Education under siege: Nigeria must declare a state of emergency now

Nigeria’s education system has reached a breaking point. What we are witnessing today is not reform, not transition, not restructuring , it is collapse. I mean total collapse. In recent weeks, the kidnapping of 25 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Kebbi State and another more than 200 students and teachers in Niger State has […]

Nigeria’s education system has reached a breaking point. What we are witnessing today is not reform, not transition, not restructuring , it is collapse. I mean total collapse.

In recent weeks, the kidnapping of 25 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Kebbi State and another more than 200 students and teachers in Niger State has once again exposed the terrifying reality facing Nigerian children. In response, state governments in Katsina, Kebbi and other parts of the North, alongside some states, have announced the closure of schools due to fear of attacks. Parents, overwhelmed by anxiety, have withdrawn their children from boarding schools in Katsina, Kano, Sokoto and Zamfara. When children are removed not because of holidays but because of fear, it is no longer an education issue; it is a national emergency.

And yet, what is most disturbing is not only the insecurity itself, but the government’s response or lack of it. Schools are closed, but no alternative learning plan is provided. No distance learning strategy. No emergency education framework. No digital or home-based intervention. Children are simply sent home to wait, idle, traumatised and forgotten.

At the same time, the government is busy debating and scrapping the 2022 policy on the use of mother tongue in basic education. Is this truly our most urgent priority when education itself is under siege? When children cannot enter classrooms? When schools have become hunting grounds for criminals? The answer is painfully clear: no.

The world has long understood that education during emergencies requires innovation. Refugee children in conflict zones across Syria, South Sudan and Ukraine are being taught through mobile classrooms, radio learning, online platforms, community centres and digital instruction. Yet Nigeria, facing one of the worst education-security crises in Africa, has no emergency learning strategy.

What does this say about our leadership priorities? Education funding tells an even darker story. Year after year, Nigeria allocates less than seven per cent of its national budget to education, far below the UNESCO recommended 15–20 per cent. A nation that invests so little in its children cannot pretend to be serious about development. We treat education as expenditure instead of survival infrastructure.

But the deeper danger lies in what we continue to ignore. The root cause of this insecurity is not only poverty or ideology, it is systematic educational exclusion.

For decades, nomadic children have been abandoned. Nomadic education, once a visionary programme, is now a dormant bureaucracy. Fulani children grow up without any meaningful access to education neither formal nor integrated Islamic learning. Deprived of knowledge, skill and opportunity, many become strangers to the society they roam. When such young men later engage in banditry, kidnapping and violence, we should not pretend to be surprised. We created the vacuum that armed them.

The Almajiri and out-of-school children education commission remains largely unfunded, unactivated and ignored, with no meaningful budget since its inception. Yet Nigeria has over 20 million out-of-school children, the highest number in the world. These children are the most vulnerable to recruitment into criminal networks, extremist groups and violent gangs. They are more likely to become perpetrators or victims of this insecurity.

If nothing changes, projections show that by January 2026, the number of out-of-school children may increase by more than 50 per cent. That is not a statistic; that is a generational disaster in slow motion. You cannot solve a problem from the top while abandoning its roots. You cannot fight insecurity by strengthening only the military while ignoring the classrooms that create citizens. You cannot arrest your way out of ignorance. You have to teach your way out of it.

While children remain idle at home due to school closures, they could still be learning if serious alternatives were created. Radio-based learning, digital platforms, community instruction, printed learning packs and monitored home education are not impossible. They simply require leadership, planning and commitment. But what do we see instead? Politicians focused on re-election, not education. Leaders calculating political advantages while classrooms rot. A system driven by power retention rather than future protection.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, this is the moment history will remember. This is the time to think wisely. This is not about party or politics, this is about national survival. Education is collapsing, and it is collapsing under the weight of poor decisions, misplaced priorities and leadership failures.

Nigeria must urgently declare a State of Emergency on Education. Not as a symbolic announcement, but as an action plan backed by funding, strategy and accountability. Real experts must be placed at the helm of education policy, not political loyalists. Security must be provided to schools. Emergency learning frameworks must be established. Nomadic education must be revived. The Almajiri and out-of-school children’s commission must be funded. Education funding must rise immediately beyond its shameful current level.

To international development partners, donor agencies and global education organisations, Nigeria now needs your voice, your support and your intervention. Do not wait until the system is beyond repair. The future of over 20 million children is hanging in the balance. A generation is drifting into darkness, and silence is no longer an option.

We must fight hard to rescue our children. This is not just an education crisis; it is a national security crisis, a moral crisis and a leadership crisis. Our children cannot wait for political convenience. They cannot wait for election cycles. They cannot wait for speeches and committees.

The time to act is now. Not tomorrow. Not next year. Not after another child is abducted.

Nigeria’s education is down. The warning signs are clear. The danger is real. And history will judge how we responded.

 

Dr Mukaddas is a Chevening Visiting Fellow, Oxford CIS, UK