The raft of school abductions in Nasarawa, Borno and Oyo states within days in May attests to the resolve of the insurgents to kill education in Nigeria.
These attacks in Borno, the first to witness a school attack in Nigeria in 2014, and the latest incident in Oriire LGA in Oyo, South-West, are indications of strategic and coordinated efforts to achieve the 17-year-old plan of Boko Haram to destroy education in Nigeria.
By their persistence, the insurgents have demonstrated that they possess superior resolve, strategy and firepower than the government. This is troubling. The government must tackle this scary trend.
On 6 May, gunmen abducted six students of the Faculty of Engineering, Gudi Campus of Nasarawa State University, from their lodge at Angwar Nizo in Gudi, on the outskirts of the community.
Ten days later, 42 pupils were kidnapped in the morning hours by Boko Haram terrorists who raided Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira/Uba LGA, Borno.
On the same day, gunmen attacked three schools in Oyo – Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota; Community Grammar School, Esiele; and L.A. Primary School in Oriire, obviously in coordinated operations. The assistant headmaster of L.A. Primary School, Joel Adesiyan, and a commercial motorcyclist were killed.
Over 40 students and a headmaster, Michael Oyedokun, were abducted. Oyedokun was later beheaded. This is barbaric.
These attacks on the three layers of education in the country are symbolic and instructive. They reflect the ordeal of education at the hands of the insurgents since the initial Chibok attack in 2014 and point to the worst days to come.
Therefore, the three tiers of government must retool their security strategy to save education.
From the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok as an initial incident in 2014 to the kidnapping of 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi (Yobe State) in 2018 to the killing of one pupil and abducting 27 others at the Government Science College, Kagara, in 2021, attacks on schools have become persistent occurrences, spanning primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The University World News says between 300 and 400 school children were kidnapped in November last year in 19 states, while at least 10 tertiary institutions were closed down in Kebbi and Bauchi states indefinitely due to escalating security challenges in that period.
The Federal Government also shut down 41 Unity Schools countrywide.
In mid-November, 145 Nigerians, including schoolchildren, worshippers, and farmers, were abducted within four days in Kebbi, Niger, and Zamfara states.
The Kwara State Government closed down about 50 schools in four LGAs on November 19, 2025, following the adoption of 38 worshippers and other attacks.
On 25 November, over 300 students and 12 teachers were abducted by gunmen at St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State.
Thirty students of Federal University of Gusau, Zamfara State, were kidnapped from the institution on September 22, 2025. Five days later, gunmen visited the Mustapha Awai Polytechnic, Lafia, kidnapping one student and shooting three others. On October 4, gunmen invaded Federal University, Dutsinma, Katsina State and kidnapped five female students.
A barrage of attacks on schools across the country prompted the Federal Government to declare a security emergency on November 26, 2025.
A Daily Trust tally indicated that at least 188 public schools have been shut down due to insecurity in Northern Nigeria, with many schools shut for over six years.
In a world where countries are establishing schools to deliver development, schools are being converted to IDP and military camps in Nigeria.
While 55 schools were closed down in 2024 and converted to Internally Displaced Persons shelters in Benue State, the Government Science College, Kagara, in Niger State, where 27 students and staff were abducted in 2021, was shut down and converted to military camps.
It is estimated that gunmen have abducted between 1,500 and 1,680 students since 2014.
The terrorists have slaughtered over 100,000 Nigerians and displaced over two million others.
Shockingly, the persistent attacks on schools have not prompted the federal, state, and local governments to provide security personnel to man the schools under their jurisdiction.
In this, more than 4,200 secondary schools and nearly 39,000 primary schools across 21 northern states and the FCT lack perimeter fencing, per AI. This makes schools vulnerable to attacks.
The killings and abductions of students have discouraged many parents from allowing their children to attend school. This situation has worsened Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children crisis.
There has been no equivalent security policy, proactive strategy, decisive operations and top-notch execution to match the commando security attacks by the terrorists. At best, the security agents have been reactive rather than proactive. Besides, security operations do not run deep; the rural areas are left insecure.
As schools are unsafe and are intermittently closed, indoctrination is replacing knowledge, killings are replacing development, and crimes are taking the place of skills.
The insurgents are recruiting children to join in the fight against education while also employing them as informants and accomplices.
In April, there was a video clip of 15-year-old Tijjani arrested with almost N1 million cash, allegedly meant for terrorists’ food supplies. Tijjani allegedly confessed that he participated in attacks, including the killing of an Army General. Another video also showed a younger teenager brandishing rifles in the terrorists’ camps.
The implications of killing education are dire. Insecurity in schools is gradually delisting the country from the global development hopefuls.
Besides, robbing the leaders of tomorrow of education is an open invitation to poverty and crimes.
Therefore, the three tiers of government should collaborate to stop the terrorists in their tracks.
