Ezekwesili: Tinubu Government’s Failure to Protect Schoolchildren Amounts to Governing Without Legitimacy

Posted 2025-11-24 20:56:38 · 477 Views

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Former Minister of Education and founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, has condemned the Bola Tinubu administration for failing to protect Nigerian schoolchildren, calling it the “highest acceptance of governing without legitimacy.”

In a statement issued on Monday, Ezekwesili warned that the ongoing wave of school abductions represents a collapse of state responsibility and a profound governance failure driven by entrenched corruption.

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

She highlighted the erosion of critical institutions, including the military and judiciary, due to systemic corruption, arguing that these institutions are now largely incapable of fulfilling their mandates.

“Endemic corruption gradually ate up the very values on which they were founded, rendering them impotent institutions,” Ezekwesili said.

Citing data from UNICEF and Save the Children, she noted that over 1,680 students were abducted in 70 attacks between 2014 and 2022, with another 816 students taken in 22 attacks between 2023 and November 2025.

“After more than a decade of holding the government accountable, outrage no longer feels adequate, and repetition feels like an insult to the memory of the lost,” she said.

Ezekwesili described recent abductions in Kebbi, Niger, and other states as evidence of a deeper national tragedy, asserting that the children are not just hostages of terrorists but also victims of government negligence and public apathy.

“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,” she said.

Referencing the 2014 Chibok abductions, which sparked the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign she co-led, Ezekwesili warned that the government can no longer claim ignorance or inexperience:

“After ten years since ChibokGirls, what we have is deliberate negligence, and deliberate negligence is a crime.”

Directly addressing President Tinubu, she concluded:

“To continue to govern without rescuing all our abducted children and protecting the rest in their schools is the highest acceptance that you govern without legitimacy. Enough said.”

##ObyEzekwesili_#TinubuAdministration_#NigeriaSecurity_#SchoolAbductions

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Ezekwesili: Tinubu Government’s Failure to Protect Schoolchildren Amounts to Governing Without Legitimacy

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