Children’s Day: Ezekwesili Knocks Govt Over Education, Security Failures

A former minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has criticised Nigeria’s political leadership for failing to guarantee the safety, education, and welfare of children across the country.

Ezekwesili, in a press statement yesterday, cautioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, governors and members of the political class against issuing Children’s Day messages. At the same time, insecurity, poverty and educational collapse continue to devastate millions of Nigerian children.

The statement titled, “A Warning to the President, Government, and Political Class of Nigeria: Do Not Dare Wish Our Children’ Happy Children’s Day,” accused political leaders of abandoning Nigerian children and presiding over worsening insecurity and learning poverty, insisting that they had no moral right to celebrate children while thousands remained victims of kidnappings, violence, hunger and poor access to education.

“You have no moral standing to wish anything for Nigerian children. You are wishing ‘Happy Children’s Day’ to children buried under the rubble of Jos, Plateau, Benue, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Borno, Yobe, and now Oyo, slaughtered in their sleep, in their schools, in their churches, in their mosques, in their farms,” she said.

The former minister also decried the growing number of out-of-school children and worsening learning poverty in Nigeria, noting that millions of children remained unable to access quality education due to insecurity and poverty.

She criticised government spending priorities, accusing political leaders of living in luxury while many Nigerian families struggled to afford food, school fees, healthcare and transportation.

Ezekwesili described the current reality facing children in Nigeria as a National Day of Shame rather than a celebration.

She challenged the Federal Government to publicly account for children still in captivity, disclose audited figures on out-of-school children and child mortality, and provide concrete plans to make schools safer within the current fiscal year.

“A government that cannot protect its children has forfeited the right to celebrate them,” she said.