A prominent coalition of Northern women leaders has sharply criticised the widespread closure of schools across Niger, Kebbi and other northern states following the recent wave of mass abductions, warning that government actions amount to “panic, not protection.”
The Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW) said it was “horrified” by what it described as Nigeria’s deepening security collapse, stressing that the crisis had now moved beyond ordinary insecurity.
“This is no longer insecurity. It is terror,” the group declared in a statement signed by leading Northern advocates including Asmau Joda, Maryam Uwais, Mairo Mandara, Aisha Oyebode, Fatima Akilu, Kadaria Ahmed and Larai Ocheja Amusan.
VIEW recalled that only last week it urged authorities to act swiftly after the abduction of schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, and the mass kidnapping of more than 300 children and teachers from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State.
But the group said it was alarmed that authorities responded by shutting more schools instead of strengthening protection.
“Instead of responding with strategy, urgency and courage, we are witnessing decisions that reflect panic rather than protection,” the statement said.
“The announcement that all schools in Niger and Kebbi States have been shut down, along with the closure of unity schools across the North, represents not security but surrender,” the women added.
The coalition insisted that the closures would worsen an already dire educational situation for Northern girls.
“The North already carries the highest burden of female illiteracy in Nigeria,” VIEW noted, adding that cultural and economic barriers already impede access to schooling.
“These sweeping school closures stifle their right to learn even further. Every shuttered classroom widens inequality; every child kept at home deepens fear. This is not protection; it is abandonment.”
The group warned that shutting down schools hands psychological and moral victory to violent groups, saying it “reinforces efforts, whether deliberate or through neglect, to keep northern girls uneducated and powerless.”
VIEW demanded a more proactive national response centred on intelligence-led rescue operations, transparent daily updates and a complete overhaul of Nigeria’s security architecture.
“Nigeria cannot continue this cycle of violence followed by retreat. Schools must be protected, not emptied,” the statement stressed.
“We reject policies that punish children for the State’s failures. We reject the normalization of terror,” the coalition added.
The women leaders urged the government to deploy “the full force of the State’s protection” to safeguard schools, citing the grim history of attacks stretching from Chibok and Dapchi to Yauri and Jangebe.
“Nigeria is once again failing its daughters and sons. The children of Maga and Papiri must be rescued, northern schools must be protected, and the future of our region must not be surrendered to fear,” they said.
Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW) is a coalition operating across the North Central, Northeast and Northwest dedicated to building equitable and just societies for women.
