In recent days, a stark warning has been issued: education across Northern Nigeria is facing a full-scale collapse. According to Amnesty International (AI), a staggering 20,468 schools have been shut indefinitely across seven states. This mass closure comes in the wake of a fresh wave of school abductions, most recently involving more than 300 children and teachers from a school in Niger State.
AI’s Country Director, Isa Sanusi, described the situation as a “generation-ending disaster,” warning that persistent government failures in protecting students and teachers have put the future of millions of children in jeopardy.
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Fear, closures and vanishing classrooms in the North
Since the well-publicised 2014 abduction of schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, AI has documented at least 15 major mass-kidnapping incidents targeting schools across the region.
Communities are living in fear. Entire towns and villages have been repeatedly assaulted by armed gunmen. As Sanusi noted, these attacks are not isolated events; they are part of a dangerous pattern of security failures.
In response, state governments across the north, including in Bauchi, Benue, Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Yobe and Katsina, have ordered widespread school closures. These measures, presented as temporary, are fast becoming indefinite shutdowns as insecurity shows no sign of abating.
Alarmingly, many schools closed after previous kidnappings were never reopened, and thousands of children were never offered alternative education.
Girls, households and broken promises
The impact of the shutdowns extends beyond lost classroom hours. According to Amnesty, fear has driven many families — especially those from rural and marginalised communities- to withdraw their children from school permanently. Girls are particularly at risk. In many cases, parents have resorted to marrying off underage daughters early, viewing marriage as the only viable means of protection.
Behind these closures lies a deeper problem: absence of justice, lack of accountability and a cycle of impunity. Many past abductions remain unresolved. The authorities have failed to investigate or prosecute perpetrators. This failure has eroded public trust and stoked rumours of covert ransom payments to release abducted children.
Instead of ensuring safe learning environments, the state appears to be punishing the victims—forcing children out of school rather than protecting them.
What must be done now
Amnesty isn’t only sounding the alarm; it is putting forward urgent demands. The organisation insists that the government must mobilise all available resources to restore safety in schools, prioritise reopening shut education centres, and ensure children can return to the classroom without fear.
Beyond reopening schools, there must be prompt, transparent and independent investigations into every mass abduction since 2014. Those responsible must be held to account. Without such accountability, the cycle of violence and school closures will continue.
Safeguarding education must become more than rhetoric. It must become a national priority. If not, Northern Nigeria risks losing an entire generation to fear, forced labour and early marriage.
The collapse of schooling in the North is more than a crisis; it is a crisis of trust, governance and the future of a generation. Without urgent, sustained and meaningful intervention, the damage may prove impossible to reverse.
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