KEY POINTS
- Corruption impact remains central to Ezekwesili’s criticism.
- Data shows rising school abductions across multiple states.
- She argues the pattern reflects deliberate negligence.
Former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili asserts that Nigeria’s escalating insecurity and the recurrent abductions of kids are a consequence of a profound deterioration that has undermined essential state institutions. Her remarks, disseminated in a post on X on Monday, provided one of her most candid evaluations of how corruption has influenced the nation’s efforts to safeguard kids from armed factions.
Institutional decay and corruption impact
Ezekwesili, who co-founded the Bring Back Our Girls Movement following the 2014 kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls, stated that the crisis has transcended mere security lapses. She contended that years of unrestrained corruption undermined institutions that ought to have addressed threats prior to their escalation. She asserts that the military and court are institutions so tainted that they can no longer fulfill their constitutional obligations.
She stated that corruption “gradually undermined the foundational values and transformed them into the ineffective institutions we recognize today.” Her comments indicate a widespread apprehension among analysts, who assert that numerous security deficiencies in the country arise from diminished governance rather than solely an increase in criminal activity.
According to punch, Ezekwesili referenced statistics from UNICEF and Save the Children that illustrates the magnitude of student abductions over the last decade. Between 2014 and 2022, almost 1,680 students were abducted in 70 distinct incidents. From 2023 to November 2025, an additional 816 students were kidnapped in 22 incidents. The data underscore the extensive nature of the issue, notwithstanding numerous assurances of reform.
Corruption impact on school security
Ezekwesili stated that, following over a decade of campaigning related to the Chibok kidnapping, public indignation appears inadequate. She saw the ongoing kidnappings as indicative of state failure rather than isolated incidents perpetrated by armed factions. She contends that the recent mass abductions exemplify the decline of governance, cautioning that the afflicted children are “hostages to the egregious failure of governments and a political class that remains unmoved, as well as to a populace whose empathy has been progressively diminished.”
She stated that the ongoing assaults exemplify “evidence of state disintegration in its fundamental obligation, the safeguarding of our most valuable human resource: our children.” She asserts that a decade following the Chibok episode, authorities can no longer claim that the threat is novel or that the response necessitates further time to develop.
Ezekwesili stated that the trend indicates “deliberate negligence,” which she characterized as a criminal dereliction of duty. Any administration that persists without ensuring the safety of schools or rescuing kidnapped pupils, she stated, “acknowledges that it governs without legitimacy.”
She concluded her message with a succinct remark: “Enough said.”
