As Nigeria marked Children’s Day on Wednesday, a wave of grief and condemnation swept across social media, with citizens demanding government action over abducted children nationwide
The most recent trigger was the abduction of dozens of schoolchildren and teachers from three schools in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State on 15 May about 12 days before Children’s Day.
Taking to different social media platforms on Wednesday, some Nigerians made clear they had no appetite for celebration, while others used the day to reiterate calls for the release of kidnapped children, among others.
Leading the charge was former Minister of Education and co-founder of Transparency International, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, who published a lengthy open letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu, state governors, and the National Assembly, demanding that the political class remain silent rather than issue ‘ghost-written platitudes’.
‘Do not dare open your mouths on 27 May to wish Nigerian children a “Happy Children’s Day”.
‘Do not dare stand in front of cameras, surrounded by carefully arranged children in matching uniforms, to perform a tenderness you have never extended to the millions of Nigerian children you have abandoned, betrayed, and condemned to lives of suffering’, she wrote on X.
Ezekwesili proceeded to list children to whom she said the government would be ‘dishonouring’ through its wishes, which included the Oyo schools abductees and other students kidnapped by bandits in previous cases of school abductions.
‘You are wishing “Happy Children’s Day” to at least 1,799 students seized in a dozen of the largest abductions since Chibok, and to the 670 children affected by at least 10 school kidnappings in less than two years – a litany of horror compiled not by your security agencies, but by international human rights organisations doing the work your government refuses to do.
‘You are wishing “Happy Children’s Day” to around 19 million Nigerian children – 27 per cent- who do not attend school due to the threat of kidnappings, poverty and cultural factors, one of the highest numbers in the world’, she wrote.
Ezekwesili further berated the political class for offering ‘hypocritical’ wishes to millions of children devastated by illiteracy, state-sanctioned demolitions, severe malnutrition, and a collapsed primary healthcare system.
Her sentiments found immediate resonance on X, where Nigerians had already been expressing outrage and displeasure.
