Kwara is having a rough time right now. At this point, it’s starting to feel like a new terrorist group pops up every week, and the body count just keeps climbing. The bloodshed is already heartbreaking, but there’s another price Kwara is paying that people aren’t talking about enough: the future of its children.
On October 21, 2025, the Executive Chairman of the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB), Prof. Sheu Ibrahim Adaramaja, announced that the state had shut down at least 45 public schools because of security concerns.
According to him, the government made the decision to protect students and teachers from attacks by armed groups.
In a state of disharmony
Kwara’s slogan is the “State of Harmony”, but lately, it’s been anything but harmonious. The state has seen a wave of violent incidents, raids, clashes, and attacks involving residents, law enforcement, and a growing number of armed groups.
Here are some of the incidents:
- On September 23, 2025, armed men raided the Edu Local Government Area (LGA) at midnight and abducted a woman and a teenage girl.
- On September 28, an attack in Ifelodun LGA left 12 forest guards and a local traditional ruler, the Baale of Ogbayo, dead.
- On September 30, the government responded with airstrikes that killed a notorious kidnapping kingpin known as Maidawa and several of his men in the forests of Isanlu-Isin.
- On October 2, a police officer was kidnapped along the Patigi–Lade road while returning from duty.
- On November 2, gunmen carried out another midnight raid in Irepodun LGA, kidnapping several residents.
The violence is widespread across the state and varied (from kidnappings for ransom to deadly raids targeting locals and security personnel). It is no surprise that the state government has chosen to close schools in the affected communities.
In October 2025, Senator Oyelola Ashiru, who represents Kwara South at the Senate, raised a motion calling for a permanent military base in the state.
Ashiru said that in the past year alone, at least 142 people have been kidnapped and over 70 killed in Kwara South. He also revealed that no fewer than 25 communities have been completely abandoned because of the constant attacks.
Welcome to the Kwara Terrorism Convention
We are starting to lose count of just how many different armed groups are rampaging through Kwara.
In April 2025, the group known as Mahmuda started attacking local vigilantes, killing 15 in one attack on April 16. The group had operated in the state since at least 2020, basically functioning as a sort of parallel government. They tax herders and farmers, and demand that local disputes be reported to them for resolution.
However, their more violent turn earlier in the year led to a government crackdown, and in August, the leader of the group was arrested by Nigerian security forces. But that did not stop the violence in Kwara. More terrorist groups kept turning up.
In October, Wulo Wulo, a splintered faction of Boko Haram which had operated in Kebbi and Sokoto states previously, popped up in Kwara.
On October 29, 2025, the terrorist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) also appeared in Kwara State. The group, which has links to al-Qaeda and ISIL/ISIS, has operated in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger previously.
Their attack on patrolling soldiers in Kwara was their first in Nigeria. They killed one soldier and seized ammunition and cash.
No terrorist groups are ever welcome, but JNIM is responsible for 83 per cent of all terrorist fatalities in the Sahel region, so their sudden appearance in Kwara is bad news.
Rocking the cradle
Kwara State has quietly been taking good steps forward in recent times, which makes its sudden invasion by so many terrorists particularly worrisome.
BudgIT’s 2025 State of States Report ranked Kwara as the fifth most independent state from federal government allocations, behind only Enugu, Lagos, Abia and Anambra.
Over the last ten years, the state has grown its yearly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by an incredible 821.47 per cent (the sixth best in the country).
The state government has invested heavily in education, with several projects and programmes:
- In September 2024, the state government invested ₦14 billion as a counterpart fund with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
- By May 2025, Kwara had trained 6,993 teachers and school administrators as part of their strategic education plan, which also included the construction of 15 new schools.
- In August 2025, the state government approved another ₦20 billion investment in education infrastructure.
- In October 2025, the state announced plans to give parents ₦130,000 for enrolling and keeping their daughters in school, as part of a drive to reduce out-of-school children, especially girls.
- That same month, they also announced the scrapping of Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) levies to reduce financial strain on parents.
The Kwara State government is taking education very seriously and backing up its words with cash. But what’s the point if the children can’t go to school?
These armed groups are not just stealing lives; they are stealing the future of the state by robbing its children of their education.
Sounds like a you problem
The appearance of all these terror groups in Kwara in recent months has many government officials worried, especially in the South West states that border Kwara. The fear is that these groups may head further south into Oyo, Osun and Ekiti.
Neighbouring states are worried, but only about keeping the violence out. Basically, as long as the threat stays in Kwara, they couldn’t care less.
The Oyo State Commandant of the Amotekun Corps, retired Colonel Olayinka Olayanju, while assuring Oyo State residents that the state was secured against an invasion by bandits from Kwara, said, “What’s happening in Kwara State is not under my jurisdiction. It does not affect my area of responsibility.”
The spokesperson for Osun State Police Command, Abiodun Ojelabi, said seven tactical teams had been deployed to their border with Kwara to prevent bandits from crossing over.
Ekiti State and Ondo State have also announced measures to tighten their borders to prevent the bandits from coming in.
For too long, southern states treated extremist violence like a northern problem. The massacre at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo was a terrible eye-opener.
At least, it should have been.
But even as we watch the who’s who of West African terror groups gather in Kwara, each state still seems to think the violence can be contained.
What folly.
When the bough breaks
Nigeria already has an education problem. In 2024, UNICEF reported that the country had about 18.3 million out-of-school children (OOSC).
Most of these children are in the northern part of the country, where extremist violence has made access to education incredibly difficult. Hundreds of schools have been shut down across northern Nigeria due to insecurity. Some have even been repurposed as camps for displaced people.
Here’s what the numbers look like:
| Geopolitical Zone | % of Children who don’t complete school |
| North Central | 26% |
| North East | 51% |
| North West | 44% |
| South East | 3% |
| South West | 7% |
| South South | 7% |
Source: UNICEF Nigeria Education Fact Sheets, 2023
Terrorist groups deliberately target schools, kidnapping boys to use as child soldiers and girls as forced brides. It’s no surprise that many parents are afraid to send their children to school.
The violence has displaced millions, including thousands of teachers. That means fewer hands to run the schools that remain. And with livelihoods lost to the violence, many families simply can’t afford to keep their children in school.
The impact of terrorism on education in northern Nigeria isn’t just immediate—it’s long-term. Entire generations are being denied the chance to learn. This will have some serious negative effects on the development of those regions of the country for years to come.
According to UNICEF’s 2023 Nigeria Education Fact Sheet, Kwara State had an 81% primary school completion rate. That’s well above the national average of 73%, but there’s still room for improvement.
It would be deeply unfortunate for the progress Kwara has made to be undone by the wave of extremism now emerging in the state.
The federal government needs to take this seriously and act quickly. Neighbouring states must coordinate efforts to support Kwara in tackling this threat. And we, as Nigerians, wherever we live, need to raise our voices and draw attention to what’s happening.
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