You Cannot Fight Terror by Locking Children at Home -By Yasir Shehu Adam

Nigeria is facing one of its darkest moments, and nothing captures that darkness more painfully than the growing trend of shutting down schools in the name of security. The recent decision by Bauchi State to close all schools is not a solution—it is a surrender. It is a public confession that the government cannot protect its children. And when a government fails its children, it has failed its future.

For years, Northern Nigeria has suffered relentless attacks: students kidnapped in their classrooms, teachers murdered, communities terrorised, and parents left in fear every morning they send their children to school. Yet the most tragic part of this insecurity is not only the violence itself, but the response of our leaders, who have chosen the easiest and weakest option—closure—over the courageous path of protection.

Closing schools does not stop insecurity. It worsens it.

Every locked classroom pushes thousands of children into the streets, exposes girls to early marriage and abuse, and invites boys into crime, drugs, or radicalisation. Northern Nigeria already carries the shameful burden of the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. Bauchi State’s blanket shutdown only widens this wound and hands victory to those who wish to destroy our future.

But the heart of the crisis runs deeper than banditry or kidnapping. Insecurity grows where injustice lives. It survives where fairness is absent. It thrives where leaders act without objectivity, transparency, or accountability.

Injustice is the foundation of every insecurity.
Justice is the foundation of every peace.

Communities that feel cheated will resist their leaders. Citizens who feel abandoned will stop trusting the system meant to protect them. And when a nation abandons justice, insecurity becomes inevitable.

If federal and state governments are truly serious about ending this violence, then justice—not school closures—must be their starting point. They must demonstrate fairness in governance, equity in resource allocation, and transparency in decision-making. They must treat all communities with the same dignity and protection. Only justice can rebuild the trust that insecurity has destroyed.

Protecting schools is not optional—it is a duty. Leaders must make campuses safe with stronger security deployment, community vigilance, surveillance systems, better intelligence networks, and genuine engagement with local residents who understand their terrain better than anyone. No classroom should close. Instead, every classroom should become a symbol of national resilience.

A nation that shuts its schools betrays its children. But a nation that stands for justice, fairness, and protection will reclaim its peace.

Yasir Shehu Adam (Dan Liman) Journalist and writer from Bauchi.