Shutting schools helps bandits win

Northern Nigeria is once again surrendering the future of millions of children to terrorists, bandits and criminals who now dictate when and where learning is allowed to take place. From Kwara to Kano, Kebbi to Kaduna, Sokoto to Yobe, Niger to Plateau and Taraba, state governments have either completely or partially closed schools, while the federal government has taken the astonishing step of shutting down 41 Unity Schools across the region.

This wave of closures carried out between October and November is nothing short of a panic response, a confession that non-state actors have pushed constitutional authorities to their knees. It is a national embarrassment that leaves parents furious, children terrified and communities humiliated.

The recent catalogue of attacks explains the fear but not the cowardice. In Kebbi, 25 girls were abducted from Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga. In Niger, 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were taken from St Mary’s Catholic Private Primary and Secondary School, Papiri; only 50 managed to escape.

These horrors followed months of sustained assaults on schools and communities. Yet instead of confronting the menace head-on, authorities rushed to shutter classrooms, the very spaces they are duty-bound to protect.

This newspaper’s investigation earlier in October uncovered a staggering 188 public schools already shut due to insecurity across the North. Zamfara alone has 39 closed institutions; Niger has 30; Sokoto and Kaduna six each; Katsina and Benue 52 and 55 respectively. These figures likely understate the crisis, as large pockets of territory remain inaccessible. The count does not even include Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, three states ravaged for 15 years by Boko Haram, whose initial campaign targeted schools to enforce the murderous ideology that “Western education is sin.”

The out-of-school crisis is, therefore, exploding. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other agencies estimate that between 10 and 20 million Nigerian children are out of school – the highest in the world. The NMPI reports that Katsina alone has 1.4 million out-of-school children, representing 45.9 per cent of its school-aged population. In Kebbi, of the 67.6 per cent of school-age children, over one million are out of the classroom. Sokoto follows closely with 1.25 million. Zamfara, Kaduna and Niger also rank among the top 15 worst states nationwide. These are numbers that should provoke a national emergency, not a national retreat.

Some schools in the affected states have remained closed for months or even years. Communities once forced to keep their children away out of fear are now being officially ordered to do so.

This is a surreptitious surrender disguised as safety. The authorities are playing directly into the hands of the terrorists, whose strategy from the very beginning has been to destroy learning, stifle opportunities and keep millions trapped in poverty and ignorance.

Since 2009 when Boko Haram launched its anti-education campaign, Nigeria’s governments have refused to learn from history. Each attack is met with lamentation and headlines but rarely with planning, preparation or accountability. Rhetoric about improving education flows endlessly from podiums, but in practice, it amounts to wishful thinking.

The Safe School Initiative (SSI), launched in 2014 after the Chibok abduction, once held promise. Backed by the government, international partners and private donors, it provided upgraded infrastructure, relocated vulnerable students and offered temporary learning centres. But like most Nigerian programmes, it lost steam, suffered inconsistent funding and failed to keep pace with the expanding geography of insecurity. Despite the renewed National Plan for Financing Safe Schools (2023–2026), with its N144 billion budget and new structures such as the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, implementation remains sluggish and uneven.

Now, with each new closure, the government is admitting defeat, sending the message to millions of children that they must wait indefinitely until bandits decide when they can return to learning. No doubt that Nigeria never prepares for the catastrophic long-term consequences of breeding entire generations without formal education.

Closing schools is not a security strategy; it is capitulation. It emboldens criminals, demoralises communities and deepens the already colossal education deficit that threatens Nigeria’s future stability. A country that cannot keep its children safe in classrooms cannot claim sovereignty.

Federal, state, and local authorities must immediately reverse this disastrous path. They must secure school perimeters, deploy trained guards, install surveillance systems, establish rapid-response units and ensure that communities, parents, youths, teachers, traditional rulers are fully integrated into early-warning and protection architecture.

Most critically, they must show accountability. SSI funds must be transparently deployed, audited regularly and published publicly. No amount allocated for children’s safety should disappear into bureaucratic shadows while classrooms remain padlocked.

Nigeria cannot continue outsourcing its children’s future to the whims of terrorists. It is time to draw a line. Our children are not bargaining chips. They are not acceptable casualties. They deserve a country willing to protect them, not governments that hide behind closed gates and excuses.

If we do not act now, the damage will be irreversible. A country that abandons its classrooms abandons its future.

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