Labour Party Interim National Chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman, has condemned the latest mass abduction of schoolchildren in Niger State, describing the tragedy as another sign that Nigeria’s security situation is rapidly deteriorating.
Usman issued the warning on Sunday, November 23, in a statement released in Abuja and titled ‘Niger Pupils Kidnap: My heart bleeds.’
Her reaction followed a disturbing sequence of attacks on schools in northern Nigeria.
Gunmen had earlier invaded Government Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State and abducted several students.
Days later, armed men struck again, this time seizing more than 300 pupils from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, Agwarra Local Government Area of Niger State.
The Labour Party leader said the scale and ease of the kidnappings reflected a much deeper national emergency.
“I received with profound grief, sadness, and deep concern for our nation the news of the abduction of over 300 pupils of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School, Papiri, in Agwarra LGA of Niger State.
“If such a large number of our children can be taken so effortlessly and without early detection, then the crisis confronting us is far more alarming than many may yet appreciate,” she said.
She warned that Nigeria was edging dangerously close to collapse, saying that “The Nigerian state cannot continue to watch helplessly while its citizens are attacked with reckless abandon.
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“Our country is drifting dangerously towards the precipice of state failure, and this reality should trouble every well-meaning Nigerian,” she added.
Usman said the widespread shutdown of schools was now a painful symbol of national distress. “Nothing captures our national distress more starkly than the current surge of violence across the country.
“Painfully, schools – the very beacon of hope and the pathway to the future for our children – are now being shut down nationwide because the state can no longer guarantee their safety. This is unacceptable and should alarm every one of us,” she said.
She urged the Federal Government to address rising poverty and hardship, which she said were fuelling criminality.
“A critical starting point is to address the hunger and extreme hardship ravaging the land.
“In any society where poverty has reached catastrophic levels, insecurity becomes an inevitable consequence. He who sows the wind should not be surprised to reap the whirlwind,” she said.
Usman also called for a genuine, coordinated security approach. “The government must also demonstrate a sincerity of purpose in its approach to insecurity.
“The present administration must go beyond routine condemnations of criminality and commence a real, structured, coordinated, and enduring process of policing the nation,” she said.
She stressed that the repeated abductions had become a full-blown emergency requiring urgent and sustained action.