Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has warned President Bola Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and other political leaders against issuing Children’s Day messages amid worsening insecurity and repeated abductions of schoolchildren across the country.

In a lengthy post shared on X on Wednesday, Ezekwesili accused the Nigerian political class of failing children and lacking the moral justification to celebrate Children’s Day.

Addressing the President, Vice President, governors, members of the National Assembly and state assemblies, the former minister said they had “abandoned, betrayed, and condemned” Nigerian children to suffering.

She cited several incidents of school abductions across the country, including the reported kidnapping of students and teachers in Oyo, Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna and Sokoto states.

Ezekwesili also referenced the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014, noting that many of the victims were still missing more than a decade later.

According to her, successive incidents of mass kidnappings and attacks on schools showed the failure of leadership and the inability of government to protect children.

She further claimed that thousands of students had been affected by school abductions in recent years, while many schools were forced to shut down due to insecurity.

The former minister said Nigerian leaders should focus on addressing insecurity and protecting children rather than issuing ceremonial Children’s Day messages.

“To the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Vice President, the Governors of the 36 States, the Federal Executive Council, the Members of the National Assembly, the State Houses of Assembly, and the entire political class that has captured and destroyed the Nigeria State:

“Do not dare.

“Do not dare open your mouths on May 27 to wish Nigerian children a “Happy Children’s Day.” Do not dare release the recycled, ghost-written platitudes your media handlers have already drafted.

“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.

“You have no moral standing to wish anything to Nigerian children. None,” part of her message read.