Sch. Abductions: Ezekwesili Says Govt, Security Agencies Crippled By Corruption

Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili has blamed systemic corruption and bad government in the country for the recent  mass abductions in the country.

The former minister said the government failed to listen to clarion calls to end the corruption malaise in the country, which she said has now become “cancerous” so much so that it has crippled many institutions, including security agencies, and prevented them from being effective.

Ezekwesili, co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls movement  spoke via the post she shared on her verified X handle on Monday,  saying corruption is at the bottom of the mass kidnappings of Nigerians, particularly school children by bandits.

Her remark comes on the heels of the recent abduction of school children in Kebbi and Niger states by bandits, raising serious apprehension among not a few Nigerians who are worried of the safety of their children and wards while in school.

The magazine also reported the kidnap of scores of Christian worshipers in Eruku, a community bordering Kwara and Kogi states last week even though they have now been released by the bandits.

On Sunday, some of the students abducted in a Catholic School in Niger state were said to have escaped and reunited with their parents.

To prevent further abductions of school children, the federal and some state governments, last week announced the immediate closure of schools, saying the action was necessary until the situation becomes normal again.

According to Ezekwesili, the problem of corruption and bad governance which the government failed to tackle at the right time has worsen and now yielding the fruits of criminality such as mass abductions of Nigerians for ransom by criminals elements in the country .

She said: “Endemic corruption gradually ate up the very values on which they were founded and rendered them the impotent institutions we now know. .

“The latest group of abducted children are not just hostages of terrorists; they are hostages of the unforgivable failure of governments and a political class that refuse to be moved, and to a people whose empathy has been steadily eroded.”