As Nigeria marked Children’s Day on Wednesday, the celebrations have been heavily overshadowed by the recent, tragic mass abductions of school pupils in states like Oyo and Kebbi.
Rather than traditional festivities, advocacy groups and public figures are calling it an “unhappy Children’s Day” to drive national attention toward the vulnerability of students.
Leading the charge was former Minister of Education and co-founder of Transparency International, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, who used the day to reiterate calls for the release of kidnapped children, among others.
She published a lengthy open letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu, state governors, and the National Assembly, demanding that the political class remain silent rather than issue “ghost-written platitudes.”
“Do not dare open your mouths on May 27 to wish Nigerian children a ‘Happy Children’s Day.
“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,” she wrote on X.
Ezekwesili proceeded to list children to whom she said the government would be “dishonouring” through its wishes, which included the Oyo schools abductees and other students kidnapped by bandits in previous cases of school abductions.
“You are wishing ‘Happy Children’s Day’ to at least 1,799 students seized in a dozen of the largest abductions since Chibok, and to the 670 children affected by at least 10 school kidnappings in less than two years – a litany of horror compiled not by your security agencies, but by international human rights organisations doing the work your government refuses to do.
“You are wishing ‘Happy Children’s Day’ to around 19 million Nigerian children – 27 per cent- who do not attend school due to the threat of kidnappings, poverty and cultural factors, one of the highest numbers in the world,” she further stated.
Ezekwesili further berated the political class for offering “hypocritical” wishes to millions of children devastated by illiteracy, state-sanctioned demolitions, severe malnutrition, and a collapsed primary healthcare system.
Her sentiments found immediate resonance on X, where Nigerians had already been expressing outrage and displeasure.
Broadcaster Oseni Rufai posted on X, “Children’s Day and children are in kidnappers’ den.”
Popular social media personality Enioluwa Adeoluwa similarly addressed the kidnapped children directly in his post, writing, “Today, Children’s Day is dedicated to the Ogbomoso Children.
“To the children in the forests. To the children without safety, without protection. To the children who now fear the same classrooms that should have held their dreams.”
“Children deserve safety. They deserve care. They deserve love from the country they call home. This can never become our new normal,” he added.
“You don’t get to celebrate children while abandoning them. Today is Children’s Day, and somewhere in Nigeria, a mother is staring at an empty bed that used to hold her child,” another X user, Nnaemeka, who tweets as #Nwamininnaemeka wrote.
“Today is Children’s Day. The Nigerian government is busy with politics. We must dedicate today’s Children’s Day to these missing little children. Please kindly lend your voice,” #OurFavOnlineDoc added.
Expressing sympathy to the families of students and teachers kidnapped in Oyo, Dr Dipo Awojide, identified on X as #OgbeniDipo, called on the military to intensify operations, saying, “I urge the Armed Forces to continue wiping out these terrorists from within our communities.”
#bigvaijokotoye in an Instagram post, prayed for the safe return of kidnapped children, writing, “Today is Children’s Day in Nigeria… but many children cannot celebrate. Some are in fear. Some are missing home. Some mothers are crying instead of smiling today.
“As we celebrate our children, let us also remember the innocent souls still trapped in kidnappers’ dens across the country. May every missing child return home safely. May every parent find peace again. And may Nigeria become safe for children once more.”
