The wave of shutting down of schools across states in the north, in response to mass abductions of pupils by terrorists, is a panic measure and sign of desperation by the government, including the federal government.
However, it cannot be the solution to the insecurity that has taken hold of the country. At best, such closure of schools offers a temporary relief from the ugly consequences of the government’s inability to permanently address the immediate and underlying causes of terrorism. The relief may be swift and immediate, but it remains an escapist measure that, if sustained by the government, will soon cripple the state of education. In regions where the number of out-of-school children is already a concern, shutting down schools at mid-term will surely exacerbate the situation. It does not address the insecurity.
Following the November 17, 2025, abduction of 25 students at Government Girls Comprehensive School, in Maga, Kebbi State, and another 300-plus students and staff taken from St. Mary Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, the government’s immediate response was to order schools in the two states shut. The Kebbi government, through the Commissioner for Higher Education, Issa Abubakar Tunga, and the Commissioner in charge of Basic and Secondary Education, Halima Bande, jointly announced the closure of all public and private secondary and tertiary institutions in the state, effective November 23. Only the School of Nursing Sciences in Birnin Kebbi was exempted.
In Niger, all schools were similarly ordered shut until further notice. Tertiary institutions were not spared. Similarly, Binta Abdulkadir, the Director of Senior Secondary Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, issued a directive on November 21, ordering the immediate closure of 47 Unity Schools, mostly located in the North. Principals of the affected schools were ordered to suspend academic activities with immediate effect, perhaps, in the hope that if the terrorists do strike, there would be no students and members of staff to whisk away. But for how long will the government continue to apply this simplistic measure, rather than an enduring response, to a problem that has proven intractable?
Indeed, school closures have become widespread in Northern Nigeria due to escalating insecurity and the vulnerability of schools to attacks. Since the infamous mass abduction of 276 girls in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014, terrorists have turned the invasion of schools into a form of pastime, carting away hundreds of schoolchildren and extracting the same knee-jerk response of school closure from the authorities.
Since 2014, it is reported that at least 188 public schools in the North have been forced to shut down due to insecurity, with campuses of such institutions serving as camps for internally displaced persons. Niger State is said to have 30 of such schools; six each are in Sokoto and Kaduna; 55 in Benue; 52 in Katsina, and 39 in Zamfara. Schools in hard-hit states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa are even more vulnerable, being states enveloping the initial Boko Haram insurrection. Apart from the chilling Chibok experience, Nigerians still recall the well-referenced case of Leah Sharibu, the only female student of Girls’ Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe State, who was not rescued after insurgents took away 100 students from her school. Nigerians cannot forget the horrific incident at the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, on February 25, 2014, where 59 male students were killed by the terrorists who invaded their hostels.
Instead of reacting peremptorily to school abductions and ordering schools to shut down, the Government should come up with a holistic plan to eradicate terrorism from the face of Nigeria. Notably, the government adopted the Safe School programme, which was designed in response to the Chibok experience, to protect students and the learning environment from attacks. Sadly, the implementation of the programme was too loose to achieve its desired goal. And this is despite the government’s collaboration with the United Nations and high-net-worth private individuals that signed on to that programme, with a promise to support and ensure continuity of education in vulnerable regions. What happened to the monies raised to make education accessible to children in troubled regions of the country? It is essential that the authorities in charge ensure the Safe School initiative’s survival and that the allocated resources are properly accounted for.
It is a shame that children are forced out of schools by bandits and terrorists, who themselves are not interested in education. Boko Haram was launched to discredit Western education. When the government forced schools to shut down, in some locations for four years due to insecurity, the government is inadvertently reinforcing the ideology of the insurgents and surrendering to their dictates.
The Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, said he was shocked that St. Mary’s Catholic Private School in Papiri, where more than 300 students were abducted on November 21, 2025, was in session, because schools in the area had been closed for four years due to the activities of terrorists. When schools are ordered shut for four years, the omen is bad, particularly when there is no sign of credible alternative arrangements the government is providing to ensure continuity in education. And the war against terrorism keeps flip-flopping as terrorists regroup to launch endless attacks.
There are already 18.5 million out-of-school children in the country, according to UNESCO and other sources.
Nigeria cannot afford to add to that without risking further insurrections in its polity. Besides, the government must never surrender, or be seen to be surrendering to terrorists. Forcing schools to shut down is another form of capitulation. It is the worst form of surrender to allow terrorists to mortgage the future of the country. Education holds the key to our future, and the government must encourage children to go to school. Let no terrorists rob children of their future. Let the government push out the terrorists!
