Northern Women Demand Action After Abduction of 25 Kebbi Schoolgirls

VIEW demands urgent rescue of 25 kidnapped Kebbi students, says Safe Schools Initiative has failed after a decade of unfulfilled promises

By Abdullahi Yusuf

Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW), a coalition of women leaders across northern Nigeria, has issued a blistering statement condemning the abduction of 25 schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State.

In the early-hours attack, armed men killed the school’s Vice Principal and seized dozens of students, prompting renewed national outrage and comparisons to the Chibok, Dapchi and Jangebe kidnappings.

VIEW says the latest abduction is “a brutal indictment of the Nigerian State’s failure” and questions whether leaders at federal and state levels have abandoned northern girls to violence despite years of pledges, funding and the Safe Schools Initiative.

FULL PRESS RELEASE:

After the Maga Abductions, Northern Women Ask: Where Are Our Leaders?

Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW) expresses profound outrage at the abduction of schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, which occurred 2 days ago.

Armed men invaded a place of learning at dawn, murdered the Vice Principal, and dragged 25 young girls into captivity. This is not simply another security incident. It is a brutal indictment of the Nigerian State’s failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens. It forces us to confront an uncomfortable and devastating truth: after more than a decade of repeated tragedies, Northern Nigeria is still one of the most dangerous places in the world for a girl to pursue an education.

More than ten years after Chibok, after Dapchi, after Jangebe, and after countless smaller abductions that never made National news, we find ourselves reliving the same nightmare. Many of us in VIEW marched, protested, advocated, and bore the nation’s grief during the Bring Back Our Girls movement – and many of us have spent years since then working directly on the frontlines of conflict, supporting traumatized families, rebuilding shattered communities, and fighting every day to keep hope alive for innocent girls who only yearn for the opportunity of learning and a formal education.

We have watched promises being made at the highest levels. We have watched large amounts of funds flow into the Safe Schools Initiative, designed specifically to prevent another mass kidnapping. Yet today, our schools remain as exposed as ever. Our daughters are once again missing. And we must ask — with pain, anger, and clarity – where are our leaders?

Where are the elected officials who swore oaths to defend the lives of citizens? Where are the representatives who claim to speak for the North? Where are the governors, the senators, and community leaders who should be standing between our children and danger? Where are the security agencies that are meant to implement the Safe Schools Initiative with seriousness, diligence and transparency? Northern Nigeria has the highest rate of female illiteracy in the entire country. Girls in our region already face cultural, economic, and structural barriers to education. When they finally make it to school, must they now also risk abduction, rape and death?

We cannot ignore the question haunting every mother in Northern Nigeria tonight: is this part of a large plan-intentional or through neglect-to keep northern girls uneducated, silent, and powerless? Is the North doomed to remain stagnant, in poverty and darkness? If not, then our leaders must prove it through urgent, decisive, and sustained action. The alternative is unthinkable.

VIEW demands immediate, coordinated, swift, intelligence-driven rescue operations-not the slow, fragmented, and poorly communicated responses that have followed far too many tragedies. We expect daily public updates, full accountability, and visible leadership. We are calling directly on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the First Lady, on the Governor of Kebbi State, the Northern Governors’ Forum, the Northern Senators Forum, the Arewa House of Representatives Caucus, the Arewa Consultative Forum, traditional & faith-based rulers across the region, as well as the National security apparatus —particularly the NSA, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Inspector-General of Police-to stand up and be counted. We call on every Nigerian leader, every elected representative, and every authority who claims to care about the future of Nigeria’s children, to act with urgency and honour. This is not a moment for silence. This is not a moment for excuses. This is a moment for accountability & swift action.

The abduction of the Maga girls must be treated as a National emergency. Not a political talking point, or an issue for campaign; not a press release moment, nor a tragedy to be absorbed into Nigeria’s growing archive of grief. Every moment these girls spend in captivity deepens their trauma and increases the danger they face. We have seen too many disappear forever. We refuse to allow Maga to become another name on the long list of girls Nigeria has failed.

Our homes & communities are not at peace. We demand safety and security in schools. We urge all women to be united and stand up together and hold our leaders accountable. This incident has to be the last. Northern women are tired of mourning.

Tired of pleading. Tired of burying children while those in power offer condolences instead of solutions. If our leaders truly believe that girls deserve quality education, dignity, and safety, then let them prove it now-not in speeches, but in decisive action.

No Nation can claim to value its future while abandoning its daughters to violence. The girls of Maga must be located, rescued, and reunited with their families without delay. Nothing is more urgent. Nothing is more important. Their return is a test of our leadership — and our humanity.

Signed:

Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW)

Asmau Joda
Maryam Uwais
Mairo Mandara
Aisha Oyebode
Fatima Akilu
Kadaria Ahmed
Larai Ocheja Amusan
Ier Jonathan-Ichaver

Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW) is a North Central, Northeast, and Northwest Nigeria coalition committed to fostering equitable, inclusive, and just societies for women across the Nation.

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