Atiku condemns kidnap of Kogi school principal, NECO official, students

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), 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 who were writing their NECO examination in Kogi State.

Reacting to the development on Wednesday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former Vice President described the incident as further proof that the Nigerian state had abdicated its most fundamental responsibility on the protection of life, learning and the future of its children.

Atiku said it was both tragic and disgraceful that in today’s Nigeria, children could no longer write public examinations without the terrifying prospect of being marched into the forest 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.”

Atiku said the latest attack is not an isolated tragedy but part of a dangerous national pattern in which educational institutions 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 government policies have sent one unmistakable 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.”

Atiku said the repeated incompetence Nigerians continue to witness under the Tinubu administration is the inevitable consequence of a government that has abandoned probity, discipline and accountability in public finance.

“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 infavor of Adeniyi and his gang, phantom priorities like the 6.4 billion Naira budgeted for “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.”

Atiku noted that every successful attack on a school emboldens other criminal groups, making educational institutions increasingly attractive targets because the consequences have been minimal and the response largely 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 said the latest attack should shame every public official responsible for the nation’s security architecture, stressing that no serious government allows children sitting for nationally recognised examinations to become prey for armed gangs.

“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.”

Atiku called for the immediate and unconditional rescue of every abducted victim and demanded a comprehensive review of security arrangements for all schools and examination centres across the federation.

He urged the Federal Government to stop issuing routine statements after every tragedy and instead implement measurable security reforms that restore 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 added that while the current administration has consistently demonstrated disregard for Nigeria’s educational system through policies that make learning increasingly unaffordable, it has also created the conditions under which criminals now view schools as soft targets.

“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.”