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On Wednesday, May 27, the 2026 edition of the Nigerian Children’s Day was marked across the country. It was in continuation of the annual ritual that commenced in 1964. The occasion, in the best of times, was headlined with parades, march pasts, fanfare by the excited children, while lofty speeches were delivered by government officials and other stakeholders on how to improve the welfare and protection of Nigerian children. The event has over the years, been used to draw attention to issues that affect Nigerian children, including the protection of their rights.
Paradoxically, the theme for this year’s celebration, was “Future Now: Promoting Inclusion for Every Nigerian Child”, which claimed to ensure that no Nigerian child is left behind in development regardless of age, ability or disability, socioeconomic background, religion, ethnicity or geographical location. By stroke of coincidence, the celebration tallied with President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of 2026 as the “Year of Families and Social Development”. But that, ironically, is where the flowery speeches, cosmetic declarations and rootless proclamations end. Everything is a farce; an empty ritual that lacks in essence and substance. In street lingo, it can readily be dismissed as “all na wash”, indicating sound without circumstance.
While the government lied with ensuring the future and promoting inclusion for every Nigerian child, not less than 45 students and teachers were abducted from Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota; Community Grammar School and L.A. Primary School in Esiele, Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State on May 15. By the close of today, the kids would have been 23 days inside the forest, subjected to the most harrowing of abuse and molestations. One of the kidnapped teachers, Michael Oyedokun, was later beheaded by the bandits.
In Borno State, Boko Haram terrorists also attacked Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira/Uba Local Government Area and abducted 42 students, within the same time. Their fate remains unknown.
Two days ago, Wednesday, June 2, gunmen abducted seven students of the Federal Polytechnic, Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State. This is not the first time Zamfara would come under stress caused by kidnappers. Between June 2025 and May 2026, at least 270 people are recorded to have been abducted in the State, going by documented incidents. Earlier instances existed before the period.
From Kwara comes the report that five worshippers abducted during an attack on ECWA Church in Omugo, Oro Ago District of Ifelodun Local Government Area of the State, have died in captivity. The church’s minister, Rev. Timothy Omole, made the tragic disclosure in a message to the congregation’s WhatsApp platform. The victims were among eight worshippers kidnapped when armed men invaded the church during a Sunday service on March 22, 2026. Among those killed was the pastor’s wife, Mrs Rachael Oluwaremilekun Omole.
These are snippets of negative stories and ugly developments that daily assail Nigerians, while the leaders engage in insufferable trivialities and inanities to secure return to their positions in the obvious charade that will go for 2027 elections. Chapter Two, Section 14 (b) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) is explicit that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. The provision is emphatic that welfare of Nigerians should be the priority of the government. But that is not the situation. The leaders at all levels are rather, completely detached from what the electorate are going through. They seem to derive joy from the pains Nigerians are experiencing, hence they play the fiddle while the country burns. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, are right in their book, Why Nations Fail”, that the most common reason why nations fail today is because they are afflicted with exploitative leadership and extractive institutions. That is the problem with today’s Nigeria.
It can only take a leadership that has decidedly deadened its conscience to carry on as if all is well while its school kids – the very representation of its future – are holed up in reptile and wild animal-infested forests, taunted and intimidated by blood-sucking demons mildly referred to as bandits. Of course, the current regime of insecurity confronting the country did not start with the present Bola Tinubu administration. What is however astounding is the rate at which the menace is festering and the lethargy of the government to rise to the occasion. Truth be told, at no time in Nigeria’s history had the nation come to this piteous point of faceless goons holding the citizens to ransom while the government lacks the guts to deal with them decisively.
Ironically, events as they are, had not reached this worrisome dimension when Tinubu, then in opposition, through his official Twitter handle, on November 6, 2014, urged the then President Goodluck Jonathan to resign. In the tweet Tinubu stated; “Why should any part of this country be under occupation? In any civilised country, Jonathan should resign”.
Tinubu had earlier on April 14, 2014, tweeted “The festering Boko Haram attacks on the North East and massacre of innocent citizens is concrete proof that Nigeria has no government”. Nigeria, currently under Tinubu, is in a more disastrous bend, with insecurity and hardship boxing the citizens to a corner. With the turn of events, Tinubu’s insinuation of non-governance under Jonathan pales to nothing in comparison with the utter state of anarchy his administration has wrought on Nigerians.
The situation cannot continue as it is. The government owes Nigerians the duty of protection and ensuring their welfare. It is not enough for the President and the governors to make broadcasts and roll out messages in sympathy with the people on occasions as these. Governance goes beyond tokenism of televised and publicized visits to the families and communities of the kidnapped school children or extending handouts to them, if ever done. Leadership is a serious business and about being in the shoes of the citizens. When the people explicitly or tacitly surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the state, it is in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order. That is the summary of social contract, as propounded by 17th and 18th Century English and Greek philosophers. Unfortunately, successive Nigerian leaders do not abide by this creed. Leadership for them, is a right to appropriate the common wealth, corner the resources of the state for their families and cronies, while the people suffer. This explains the shameful inaction by the government in not getting the abducted Oyo, Borno, Zamfara students from the kidnappers’ dens.
