Insecurity in Nigeria remains one of the country’s most persistent and troubling challenges, one that successive governments have failed to decisively address. It is easy to conclude that the crisis is an outcome of entrenched bad governance and corruption, or a political tool wielded by desperate political actors. It could also be both. Whatever interpretation one adopts, one fact is undeniable: insecurity affects every Nigerian, regardless of age, sex, origin, political affiliation, religion, ethnicity, or social status.
The gravity of the situation was once again highlighted in the wake of President Trump’s re-designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. In response, President Bola Tinubu, on 6 November 2025, reassured citizens that his administration would defeat terrorism and secure every part of the country. Yet, barely a week after this assurance, Nigerians awoke to the tragic news of another mass abduction of about 25 schoolgirls from Maga Comprehensive Girls’ Secondary School in Danko Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State. While citizens were calling on the government to ensure the safe return of the school girls, there was another abduction of over 300 pupils, students, and teachers at St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger state on 21 November, 2025. This incident adds to the growing list of assaults that continue to undermine public confidence in government promises.
Yet, in a democracy, power should originate from and belong to the people. Through elections, citizens confer legitimacy on the government. That mandate comes with clear responsibilities for the protection of lives and property. The 1999 Constitution captures this succinctly when it describes the safety and security of the people as the “primary” responsibility of government. Whenever anyone in Nigeria is killed, abducted, disappeared or endangered – especially vulnerable groups like schoolchildren – it raises fundamental questions about governance, accountability, and the state’s commitment to its obligations.
Nightfall in many Nigeria’s communities living with or on the frontiers of this insecurity is redolent of Oswald M. Mtshali’s “Nightfall in Soweto”, where he depicts night as “a dreaded disease seeping through the pores of a healthy body, and ravaging it beyond repair.” Students in both secondary and tertiary institutions have suffered severe trauma as a result of encounters with terrorists euphemistically branded bandits by government. Tragically, some lost their lives. It is important to recall some of these horrific yet avoidable incidents as a reminder that insecurity remains pervasive, robbing us of the peace we desire.
In 2003, Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act (CRA), which enacted into domestic law the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) previously ratified by the country in 1991. Article 28 of the UNCRC guarantees the Right to Education – free and compulsory primary education, and accessible secondary and higher education. The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, enacted the following year in 2004 established the UBEC to ensure that every Nigerian child enjoys free, universal, compulsory, and basic education. Basic education under the UBEC Act is a minimum of nine years schooling, that is; six years of primary school and at least three years in junior secondary school.
Yet, in today’s Nigeria, students who simply yearn for knowledge are increasingly becoming victims of abduction. How do we explain this tragic reality to young minds?
From the attack on Government Secondary School, Mamudo, Yobe State, on July 6, 2013 where 42 people, including students and staff, were killed to the abduction of over 270 schoolgirls on April 14, 2014 at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno St ate, the pattern remains deeply disturbing. The Chibok abduction inspired the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, a movement for school safety led by prominent activists and amplified globally by politicians and diplomats demanding the safe return of the schoolgirls.
On February 19, 2018, bandits stormed Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, in Bursari Local Government Area of Yobe State, abducting 110 schoolgirls. In February 2021, another 279 students were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State.
The data and trend clearly show that there is an overwhelming feminization of the phenomenon of mass school abduction in northern Nigeria but boys are sometimes not spared too. Two years after the Dapchi schoolgirls abduction, over 300 schoolboys were kidnapped on December 11, 2020, from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
In response to this rising incidents of school insecurity, the Federal Government has shut down 47 Federal Government (Girls) Colleges. The governors of Katsina, Plateau, Kebbi, and Niger have similarly ordered the immediate shutdown of primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions in vulnerable communities. In Taraba State, the Governor adopted a different approach, directing the immediate de-boarding of all students in both private and public secondary schools and enhanced security measures across all school premises reinforced by community monitoring assets.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 18.3 million Nigerian children between the ages of five and fourteen were out of school in 2024. With the alarming rise in school attacks, how can we keep students safe and ensure they remain in school long enough to transition to higher levels of learning? Has the pursuit of formal education become a crime? If not, why are students repeatedly targeted?
In response to the destruction of school facilities and the killings and abductions of teachers and students, the Nigerian government, in partnership with the United Nations Envoy for Global Education, launched the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) in 2014 to improve the protection and safety of students, teachers, and family members. In 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) ratification document, signalling Nigeria’s commitment to uphold its principles. The record of implementation has been non-existent or abysmal. In a recent report, The Punch newspaper reports that 30 states have yet to implement the SSI. Writing more recently, former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, advised that the best practices of the SSI must be reintroduced, reinvigorated, and supercharged at the federal, state, and local levels in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s insecurity crisis is not just a threat to national stability; it is a test of leadership, political will, and the government’s ability to uphold its constitutional obligations. Every Nigerian – except those perpetrating or benefitting from – should be concerned about the crisis of insecurity that has emptied schools and threatening enlightenment in the country. Nigeria’s political elites should not play politics with the lives of Nigerians and the vulnerable groups. The response of government appears to have focused on recovering the abducted without the perpetrators being accounted for. This has fuelled credible speculation that the government has rewarded them with ransom payments, guaranteeing that there will be more abductions not less.
I am a product of a boarding school in North-West Nigeria and this issue is deeply personal to me. How is it possible for over 300 students to be abducted and no one is held accountable? An effective response must begin with a policy of zero-tolerance for school abductions around three issues.
First, security institutions must be required to perform better. The abduction and transportation of hundreds of school children from one place to another without minimal resistance or interference by Nigeria’s security agencies is an awful blot on the security management system in the country. Officers or sector commanders in areas where these abductions occur have to be held accountable.
Second, government must stop encouraging the impression that it can buy its way out of this crisis of school abductions. The money spent on ransom payments can be used instead on smart digital surveillance and reporting which can help with proactive and preventive action to identify and rout the perpetrators before they are able to strike.
Finally, state governors and local government must take their roles a lot more seriously in complementing the capabilities of the Federal Government by mobilizing local assets in their respective areas to identity and disable the perpetrators of the abductions. When these occur, Nigeria’s international partners will have the confidence to believe that they have a credible partner to work with in returning safety to learning in Nigeria and making the right to education a meaningful entitlement for every Nigerian child.
Dr. Adaobi Obiabunmuo is Programmes Manager at PRIMORG
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