th Women AFCON: Swart’s heroics foil Super Falcons’ search for World Cup ticket
But that era has now reached a disturbing turning point.
For the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Nigeria will not be at the tournament.
South Africa’s 2–1 victory over the Super Falcons in Casablanca on Thursday ended Nigeria’s final route to the 2027 World Cup.
But perhaps this should not be viewed simply as a failure of the Super Falcons.
Perhaps it is the clearest evidence yet that the rest of Africa has finally caught up.
Look at Malawi.
The Scorchers were appearing at the WAFCON for the first time in 2026. They did not come merely to make up the numbers. They reached the semi-finals and secured Malawi’s historic first-ever Women’s World Cup qualification.
Look at Morocco.
The country has invested heavily in women’s football, and AS FAR has become a continental force, winning the CAF Women’s Champions League in 2025 and earning the right to represent Africa at FIFA’s inaugural Women’s Champions Cup.
Look at South Africa.
Banyana Banyana have transformed themselves from challengers into African champions and have now defeated Nigeria when a World Cup place was on the line.
And across the continent, CAF says women’s football is being strengthened through coaching education, better administration, grassroots development, refereeing and more structured domestic leagues.
This is the part Nigerians must understand.
Africa did not wait for Nigeria to remain dominant.
Other countries started building.
For years, Nigeria had an enormous advantage because many of our best players grew up playing together for long periods, particularly through the domestic system and national-team pathways.
The Super Falcons of previous generations were not simply eleven talented Nigerians assembled for a tournament.
They were products of a football culture that continuously produced players.
Today, that advantage is much smaller.
And there is another uncomfortable reality: Nigerian players are increasingly finding opportunities in women’s leagues outside Nigeria, while African leagues are becoming more organised and competitive.
CAF’s Women’s Champions League has also created a continental platform with meaningful financial rewards; participating clubs received at least $150,000 in the 2024 edition, while the winners received $600,000.
So perhaps the question is no longer:
“Why did the Super Falcons fail?”
The bigger question is:
“Why did Nigeria stop developing faster than the countries chasing us?”
We should support the Falcons.
We should respect the players.
We should recognise their achievements.
But we must also recognise what this moment represents.
Nigeria has won ten WAFCON titles. That history is extraordinary.
But history cannot qualify a team for the next World Cup.
Systems do.
Leagues do.
Academies do.
Coaching structures do.
Investment does.
Player development does.
And if Nigeria does not rebuild those foundations, the Super Falcons’ absence from Brazil may not remain a once-in-history event.
THE SUPER FALCONS HAVE NOT SUDDENLY BECOME A BAD TEAM. AFRICA HAS SIMPLY STOPPED WAITING FOR NIGERIA.
The real alarm is not that Nigeria lost to South Africa.
The real alarm is that the countries Nigeria used to look down on are now building football systems capable of defeating Nigeria when it matters most.
This should not be a blame game.
It should be a wake-up call.
NIGERIA DID NOT LOSE WOMEN’S FOOTBALL IN ONE MATCH. WE MAY HAVE BEEN LOSING THE ADVANTAGE FOR YEARS.
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