I make this appeal as a scholar of homeland security who has studied mass abductions since Chibok, and I make it with a comparison that Nigerians should sit with. After the attacks of 11 September, 2001, the United States established the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known to the world as the 9/11 Commission. It was born in controversy. Politicians resisted it. Partisans predicted a whitewash. Grieving families demanded it anyway. What emerged was one of the most consequential public documents in modern history: a full accounting of what happened, why the systems failed, and what had to change. The 9/11 Commission Report did not bring back the dead. It did something else. It told the truth in public, it reformed the institutions that failed, and it taught a wounded nation how to prevent the next attack, and how to recover from any attack that still occurs. That is the standard against which the Oriire commission should be measured, and it is a standard within reach.
Oriire and the 9/11 standard: Why the Oyo commission deserves an open mind, By Oludare Ogunlana
