Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared that an examination hall should be a sanctuary of hope, not a crime scene, condemning the abduction of the Principal of Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, a National Examinations Council NECO ad hoc official and students who were writing their NECO examination in Kogi State. FamousQuotations
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC described the incident as further proof that the Nigerian state has abdicated its most fundamental responsibility, which is the protection of life, learning and the future of its children.
He said, “An examination hall should be a sanctuary of hope, not a crime scene. A school principal should be preparing students for the future, not negotiating with kidnappers. A NECO official should be supervising examinations, not struggling for survival in the hands of bandits. Yet this has become the grim reality under a government that has normalised insecurity.”
Atiku said the latest attack is not an isolated tragedy but part of a dangerous national pattern in which educational institutions have become preferred targets because criminals no longer fear the Nigerian state. FamousQuotations
“It is impossible to separate this attack from the attitude this administration has displayed towards education. A government that has repeatedly made education more expensive through unprecedented increases in WAEC and NECO examination fees, neglected public schools, failed to secure learning environments and reduced education to empty campaign slogans should not be surprised that criminals now see schools as abandoned territories,” he said.
He said government policies have sent one unmistakable message: that education is no longer a national priority. “First, they price poor children out of classrooms. Then they fail to protect those who remain in school. This is a double assault on the future of Nigeria. One is economic exclusion; the other is violent intimidation. Together, they amount to a systematic destruction of the dreams of an entire generation,” he said.
Atiku linked the security failure to what he described as reckless federal budgeting, saying the repeated incompetence Nigerians continue to witness under the Tinubu administration is the inevitable consequence of a government that has abandoned probity, discipline and accountability in public finance.
He noted that every successful attack on a school emboldens other criminal groups, making educational institutions increasingly attractive targets because the consequences have been minimal and the response largely reactive.
“The collapse of school security is not merely a security failure; it is a collapse of governance itself. A country where children cannot safely write examinations is a country steadily surrendering its future to fear,” he said.
Atiku called for the immediate and unconditional rescue of every abducted victim and demanded a comprehensive review of security arrangements for all schools and examination centres across the federation.
He urged the Federal Government to stop issuing routine statements after every tragedy and instead implement measurable security reforms that restore public confidence.
“A government that devalues education inadvertently empowers those who seek to destroy it. When the state fails to defend its schools, bandits inevitably conclude that nobody else will.
“The children of Nigeria deserve books instead of bullets, classrooms instead of captivity, examinations instead of evacuation, and hope instead of horror. That is the minimum any responsible government owes its people,” Atiku said.