Secure Schools, Don’t Shut Them – ADC Tells Tinubu Govt

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has sounded the alarm over what it described as the quiet neglect of the Safe Schools Initiative, a flagship security response launched in 2014 after the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction in Chibok, Chibok.

The programme, initiated under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s era, was designed to guarantee the safety of students, teachers and school environments, preventing mass abductions and attacks on learning spaces.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the alarm was triggered after a leaders’ meeting held behind closed doors in Abuja, chaired by the party’s National Chairman, David Mark, with former Kaduna governor, Nasir el-Rufai, counted among notable attendees.

Abdullahi said state governments have increasingly resorted to closing schools and sending pupils home, under firestorms of armed banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, rather than plugging the remote and local security gaps.

“More troubling is the government’s quiet abandonment of the Safe Schools Initiative and the Safe Schools Programme, both designed to strengthen security around learning environments and prevent exactly the kind of mass abductions we are witnessing today.

“These programmes were not perfect, but they represented a commitment to protect children where they learn and grow. Today, that commitment has been discarded,” He said.

Abdullahi warned that school shutdowns do not weaken terror merchants but instead boost public fear, optics and adversarial confidence.

He further stated that, “The government must now choose leadership over fear. If schools have been shut because they are unsafe, then the logical response is not retreat, but reinforcement.

“The government must now choose leadership over fear. If schools are deemed unsafe, the logical response is reinforcement, not retreat.”

According to Abdullahi, school closures embolden violent groups, bandits, kidnappers and opportunistic negotiators, allowing them operate freely, negotiate openly, and dictate narrative terms while communities fold hands in anguish.

He said: “If schools have been shut because they are unsafe, the logical response is reinforcement, not retreat.

“If schools have been shut because they are unsafe, the logical response is not retreat, but reinforcement.”

He demanded urgent intervention: “Protecting our schools is a constitutional obligation. Continued capitulation worsens insecurity.

“Bring our children back to school safely. Demonstrate Nigeria refuses to bow to terror and remains committed to every child’s right to education and safety.”

Abdullahi urged, “Protecting our schools is a constitutional duty. The Federal Government must act like a serious nation, not retreat into circular statements.”

He specifically called for credible boots on the ground via the deployment of NSCDC personnel to all federal Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps units in Unity schools nationwide.

Drawing parallels with similar intelligence-led successes, Abdullahi congratulated families whose relatives were recently freed, including CAC worshippers in Kwara and GGCS Maga schoolchildren in Kebbi, saying their freedom must be substantive, not optics.

It would be recalled that following a fresh uptick in school abductions, terrorism and kidnapping, the Federal Government ordered the closure of 44 Nigerian Unity Colleges, citing: “Recent security challenges… and the need to prevent security breaches.”

“Bring our children back to school safely. Demonstrate Nigeria refuses to bow to terror and remains committed to securing every child’s right to education and safety,” Abdullahi concluded in his remark on Wednesday.