#FixPolitics Africa has expressed deep grief and anger over the continued abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in different parts of Nigeria, including recent attacks in Borno and Oyo states.

Reports indicate that 42 pupils and students were abducted from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, while in Oyo, one of the abducted teachers, Michael Oyedokun, was beheaded in captivity.

In a statement by its Executive Director, Anthony Ubani, #FixPolitics Africa demanded urgent action from the Federal and state governments, who swore to secure citizens and their property, to stop the terror.

The only response from security agencies on the matter has been from the police authorities, who said they were still examining video evidence of the killing.

"These incidents are not ordinary crimes; they are a direct attack on the Nigerian child, the Nigerian family, the education system and the moral authority of the state.

#FixPolitics is deeply disturbed that while children and teachers remained in captivity, governments at federal and state levels proceeded with Children's Day activities on 27 May as though the country was not in mourning.

"A nation cannot honestly celebrate children while some of its children are in the forests, in the hands of terrorists and kidnappers. Public statements are not enough. Condemnation is not rescue. Sympathy is not strategy. The first duty of government is the protection of life. On this test, the Nigerian state is failing too many citizens, too often, and too tragically," Ubani stated.

According to the group, the President, governors, security agencies and local government authorities must accept that these repeated school abductions are not just security failures, but failures of leadership, governance, intelligence, accountability and political will.

While acknowledging President Bola Tinubu's directive for security agencies to intensify rescue operations and strengthen school protection measures, the group noted that directives that do not produce the safe return of abducted children remain incomplete.

What Nigerians, especially the grieving parents of the abductees, need now, it added, is not another statement, but the return of their children alive.

#FixPolitics therefore called on the President to address the nation directly on the recent school abductions and announce a clear emergency rescue and protection plan.

"Nigerians deserve to know who is in charge, what is being done, and how affected families are being supported. The Federal Government should immediately establish a joint rescue command involving the military, other state security structures, local intelligence networks and community leaders, and mandate them to rescue the abducted children and teachers alive.

"The Federal and affected state governments must provide daily verified updates to the families and the public. Silence creates fear. Confusion feeds rumours. The parents of abducted children should not be left to beg for information about their own children," the statement read.

Other demands from the citizens-led movement include that government must provide direct support to affected families, including counselling, medical care, secure communication channels, emergency welfare support and protection from exploitation by criminals claiming to be intermediaries.

"Security agencies must investigate and expose the networks behind these abductions. These crimes require informants, transporters, food suppliers, ransom negotiators, arms channels and local collaborators. Until these networks are dismantled and prosecuted, abductions will continue.

"All schools in vulnerable communities must undergo an urgent security audit. Schools without basic protection, early warning systems, perimeter control, emergency communication lines and rapid response links should not be left exposed. The Federal and state governments must fully activate and fund the Safe Schools framework. Nigeria already has a National Plan on Financing Safe Schools for 2023 to 2026, with planned investment running into over ?140bn. The problem is not the absence of documents, but the familiar Nigerian disease of plans without execution," the group added.

It charged governors to stop treating school safety as a Federal problem alone. "State governments control local security architecture, schools, community structures and local intelligence channels. Every governor must publish a state-level school protection plan within 30 days, beginning with high-risk communities."

Also, it charged the National Assembly to immediately summon the relevant security chiefs, education authorities and state officials from affected areas to account for what happened, what is being done, and why previous school protection measures failed.

"Nigeria must stop normalising national tragedy. When children are abducted, the country should pause. There should be national mourning, national accountability and national action. Business-as-usual is part of the sickness.

"The long-term answer must go beyond rescue operations. Nigeria must rebuild local policing, improve intelligence gathering, strengthen border and forest security, invest in rural development, regulate unregistered schools and orphanages, and restore trust between citizens and security agencies. A country where parents are afraid to send children to school is a country surrendering its future," the statement further noted.

While also noting that "we are beginning to normalise insecurity and torture as a country", #FixPolitics tasked government to demonstrate visible and greater political will to prosecute those behind these crimes.

"There is something very odd and deeply troubling with a country where children, teachers and ordinary citizens are kidnapped, tortured and some beheaded while government officials and citizens carry on with their normal lives like absolutely nothing happened.

"#FixPolitics insists that every abducted child and teacher must be brought home alive. Every perpetrator and collaborator must be found and prosecuted. Every negligent public officer must be held accountable," the statement added.

Children's Day, it warned, should never again be reduced to speeches, banners and ceremonial visits while Nigerian children cry for help from captivity.

Ubani asserted that the true measure of leadership is not how loudly leaders celebrate children in public, but how fiercely they protect them in danger.

"Clearly, you can tell the character of a country by the way it treats its children. Nigeria must choose now. Either we defend our children, or we admit that we have abandoned the future," Ubani stressed.

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