Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the abduction of the principal of Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc official, and students sitting for the NECO examination in Kogi State, describing the incident as further evidence that the Nigerian state has failed in its fundamental responsibility to protect lives, education and the future of its children.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described the incident as both tragic and disgraceful, saying children in Nigeria can no longer sit public examinations without the fear of being abducted by armed criminals.

“An examination hall should be a sanctuary of hope, not a crime scene. A school principal should be preparing students for the future, not negotiating with kidnappers. A NECO official should be supervising examinations, not struggling for survival in the hands of bandits. Yet this has become the grim reality under a government that has normalised insecurity,” he said.

According to Atiku, the latest attack is not an isolated incident but part of a growing national trend in which schools have become preferred targets because criminals no longer fear the Nigerian state.

“It is impossible to separate this attack from the attitude this administration has displayed towards education. A government that has repeatedly made education more expensive through unprecedented increases in WAEC and NECO examination fees, neglected public schools, failed to secure learning environments and reduced education to empty campaign slogans should not be surprised that criminals now see schools as abandoned territories,” he said.

The former vice president argued that government policies have sent the message that education is no longer a national priority.

“First, they price poor children out of classrooms. Then they fail to protect those who remain in school. This is a double assault on the future of Nigeria. One is economic exclusion; the other is violent intimidation. Together, they amount to a systematic destruction of the dreams of an entire generation,” he said.

Atiku also criticised the Tinubu administration’s handling of public finances, alleging that poor budgeting had contributed to the deterioration of public institutions, including schools.

“A national budget is not a political souvenir or a personal wish list; it is a solemn statement of priorities that aligns public expenditure with the needs of the people. But when the budget is treated like the personal ledger of a Bourdillon local champion and littered with questionable insertions in favour of Adeniyi and his associates, phantom priorities like the ₦6.4 billion budgeted for the ‘Aso Rock Supporters Club’ for the 2026 World Cup and expenditures divorced from national realities, the inevitable result is underfunded and poorly secured schools, failing public institutions and the maladministration that has become the defining trademark of the Tinubu administration.

“The same budget that mysteriously accommodates billions of naira for items that defy logic cannot adequately secure the classrooms where Nigeria’s children are supposed to learn. That is how governments create the vacuum that criminals exploit,” he said.

He further argued that repeated attacks on schools have emboldened criminal groups because government responses have largely been reactive.

“The bandits have become emboldened because they have watched a government that shows greater urgency for political campaigns than for protecting schools. They have seen a government that mobilises enormous state resources when politics is involved but struggles to provide effective security around educational institutions. Every successful kidnapping convinces another criminal gang that Nigerian schoolchildren are easy targets,” he added.

Atiku said the latest attack should serve as a wake-up call for officials responsible for the country’s security architecture.

“The collapse of school security is not merely a security failure; it is a collapse of governance itself. A country where children cannot safely write examinations is a country steadily surrendering its future to fear,” he said.

The former vice president called for the immediate and unconditional rescue of all abducted victims and demanded a comprehensive review of security arrangements for schools and examination centres nationwide.

He also urged the Federal Government to move beyond routine condemnations and implement measurable security reforms capable of restoring public confidence.

“History will not remember how many press releases this government issued after each abduction. History will remember whether it protected Nigeria’s children or abandoned them. No nation has ever developed by forcing its children to choose between education and survival,” he said.

Atiku maintained that while the current administration has, in his view, made education increasingly unaffordable, it has also failed to protect schools from criminal attacks.

“A government that devalues education inadvertently empowers those who seek to destroy it. When the state fails to defend its schools, bandits inevitably conclude that nobody else will.

“The children of Nigeria deserve books instead of bullets, classrooms instead of captivity, examinations instead of evacuation and hope instead of horror. That is the minimum any responsible government owes its people.”