Former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili has accused Nigeria’s political leaders of abandoning children to insecurity and hardship, warning them against issuing Children’s Day goodwill messages.
Oby Ezekwesili has criticised Bola Ahmed Tinubu, governors, lawmakers and the Nigerian political class, accusing them of failing Nigerian children amid rising insecurity, kidnappings and systemic neglect. In a statement issued on Wednesday as Nigeria marked this year’s Children’s Day celebration, the former minister warned political leaders against issuing the customary Children’s Day messages, insisting they had lost the moral authority to celebrate children while thousands remain victims of violence and abductions across the country.
She stated, “A warning to President Bola Tinubu, the Nigerian government, the national assembly, the Senate, the House of Representatives, Governors’ Forum, State Houses of Assembly, and the Nigerian political class at large: ‘Do not dare wish our children ‘happy Children’s Day’ today. To the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Vice President, the Governors of the 36 States, the Federal Executive Council, the Members of the National Assembly, the State Houses of Assembly, and the entire political class that has captured and destroyed the Nigerian State: ‘Do not dare. Do not dare open your mouths on May 27 to wish Nigerian children a ‘Happy Children’s Day.’”
Ezekwesili further condemned what she described as performative political gestures toward children, saying, “‘Do not dare release the recycled, ghost-written platitudes your media handlers have already drafted. Do not dare stand in front of cameras, surrounded by carefully arranged children in matching uniforms, to perform a tenderness you have never extended to the millions of Nigerian children you have abandoned, betrayed, and condemned to lives of suffering.’” Her comments have since generated widespread reactions on social media, with many Nigerians debating the state of child welfare and insecurity in the country.
READ THE FULL STORY IN SAHARA REPORTERS
NEWS NOW:
