The biggest question every Nigerian is asking right now is simple: when are the abducted children coming back? This is not just another security story. It is a story of pain, fear, and a country that has failed its most innocent people. Parents, teachers, school owners, and even children themselves are tired of living like targets. As we speak, hundreds of schoolchildren taken from Kebbi and Niger States are still unaccounted for, and nobody can say where they are or when they will return.
A Country That Allowed Children to Experience Trauma
This is the sad truth: Nigeria allowed these children to face trauma no child should ever know. Imagine being in school, sleeping, learning, laughing with your classmates, then suddenly armed men break in, shouting, shooting, and dragging children out. These children will never forget that sound, that fear, that night. And their parents live with that terror every second of every day.
Nigeria did this. Not the children. Not their parents. Nigeria did.
Abductions Becoming Normal
More than 327 children have been kidnapped between Kebbi and Niger States. We now live in a country where school abductions are normal news, as if it is something we should learn to manage. Every week is a new attack. Every month, more parents are crying. This is not how a country should function.
In Kebbi, 26 schoolgirls were taken; only two escaped.
In Niger, the first number was 215 pupils and 12 teachers. Later, the number climbed to 303 children missing. Even the counting of the kidnapped is confused, because the system itself is confused.
The question remains: When are the abducted children coming back?
Parents Living in Fear
Parents are weeping. Teachers are shaking. School owners are helpless. Many cannot sleep. The fear is not just for the children already taken, it is also fear for their own children who are still at home. In some states, schools have already been shut down. In others, boarding schools have been converted to day schools. Parents wake up every morning thinking: “What if my child is next?”
A woman in Niger said the kids were crying during the attack. Do you know what it means for a child to cry for help in the middle of gunshots? The trauma is permanent. These are children who should be reading books, not running from bullets.
Government Promises, But Children Are Still Missing
President Tinubu says he will “eliminate terrorist networks” and “dismantle banditry architecture.” Strong words. But strong words do not bring back missing children. Strong words do not hold the hands of mothers who have not slept since Friday night. Strong words do not calm fathers collapsing from fear. We have heard strong words for more than ten years. Yet the kidnappings continue.
So Nigerians are asking again: When are the abducted children coming back?
Schools That Did Everything Still Got Attacked
The Catholic Diocese explained that the school had taken security steps before the incident, closing down for five months, hiring new security operatives. They still got attacked. Armed men spent almost three hours inside the compound, moving from room to room, dragging children into vans and motorcycles. For three hours, nobody came to help.
If armed men can stay in a school for hours without resistance, then the system is broken. It means everybody is on their own.
No Ransom Call, No Information, Only Fear
The Christian Association of Nigeria confirmed that parents have not even received a call. No ransom talk. No threat. No update. Just silence. Imagine being a parent sitting in a room, holding your phone, praying it rings, hoping the voice at the end will tell you your child is still alive.
Nigeria has made its citizens live like refugees inside their own country.
States Closing Schools Every Week
From Niger to Kebbi, from Adamawa to Kwara, Plateau, and Taraba, schools are closing. Boarding schools are shutting down. Children are at home. Learning has stopped. Fear has taken over. We now live in a nation where education is becoming dangerous. How can a country grow when its children cannot even go to school?
How can Nigerians have hope when kidnappers decide the academic calendar?
A Nation That Did Not Protect Its Future
The President of the Parent-Teacher Association said it clearly: parents do not want another Chibok. But the truth is harder, we already have another Chibok. We just refuse to admit it. Over 300 children missing again. Fear everywhere again. Parents crying again. This pain has become a cycle.
The Chairman of private schools said something sad but honest: even those who were not attacked are living in fear.
This Is Trauma That Will Never Leave
The school principal, Rev. Sr. Felicia Gyang, described the children crying, the gates being broken, the motorcycles, the darkness, the noise. A child who experiences that will never be the same again. These children will grow up with fear inside them. Nigeria has taken away their innocence.
Nigeria must stop acting like these are normal events. These are children. Human beings. Not statistics. Not headlines. Not numbers we adjust every morning.
If a country cannot protect 6-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, then what exactly is it protecting?
When Are They Coming Back?
This is the only question that matters. Parents do not care about political speeches. Teachers do not care about fancy statements. Communities do not care about “investigations.” What Nigerians want to hear is:
- When are the abducted children coming back?
- Where are they?
- Who is bringing them home?
- Why is the country always too late?
Until these children return, nothing the government says will matter. Until the children are back, the country cannot claim stability. Until the children are safe, the nation cannot claim leadership.
Conclusion
We can close schools. We can release statements. We can hold meetings. But until the missing children return, the wound remains open. Nigeria must face its biggest shame: it has failed its own children. And now the country must answer the only question Nigerians are asking:
When are the abducted children coming back?
