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Political scientist Wale Adewale has challenged Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, over his claim that the UN lacks the authority to investigate the recent Oriire school abduction.
In a statement, Adewale argued that the position taken by Ibrahim was inconsistent with previous UN interventions in cases involving mass school abductions in Nigeria.
According to him, the United Nations has examined similar incidents for more than a decade, including the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok.
Adewale noted that the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) launched an inquiry into Nigeria’s handling of repeated abductions of women and girls following the Chibok incident.
He further referenced findings released on March 6, 2025 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which concluded that “grave and systematic violations” of the rights of women and girls persisted in Nigeria.
“The Committee held that the Nigerian state had repeatedly failed to prevent abductions, rescue victims, prosecute perpetrators and provide effective remedies.”
Adewale also cited the December 2020 abduction of more than 300 schoolboys from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, and subsequent attacks on schools in Zamfara and Niger states.
He said UN human rights experts had criticised Nigeria in March 2021 for failing to conduct what they described as an impartial and independent investigation into the incidents.
The political scientist recalled that UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the February 2021 abduction of students from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, and called for the unconditional release of the students.
He added that the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict repeatedly condemned attacks on schools in Zamfara, Kebbi and other parts of the country, describing them as grave violations of children’s rights under international law.
Adewale defended Governor Seyi Makinde’s call for an independent international inquiry into the Oriire abduction, saying the request did not amount to inviting foreign control over Nigeria.
“He merely requested an independent international inquiry into an atrocity that shocked the nation and attracted global attention.”
According to him, international scrutiny should not be confused with an erosion of sovereignty, since Nigeria voluntarily accepted obligations under treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Adewale maintained that if the UN could investigate the aftermath of Chibok, scrutinise Kankara, condemn the Jangebe abduction and monitor attacks on schools in several states, there was no legal or moral basis for excluding the Oriire case from similar scrutiny.
“The documentary record leaves little room for doubt that it can, and that it has repeatedly done so in comparable cases.”
He concluded by questioning why anyone would oppose an independent inquiry if there was nothing to conceal.
