Tinubu Government’s Failure To Protect Schoolchildren Is A Crime –Ex-Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili

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Source: Sahara Reporters

Ezekwesili warned that Nigeria’s unabated wave of school abductions represents a collapse of state responsibility and a loss of governing legitimacy.

Ezekwesili warned that Nigeria’s unabated wave of school abductions represents a collapse of state responsibility and a loss of governing legitimacy.

Former Minister of Education and founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Dr Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, has said that the failure of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to protect schoolchildren in the country is the “highest acceptance of governing without legitimacy”.

Ezekwesili warned that Nigeria’s unabated wave of school abductions represents a collapse of state responsibility and a loss of governing legitimacy.

In a statement she issued on Monday, Ezekwesili said, “Failing to protect Nigerian children is the highest acceptance of governing without legitimacy, Mr President.”

She argued that Nigeria’s prolonged insecurity, particularly the serial abductions of schoolchildren, reflects a deep-seated governance failure driven by entrenched corruption.

“Connecting the dots can oftentimes be difficult for some people. Cancerous level systemic corruption that metastasised into our country’s political culture is totally imploding Nigeria,” she said.

According to her, the deterioration of critical institutions is a direct consequence of years of unchecked corruption.

She said, “All our institutions, including our once strong military and judiciary, are now so terribly compromised and incapable of delivering on their mandate. Why?

“Endemic Corruption gradually ate up the very Values on which they were founded and once functioned and rendered them the impotent institutions we now know.”

Ezekwesili lamented that warnings about the erosion of governance values were repeatedly ignored.

“Oh, how often we warned that the disregard for Good Governance would be the undoing of our country!”

She cited data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children, which document the scale of school kidnappings in Nigeria, according to which, more than 1,680 students were abducted in 70 attacks between 2014 and 2022, and another 816 students were kidnapped in 22 attacks between 2023 and November 2025.

After years of advocacy for the protection of Nigerian schoolchildren, the former minister said the crisis has reached a tragic point.

She stated, “UNICEF and Save the Children data show more than 1,680 students abducted in 70 attacks between 2014 and 2022, with a further 816 students taken in 22 attacks just between 2023 and November 2025.

“After more than a decade of holding the government accountable for the preventable atrocities committed against Nigeria’s school children, one has reached a point where outrage no longer feels adequate and repetition feels like an insult to the memory of the lost.”

Ezekwesili described the latest abductions of schoolchildren and their teachers in Kebbi, Niger and other states as evidence of a deeper national tragedy.

“The latest group of abducted children are not just hostages of terrorists; they are hostages of the unforgivable failure of governments and the political class that refuse to be moved, and to a people whose empathy has been steadily eroded,” she said.

She rejected any attempt to downplay the incidents, saying they represent a breach of the state’s most fundamental responsibility.

“The children’s abductions are not ‘incidents.’ They are proof of state collapse in its most basic duty- the protection of our greatest human asset, our children.”

Referencing the 2014 Chibok abductions, which drew global attention and spurred the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement she co-led, Ezekwesili said the government can no longer claim ignorance or lack of experience.

“After ten years since ChibokGirls, the Government of Nigeria has forfeited any claim to ignorance, surprise, or learning curve. What we have is deliberate negligence, and deliberate negligence is a crime,” she said.

Directly addressing President Tinubu, Ezekwesili said, “Let it be known that to continue to govern without rescuing all our abducted children and protecting the rest in their schools is the highest acceptance of the President of Nigeria that he governs without Legitimacy. Enough said.”

Ezekwesili co-founded the #BringBackOurGirls movement following the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State in April 2014, an event that marked the beginning of a pattern of mass school kidnappings in northern Nigeria.