ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: EZEKWESILI BLASTS TINUBU GOVT, SAYS FAILURE TO PROTECT SCHOOLCHILDREN IS A NATIONAL CRIME

Former Minister of Education and founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, has issued one of her strongest condemnations yet of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, declaring that the government’s repeated failure to protect schoolchildren from mass abductions amounts to “governing without legitimacy.”

In a searing statement on Monday, Ezekwesili said the unending wave of school kidnappings—spanning Kebbi, Niger, Borno, and other states—reflects a catastrophic collapse of state responsibility and a tragic erosion of Nigeria’s moral and governance foundations.

> “Failing to protect Nigerian children is the highest acceptance of governing without legitimacy, Mr President,” she declared.

Ezekwesili argued that Nigeria is paying the price of decades of unchecked, cancerous corruption that has infiltrated every layer of government and crippled critical national institutions.

> “Cancerous systemic corruption that metastasised into our political culture is totally imploding Nigeria,” she said, warning that institutions once considered strong—especially the military and judiciary—have been weakened to the point of impotence.

According to her, these institutions can no longer fulfil their basic mandates because “endemic corruption ate up the very values upon which they were built.”

She lamented that numerous early warnings about institutional decay were ignored:

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

UNICEF DATA PAINTS A GRIM PICTURE

Ezekwesili cited chilling data from UNICEF and Save the Children, showing the staggering scale of school kidnappings over the last decade:

1,680 students abducted in 70 attacks between 2014 and 2022

An additional 816 students kidnapped in 22 attacks between 2023 and November 2025

According to her, these figures represent more than statistics—they are the embodiment of a national tragedy that has persisted despite global outrage following the 2014 Chibok abductions, which she helped bring to international attention through the #BringBackOurGirls movement.

> “After a decade of advocacy, outrage no longer feels adequate. Repetition has become an insult to the memory of the lost.”

“CHILDREN ARE HOSTAGES OF GOVERNMENT FAILURE”

Ezekwesili described the latest wave of abductions in states like Kebbi and Niger as a damning indictment of leadership at every level.

> “The children are not just hostages of terrorists; they are hostages of unforgivable government failure and a political class unmoved by tragedy.”

She rejected attempts to dismiss the kidnappings as isolated events, stressing that each attack signals a deeper collapse of the Nigerian state.

> “These 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 Chibok kidnapping ten years ago, Ezekwesili said the government has lost the right to claim ignorance, surprise, or lack of experience.

> “After ten years since ChibokGirls, the Government of Nigeria has forfeited any claim to ignorance. What we have is deliberate negligence — and deliberate negligence is a crime.”

She accused the political elite of becoming numb to the suffering of the nation’s children, while citizens themselves have grown desensitized due to constant shocks.

A DIRECT MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT TINUBU

In her strongest words yet, Ezekwesili told President Tinubu that any continued governance without addressing the safety of schoolchildren amounts to moral and political illegitimacy.

> “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 that the President of Nigeria governs without legitimacy. Enough said.”

Ezekwesili, who co-founded the #BringBackOurGirls movement after the abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in 2014, said the current crisis is a painful reminder that Nigeria’s leaders have failed repeatedly and catastrophically.