Teachers across Nigeria staged mass protests on Tuesday, demanding urgent government action to protect schools following a wave of abductions that has claimed the lives of two educators and left dozens of students still in captivity.
The demonstrations, coordinated by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), swept through at least 15 states — including Borno, Oyo, Lagos, Kano, Sokoto, and the Federal Capital Territory — marking one of the most widespread teacher-led protests in recent memory.
The rallies were sparked by twin attacks in May that left more than 80 students and teachers kidnapped. On May 14, suspected Boko Haram insurgents stormed Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira-Uba, Borno State, seizing over 40 children — some of them toddlers — and using them as human shields during their retreat.
On the same day, gunmen raided three schools in the Ahoro-Esiele and Yawota communities of Oyo State, abducting pupils and teachers. Two of the abducted teachers were subsequently killed by their captors. Speaking at the Abuja rally, NUT National President Comrade Audu Titus Amba warned that the unrelenting attacks posed an existential threat to Nigeria’s education system.
“An attack on teachers is an attack on education, and an attack on education is an attack on the future of Nigeria,” he declared.
Amba criticised the federal government’s Safe Schools Initiative — introduced in the aftermath of the 2014 Chibok abduction of over 270 schoolgirls — saying it had failed to deliver meaningful protection for learning institutions.
He called for an immediate review of the programme and a strengthening of security around schools nationwide.The NUT demanded the unconditional release of all persons still in captivity, noting that victims had already spent more than two weeks in the hands of their abductors.
The protests come against a grim backdrop. Monitoring records indicate that at least 2,531 students have been kidnapped across 31 documented school attacks since 2014 — a figure that underscores the chronic failure of successive administrations to secure educational facilities.
Major incidents have occurred in Nasarawa, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Ekiti, Kebbi, Niger, Ogun, and Kogi states in recent years alone.The union called on all Nigerians to support efforts to create safe learning environments, warning that without decisive action, the country risks losing a generation of children to fear, displacement, and trauma.
