Parents school owners and teachers in the country have expressed worry over increasing abductions of schoolchildren and the fate of the 327 pupils kidnapped in Kebbi and Niger states.
They note that with the current trend, no one is certain of the next educational institution that may be attacked.
Schools in the North have faced a string of attacks in the past few days.
On Monday, 26 schoolgirls were abducted from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State. Two of them later escaped, leaving 24 still in captivity.
On Friday, 215 pupils and 12 teachers were initially reported abducted in Niger, before the number of abducted students increased to 303 after a review of the missing pupils.
Despite optimism from security agencies and state governments about ongoing rescue efforts, the whereabouts of the abducted pupils remain unknown.
The Chairman of the National Proprietors of Private Schools, Otubela Abayomi, said the National Executive Committee of the group would be meeting over the matter on Sunday.
Otubela described the spate of abductions as a setback for national development and the future of the country.
“It is a matter of grave concern to us. We are also speaking to our local chairperson in that area to supply us with firsthand information aside from what is being reported in the media,” he said.
Abayomi described the ongoing wave of kidnappings as “painful” and “saddening.”
“It seems there is no end to the kidnapping of children and workers within schools. This is not a good omen for national development as those who are supposed to lead the country in the future are being denied quality education, and those who have not been attacked are full of fear at the moment,” he said.
He added, “We are grieving. The fact that it has not affected us directly or any of us directly does not mean that we are not thinking that one man’s problem is everybody’s problem. We are concerned. I am to have a meeting with my team, the National Executive Committee, tomorrow (Sunday).”
Also, the President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, described the situation as scary.
He said, “We are aware that the government has also directed the closure of about 45 schools. We want the Federal Government to ensure that those that have been kidnapped are safe, rescued and brought back home. It’s like the bandits planned ahead to outsmart our security agencies. They need to save our children because this does not go down well with parents. They should bring back our children. We don’t want a repeat of the Chibok girls.”
Addressing escalating insecurity across the country, President Bola Tinubu, on Saturday, reaffirmed his commitment to “eliminate terrorist networks, dismantle banditry architecture and restore security, especially in the northern part of the country.”
Represented by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass, the President spoke at the 25th anniversary of the Arewa Consultative Forum in Kaduna.
Describing the situation as “one of the gravest tests in its history, marked by a corrosion of security, a collapse of communal ethics and a distortion of the moral compass that once held our communities together,” Tinubu vowed that “no region of Nigeria will be abandoned to violence.”
He stressed that peace in the north remained critical to the country’s economic progress, saying his administration would not allow any part of the country to “bleed in silence.”
“No region of Nigeria will be abandoned to violence while this government looks away. We will dismantle the banditry architecture, eliminate terrorist networks and restore the safety that once defined this region,” he said.
Tinubu acknowledged the deep-rooted dysfunction the region had suffered but insisted that northerners must be active participants in rebuilding trust and restoring social harmony.
