Terrorists ultimately succeeding waging war on Nigeria education

By Shamsudeen Abubakar

Terrorism in Nigeria was never just about bombs and bullets, it was a war against education and the hope that it represents. Today, more than years after Boko Haram first declared war on Western education, it is painfully clear that their darkest dream is slowly becoming reality.

This is not because they won on the battlefield, but because the Nigerian state is failing to protect its own people.

In just a matter of days, Nigerians have witnessed horrifying coordinated attacks that expose the fragility of the country’s security architecture. As the Former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi stated on his verified X account (formerly Twitter), “What we are seeing is a systematic failure of leadership, where insecurity continues to grow because those in charge have chosen politics over the protection of citizens.” These words are not just mere criticisms— they are an undeniable reflection of the truth unfolding before us.

“Are We Cursed or are We the Curse?” — Peter Obi

According to Peter Obi, Nigeria has watched a nation blessed with people of strength and resilience drift into avoidable disorder. “We should be asking ourselves: Are we cursed, or are we the curse?”

Nigeria is bleeding from violent attacks, killings, mass abduction to institutional decay that have rocked the country over the past 10 days according to him.

On November, 2025, six senior directors from the Ministry of Defence were kidnapped along the Kogi axis, marking the beginning of a disturbing trend. Just four days later, on November 15, 2025, a senior military officer, Brigadier General, Musa Uba was brutally executed, an attack that has raised concerns about national security.

The violence continued unabated with 64 civilians abducted, including women and children in Zamfara on November 16, 2025. The next day, November 17, 2025, 25 schoolgirls were abducted in Kebbi, and their Vice Principal was killed.

On November 18, 2025, worshippers were attacked in a church in Kwara, resulting in multiple deaths and 38 abductions. The same day, a crisis erupted at the PDP headquarters, exacerbated by security agencies, and judges stood for a partisan APC song during the President’s arrival, further eroding trust in institutions.

The security forces faced a setback on November 19, 2025, when soldiers heading to rescue abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi were ambushed. The situation took a turn for the worse on November 21, 2025, when over 300 Catholic schoolchildren and 12 teachers were kidnapped in Niger State.

The violence spread to other parts of the country, with farmers killed in Kaduna on November 22, 2025. On November 23, 2025, terrorists ambushed and killed 5 police officers in Bauchi, and 13 female farmers were abducted in Borno.

All these incidents sparked widespread concern and calls for increased security measures. “Nigeria is bleeding due to bad leaders prioritizing comfort over, politics over people, and power over purpose,” Obi said. “ Governance is not just a title, but a duty to protect all citizens with competence and compassion.”

This surge in attacks comes with a grim historical backdrop. Since the infamous Chibok abduction in April 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls, at least 2,496 students have been taken in 92 school attacks according to Vanguard News. Many more incidents likely go unreported. According to UNICEF, only 37% of schools in the ten most-at-risk states have early-warning systems to detect threats like attacks.
The War Against Education Intensifies

Across the country, terrorism is burning through communities like wildfire while the government appears disturbingly quiet. Federal Government Colleges have been ordered shut, and in states such as Kebbi, Niger and others, authorities have closed all schools, including higher institutions in Kebbi, in response to these attacks.

The central question on my lips is no longer rhetorical: why is the government shutting down schools instead decisively confronting the threat? Are bandits the real authority now or is the state simply surrendering its constitutional duty? We await for answers.

If there was a time to say that Nigeria is becoming that country terrorists always wanted, that time is now. This is no longer a random pattern of insecurity, it is a systemic dismantling of the pillars that hold society together— education, worship, food production, community defense, and the basic dignity of human life. Armed groups are no longer attacking from the fringes; they are setting the peace of national life. Kai jama’a (Oh! fellow Kingsmen), what a country?

Today, every school attack is another family shattered and another community pushed deeper into fear. Every farmer killed and every farmland abandoned deepens hunger, as seen in the ongoing killings of farmers and villagers in Sokoto, Kebbi among others. Fears now spread faster than bullets, and the nation is quietly adjusting to terror as if it were weather —something to endure, not to fight.

The government repeats promises and holds security meetings, but Nigerians are tired of routine speeches that never translate into safety. Reports from the human right agency show that more than 2, 266 people were killed by bandits and insurgencies in just the first half of 2025, a figure that already surpasses all recorded deaths from such violence in 2024. Each time the government sits to discuss “ending insecurity,” bandits and insurgents seem to answer with new massacres, new abductions and new graves.

The most tragic shift is psychological: Nigerians no longer ask why this is happening; they now ask who is next. Everybody can’t sleep, only the protected elite sleep at night. Schools are now battlefields, churches and mosques are battlegrounds, farmlands have become graveyards, and highways have turned into hunting grounds where buses and cars are ambushed at will. The idea that Nigeria is dying is no longer a metaphor; for many, it is an everyday reality. If the Nigerian government does not act with urgency and honesty, then the future is dying in real time.

A Warning Not Just an Opinion

You may read this as an opinion piece, but for the ill-fated and those living under daily gunfire, it is a warning and a risk. In a climate where critics are often silenced from speaking out about these failures, it can itself feel dangerous. Still, my duty remains: to question anything that threatens to destroy the future, especially education, which is the last hope for millions of Nigerian children trapped between poverty and violence.

So, I ask, is Nigeria prepared to fight for its future, or will it surrender that future to those who want to destroy it?

The answer will not be written in communiques or press conferences as they broadcast the country’s intelligence information; it will be written in whether children can sit in classrooms without fear, whether farmers can return to their fields, and whether Nigerians can sleep at night without wondering if they will be next.

Praise be to God, I heard a few students from the Catholic church return. I hope our ears continue to hear this good news instead of news from the past few days.