Another set of Nigerian girls has been taken, this time in Kebbi State. Twenty-five schoolgirls, asleep in their dormitory, were dragged into the darkness by armed men who walked right into a government-owned school with little or no resistance.
The details are painful, but the pattern is familiar. Too familiar.
We have been here before.
The country has watched this exact horror unfold,with the Chibok girls, with the Dapchi girls, with countless unnamed victims in villages that never made the news. And here we are again, a decade later, in a different administration, under a different president, listening to the same statements, the same promises, the same “we are on top of the situation” press releases.
Nothing changes,except the victims.
A Government That Has Normalised Tragedy.
What is saddest about the Kebbi abduction is not just the crime itself, it’s how predictable the government’s reaction has become. It’s as if every administration inherited a script: First they Condemn the attack,then they assure citizens that rescue efforts are ongoing later,they announce a committee.
Meanwhile, families stay awake at night begging God to bring their children back home. And the country quietly adjusts to another tragedy because that’s what Nigeria has conditioned us to do, adjust, swallow, endure.
The abduction of schoolgirls has become a cycle we no longer break. It is a mirror showing just how little value is placed on the safety of citizens, especially children.
The Bitter Echo of Chibok
When the Chibok girls were taken in 2014, the world screamed with us. The #BringBackOurGirls movement was loud enough to shake global governments. Nigeria became the centre of global empathy.
But almost 10 years later, what has changed?
Girls are still being taken.
Schools are still unsafe.
Communities still live in fear.Parents still hold on to photos of children who left home to learn and never returned.
It’s heartbreaking that the Chibok tragedy, which we hoped would force the government to wake up and has instead become a template for how Nigeria handles insecurities: slow, insensitive, unprepared and shockingly dismissive.
Every administration promises security.
Every government campaigns with “we will protect our citizens.”
Yet the kidnappings continue.
What does that tell us?
Leadership keeps changing, but the mindset of neglect remains the same.
The same excuses.
The same incompetence.
The same failure to protect the most vulnerable: children in school.
We measure progress by infrastructure, GDP, and foreign investments, yet we cannot guarantee that a girl in her school dormitory will not be dragged away by armed men in the middle of the night.
What kind of society is that?
Statement from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu:
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has condemned the abduction of the Kebbi schoolgirls, describing it as “a heartbreaking assault on our nation’s conscience.” He assured Nigerians that security agencies have been directed to “immediately mobilize all necessary resources” to locate the girls and bring them home safely. Tinubu emphasized that the government “will not tolerate attacks on our children” and vowed that those responsible “will be hunted down and made to face the full weight of the law.” He appealed to citizens to remain calm, adding that the administration is “fully committed to ending the cycle of school abductions and restoring safety to every community.
A Country Too Tired to Scream
Perhaps the saddest part of all this is the silence. Nigeria is now too exhausted to protest. Too fatigued to trend hashtags. Too overwhelmed by hardship to even raise its voice.
The outrage that followed Chibok was thunderous.
The outrage today is quiet.
This is what happens when a nation becomes numb to tragedy.
We Should Not Be Here Again, the abduction of the Kebbi schoolgirls is not just another headline but it is a tragic reminder that Nigeria has refused to learn from its own scars.
It tells a story of a nation where girls can be stolen twice in one generation, under different presidents, under different governments, yet with the same result: anxiety, trauma, and unanswered questions.
History is not just repeating itself and it is mocking us.
And until the government values the lives of citizens more than political survival, until security stops being a campaign promise and starts being a priority, Nigeria will keep recycling this nightmare.
Different years.
Different locations.
Different governments.
Same old story.
And the victims will always be the innocent , the girls who only wanted an education.
