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Economic policy expert and former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili has condemned the Oriire school abduction, describing it as an abomination.
Over 40 schoolchildren and teachers from three communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State were abducted on May 15 and have remained in captivity for almost a month, despite protests demanding their release and pledges made by government officials and security agencies.
Ezekwesili, while speaking in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, during News Central’s Town Hall on Thursday, decried the wave of school abductions in Nigeria.
“It is an abomination. This is an abomination. For our children to be carried from their schools. It is an abomination,” she lamented.
She recounted the 2014 Chibok girls’ abduction, adding that Nigerian leaders have ignored abductions that have persisted and worsened.
“In normal circumstances, all of us should wear sackcloth and have the morning ashes on our heads. A society that becomes comfortable to gather and talk about people, no longer just adults, but children, constantly being taken from our midst. And we carry on as if all is well,” she said.
“My people, all is not well. When we were told that hundreds of girls were taken, instead of our country to say, ‘impossible, this cannot happen in our midst, what did we do?’ People started talking politics. A two-year-old is in the bush.”
The former minister criticised Nigerian leaders, saying they “lack conscience”.
“What kind of a country is this, where people have the enjoyment of being called leaders, but lack the conscience or responsibility to the citizens, and the citizens are busy debating. What are you debating? Are you debating? What are you debating?,” she added.
News Central’s Town Hall, themed “Oyo at a Crossroads: Security, Safety and the Future,” brought together victims of attacks from Oyo and Kwara States, security experts, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and political representatives to explore solutions to rising insecurity in the South-West.
