{"id":28824,"date":"2026-04-17T17:40:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=28824"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:40:39","slug":"a-nation-that-abandons-its-youth-abandons-its-future-obi-condemns-benue-abductions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/a-nation-that-abandons-its-youth-abandons-its-future-obi-condemns-benue-abductions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA Nation That Abandons Its Youth Abandons Its Future\u201d: Obi Condemns Benue Abductions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>ABUJA, Nigeria (FN), Former presidential candidate Peter Obi on Friday condemned the abduction of candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Benue State, describing the incident as a reflection of leadership failure and worsening insecurity in Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obi, in a statement shared on X, said the abduction was \u201cnot just heartbreaking but a damning indictment of the failure of leadership and the collapse of security in our nation.\u201d He lamented that young Nigerians striving for education are increasingly exposed to violence, warning that the country cannot afford further losses in its already limited pool of graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn a country where the share of tertiary graduates is already painfully low, about 1 percent, far below peers like Indonesia at 13 percent and South Africa around 10 percent, this is unacceptable. We cannot afford to lose even one more student to violence,\u201d Obi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former Anambra State governor accused authorities of prioritizing political interests over security, alleging that those entrusted with protecting students are \u201cpreoccupied with the next election\u201d rather than deploying resources to secure roads and rescue abducted children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"418\" loading=\"lazy\" data-id=\"28826\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JAMB-2-scaled-1.webp?resize=696%2C418&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28826\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JAMB-2-scaled-1.webp?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JAMB-2-scaled-1.webp?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JAMB-2-scaled-1.webp?resize=768%2C461&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JAMB-2-scaled-1.webp?resize=700%2C420&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JAMB-2-scaled-1.webp?resize=696%2C418&amp;ssl=1 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nigeria has faced a surge in abductions in recent years, particularly targeting schools. In 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 270 girls from Chibok in Borno State, sparking global outrage. In 2021, hundreds of students were abducted in Zamfara and Niger states, with many released only after ransom payments. Analysts say such incidents have become part of a broader pattern of insecurity across the country, undermining education and eroding public trust in government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obi described the Benue abduction as part of that pattern, calling it \u201ca national crisis\u201d that demands urgent and decisive action. \u201cIt requires leadership that matches the scale of the emergency this deserves,\u201d he said, warning that failure to protect young people could have lasting consequences for Nigeria\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA nation that abandons its youth abandons its future. This cannot continue,\u201d Obi added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ABUJA, Nigeria (FN), Former presidential candidate Peter Obi on Friday condemned the abduction of candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Benue State, describing the incident as a reflection of leadership failure and worsening insecurity in Nigeria. Obi, in a statement shared on X, said the abduction was \u201cnot just heartbreaking but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":28825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3699,2,2096,776,4,478,458,3,1138],"tags":[12014,12023,12029,12025,12017,12027,12026,12016,12020,11883,1820,12021,2605,12028,12022,12018,12015,12030,12019,12024],"class_list":["post-28824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-business","category-economics","category-educational","category-featured","category-financial","category-legal","category-naija-news","category-politics","tag-benue-state-abductions","tag-chibok-girls-reference","tag-collapse-of-security","tag-education-statistics-nigeria","tag-education-under-threat","tag-election-vs-security-debate","tag-future-of-nigerian-youth","tag-leadership-failure","tag-national-security-crisis","tag-nigeria-breaking-news","tag-nigeria-insecurity","tag-nigeria-political-leadership","tag-peter-obi","tag-public-outcry-nigeria","tag-school-abductions","tag-student-safety-nigeria","tag-utme-candidates-kidnapped","tag-violence-against-students","tag-youth-and-violence","tag-zamfara-student-kidnappings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Peter-Gregory-Obi.webp?fit=1366%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28827,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28824\/revisions\/28827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}