President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday ordered security agencies to intensify coordinated rescue operations for schoolchildren and teachers abducted in Oyo and Borno states, pledging that the government “will not turn your pain into ceremony” as Nigeria marked Children’s Day.
In a statement coinciding with Eid-el-Kabir, Tinubu addressed families of children still in captivity. “To those children, their parents, and their teachers, I say this as a father and your President: you are not forgotten. You are not abandoned,” he said.
He said he had directed “all relevant security agencies to sustain and intensify” rescue operations across the country, insisting they must be “intelligence-led, carefully executed and focused on the safe recovery of our children.”
Tinubu also ordered strengthened protection for schools in high-risk areas.
The measures include; updated school vulnerability mapping,closer coordination between state governments and security commands, rapid response links between schools and local security units as well as stronger community-based early warning systems*
He directed the Federal Ministry of Education and state governments to deepen implementation of the Safe Schools framework with “clear reporting, clear responsibility and clear timelines.”
Tinubu said every school in a vulnerable area “must know who to call, what to do, where to move, and how to protect children when danger is identified.”
He stressed that “rescue is not the end of the government’s duty,” directing ministries and agencies to provide recovered children with medical attention, counselling, education and reintegration support.
“A child who returns from trauma must return to care… not temporary attention,” he added.
Tinubu said protecting children cannot be left solely to the government, calling on parents, teachers, traditional rulers, religious leaders, transport unions, local vigilantes and the media to share information.
He added: “When a community sees strange movement around a school and keeps quiet, a child is placed at risk… When information is shared quickly and responsibly, lives can be saved.”
