Abuja, Nigeria – Former Vice President and 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has issued a passionate and urgent appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately declare a national state of emergency on insecurity. The call comes in the wake of yet another devastating terrorist attack on an educational institution – this time St. Mary’s Secondary School in Papiri community, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State – where gunmen suspected to be armed bandits abducted more than fifty students and members of staff in a brazen midnight raid.
In a strongly worded statement posted on his verified Facebook page on Friday, Atiku described the incident as “truly heartbreaking,” lamenting that Nigeria appears trapped in a relentless cycle of violence that shows no sign of abating. “Not again,” he wrote, his words carrying the weight of a nation weary from repeated tragedies. “How many more lives must be shattered, how many more families torn apart, how many more childhoods stolen before this government wakes up to the reality that we are in a full-blown national security crisis?”
The latest abduction, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday, has once again exposed the fragility of security in Nigeria’s North-Central and North-West regions. According to eyewitnesses and local authorities, heavily armed terrorists stormed the school premises, shooting sporadically into the air to create panic before rounding up students from their hostels and herding them into the surrounding bush. Although the exact number of those taken is still being verified, preliminary reports from the Niger State government and community leaders indicate that over fifty persons – mostly students, along with some teachers and non-academic staff – are currently in captivity.
This incident is painfully reminiscent of the 2014 Chibok girls’ abduction that shocked the world, the 2018 Dapchi kidnapping, the 2021 Kankara schoolboys’ seizure, and countless other mass abductions that have turned Nigeria’s education sector into a soft target for criminal gangs and jihadist elements. Parents, civil society organisations, and human rights groups have repeatedly warned that schools in rural and semi-urban areas have become low-hanging fruit for terrorists seeking ransom, recruits, or leverage against the state.
Atiku Abubakar, who served as Nigeria’s Vice President from 1999 to 2007 and remains one of the most prominent voices in the opposition, did not mince words in his criticism of the federal government’s response – or lack thereof – to the deteriorating security landscape. He questioned why, despite the near-daily reports of killings, abductions, and displacement across multiple states, the Tinubu administration has not yet invoked the extraordinary constitutional powers available to it to confront the crisis head-on.
“It is not too late,” Atiku insisted, “for the government to declare a state of emergency on insecurity and confront this menace with the urgency it deserves.”
A declaration of a state of emergency on national security would grant the President sweeping powers under Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), including the ability to deploy the armed forces domestically without the usual legislative bottlenecks, suspend certain civil liberties in affected areas if deemed necessary, mobilise extraordinary funding, and establish special courts or task forces to tackle terrorism and banditry.
Observers note that previous administrations have resorted to partial states of emergency in the past – former President Goodluck Jonathan declared one in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa in 2013 at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency – but critics argue that the current scale and geographic spread of insecurity now demands a nationwide approach rather than piecemeal measures.
The former Vice President’s statement has reignited the national conversation about leadership, accountability, and the apparent helplessness of the state in protecting its citizens. Many Nigerians, especially in the northern states where banditry and terrorism have virtually collapsed local economies and displaced millions, share Atiku’s frustration. Social media platforms have been flooded with the hashtag #SecureOurSchools and #DeclareEmergencyNow as citizens amplify the call for decisive action.
Beyond the immediate demand for a state of emergency, Atiku’s intervention implicitly highlights deeper systemic failures: chronic underfunding of security agencies, poor intelligence coordination, alleged complicity of some local actors, proliferation of small arms, and the lack of a clear, publicly communicated national counter-terrorism strategy under the current administration.
As of the time of this report, the Presidency is yet to issue an official response to Atiku’s statement. However, the Niger State government has confirmed that security forces have launched a rescue operation, with the Nigerian Army, Police, and local vigilante groups combing the vast forests of Agwara and neighbouring local government areas. The state governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, has appealed for calm while assuring families that everything possible is being done to secure the safe return of the victims.
Nevertheless, with each passing hour that the abducted students and staff remain in captivity, public anxiety mounts. Ransom demands are expected to follow, as has become the grim pattern in such cases, placing additional financial and emotional strain on already impoverished communities.
Atiku Abubakar’s call, therefore, is not merely political opposition rhetoric; it is a moral clarion call from a former leader who has witnessed Nigeria’s security trajectory over two decades. Whether President Tinubu will heed the advice and take the extraordinary step of declaring a national security emergency remains to be seen. What is indisputable, however, is that the nation can no longer afford business-as-usual responses to a crisis that is steadily eroding its sovereignty, its future generation, and the very social fabric that holds it together.
The eyes of grieving parents in Papiri, and indeed millions of Nigerians nationwide, are fixed on Aso Rock, waiting – and hoping – for a response commensurate with the magnitude of the tragedy that continues to unfold.
