President Bola Tinubu said abducted schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo and Borno states have not been forgotten, as he used a Children’s Day statement on May 27, 2026 to press security agencies to intensify rescue efforts. In the personally signed message, he said some Nigerian children and their teachers were still being held captive by criminals.
“You are not forgotten. You are not abandoned,” Tinubu said, adding: “Bring our children home.” He said some parents could not join the 2026 Children’s Day celebration because their hearts were fixed on getting their children back, and he directed all relevant security agencies to sustain coordinated rescue operations for abducted children and other vulnerable citizens across the country.
The president said the operations must be intelligence-led, carefully executed and focused on the safe recovery of victims. He also said, “We will continue to work until children taken from their homes, schools, and communities are returned safely, and until those who profit from this cruelty are brought to justice.” Tinubu said he had ordered the strengthening of school protection measures in high-risk areas.
Those measures, he said, will include updated school vulnerability mapping, closer coordination between state governments and security commands, rapid-response links between schools and local security units, and stronger community-based early warning systems. He said the Federal Ministry of Education would deepen implementation of the Safe Schools framework with state governments, and framed the day’s theme as “Future Now: Promoting Inclusion for Every Nigerian Child.”
The statement came as concern has grown over recent attacks on schools in parts of the country, with the Oyo school children kidnapping and the abductions in Borno keeping pressure on the government to show results, not promises. Tinubu’s language was meant to reassure families, but it also underscored how many children remain beyond reach even on a day set aside to celebrate them.
That gap was also reflected in a Wednesday Children’s Day statement from NASFAT president Ayodeji Abdulrauf, who referenced the recent kidnapping of schoolchildren, teachers and a principal in Oyo State. Abdulrauf said many families across Nigeria are still waiting for missing children to return, and asked: “What a missing Children’s Day” and “Enough is enough. Let the poor breathe, for Allah’s sake.”
The clearest takeaway is that the government is treating the abductions as an active security and education emergency, not a symbolic grievance. The unanswered question now is whether the promised intelligence-led rescue and school protection push will bring children home before the next round of attacks tests the system again.
