The Labour Party has condemned the abduction of more than 300 schoolchildren from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School, Papiri, in Agwarra Local Government Area of Niger State, warning that Nigeria is drifting dangerously toward state failure.

Interim National Chairman of the party, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, in a statement issued on Sunday, said the ease with which such a large number of children were taken without early detection underscores the severity of the security crisis confronting the nation.

“If over 300 children could be abducted so effortlessly and without early detection, then the crisis confronting us is far more alarming than many may yet appreciate,” she said.

Senator Usman cautioned that the Nigerian state cannot continue to watch helplessly while its citizens are attacked with reckless abandon.

“Our country is drifting dangerously towards the precipice of state failure, and this reality should trouble every well-meaning Nigerian. Nothing captures our national distress more starkly than the current surge of violence across the country,” she added.

She lamented that schools, “the very beacon of hope and pathway to the future for our children” are now being shut down across the country because the state can no longer guarantee their safety. According to her, “This is unacceptable and should alarm every one of us.”

Usman also urged the government to confront the hunger and extreme hardship ravaging the country, noting that insecurity is inevitable in a society where poverty has reached catastrophic levels.

“He who sows the wind should not be surprised to reap the whirlwind,” she warned, calling on the government to demonstrate sincerity of purpose in tackling insecurity.

She insisted that the present administration must move beyond routine condemnations of criminality and implement “a real, structured, coordinated, and enduring process of policing the nation.”