Between 17 and 23 November, armed groups kidnapped more than 300 students from two schools and 38 congregants from a church across three states in northern Nigeria. While some of the victims are now free, these abductions once again highlight one of the country’s most persistent security challenges. A subsequent sweeping closure of schools across many northern states has also fuelled concerns about the state of education, particularly the effectiveness of a decade-old school safety program, and its implications for the region’s development.

The resurgence of mass student abductions, more than a year after the last incident in March 2024, has been put down to several causes. The Nigerian government blames it on the U.S. government’s threat of military action to halt the alleged “mass killing of Christians” which, authorities say, may have prompted a backlash from armed groups. Some security analysts suggest that armed groups, fearing possible U.S. airstrikes, may be abducting people to use as human shields. A number of ruling party politicians, on the other hand, claim the abductions have been “orchestrated” by opponents seeking to “destabilise” President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 elections. However, all three theories are as yet unsubstantiated.

The region’s schools have been hard hit by the state response to the kidnappings. With the aim of preventing more abductions, the federal government on 21 November closed 47 of its elite “Unity schools” in the north. Eleven northern state governments also indefinitely shut down schools, either partially or completely. These moves could do further damage to the education system in a region where insecurity has already forced the closure of more than 180 schools, some for years. Protesting against the closures, a northern women’s NGO, Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women, said the action reflected “panic rather than protection”, and “would worsen an already dire educational situation for girls” in a region with Nigeria’s highest female illiteracy rates.

The abductions and closures have also rekindled questions about the government’s Safe Schools Initiative. Launched in 2014, following Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 school girls in Chibok, Borno state, this program was intended to foster secure school facilities across the country. So far, results have been underwhelming. Only 11,550 out of Nigeria’s 174,401 schools are registered on the National Safe Schools Response and Coordination Centre’s monitoring platform, designed to manage a comprehensive state response to schools in distress. Most schools still lack basic security infrastructure. Many state governments have shown little commitment to the program, and few rural schools receive any protection.

Both federal and state governments have work to do in strengthening the Safe Schools Initiative, above all by establishing security infrastructure and deploying armed guards in more schools, as well as ensuring the program’s funds are spent judiciously. Most importantly, the government should step up efforts to provide its security forces with the personnel and equipment required to intensify operations against armed groups that are abducting not only students but also thousands of other citizens, especially in northern Nigeria.