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Within hours of the world marking World Children’s Day on 20 November, a day that reaffirms every child’s right to safety and education, terrorists stormed St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State, abducting pupils, teachers, and shooting a security officer. I pray for the speedy recovery of the security officer, the safe return of every child and teacher that has been abducted, and the healing of the families whose sense of safety has been shattered.
This incident, which is coming in the same week as the kidnapping of innocent young girls from Maga in Kebbi State, shows a systemic pattern of violence that is targeting schools, places of worship, farms, and highways. At the same time, key security figures, including the Minister of Defence, the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the Chief of Defence Staff, travelled out of the country for one engagement or the other. International cooperation is important, but when children are being abducted from schools, it is not enough to issue statements after the fact. Nigerians want to see visible, coordinated, decisive, and proactive action.
According to UNICEF, Nigeria already has more than 18 million out of school children, the highest number in the world. Each attack on a school does not only increase that number, it deepens the fear that learning is unsafe and the future is uncertain. When children are taken from classrooms, schooling becomes a risk, not a right, and parents begin to withdraw their children long after the guns go silent. These incidents damage not only today’s education, but tomorrow’s workforce, tomorrow’s economy, and tomorrow’s peace. A nation cannot plan for the future if its children are too afraid to prepare for it.
Nigeria does not lack security frameworks, what is missing is sustained commitment. The Safe Schools Declaration, which the Federal Government endorsed in 2018 with the disbursement of an initial sixteen billion naira in 2022 for the Safe Schools Programme, was intended to help secure learning environments. Under the current administration, this initiative has been left largely unfunded and dormant. We cannot claim to be serious about protecting schools while abandoning a critical national structure designed to do exactly that.
This is a moment for full national coordination, not scattered responses. The National Council of State exists for times like this. It is not a ceremonial gathering, it is a constitutional mechanism for drawing on the experience of former presidents and other senior figures to strengthen public order and give clear direction. If we will not use such an instrument now, when will we?
In 2022, the President, then a presidential aspirant, informed Nigerians that it was his turn to lead. If it is anyone’s turn, then it is also the turn of Nigerian children to be protected as a matter of urgency, while they acquire knowledge to help them direct our future. The right to lead cannot be separated from the duty to protect. Mandates are not upheld by chants or slogans; they are upheld by the safety and trust of the citizens — starting with the youngest and most vulnerable amongst us.
I have said before that Nigeria cannot defeat terror with guns alone. If people cannot make legitimate income, they will create illegitimate ones. Security is not only about operations, it is about opportunity, dignity and trust in the state. Nigeria still has the institutions, the intelligence and the human capacity to protect itself. The real question is whether leadership is ready to use them with the urgency, discipline and courage this moment demands.
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi
