Welcome to Monday’s roundup of Nigerian newspaper headlines, accompanied by our advocacy-focused calls on issues that impact citizens.

1. Daily Trust: Insecurity: 13 teenage girls abducted in Borno

ISWAP terrorists have abducted 13 teenage female farmers in Borno’s Askira-Uba area, barely a week after mass kidnappings in Kebbi and Niger states and an attack on a church in Kwara that left two dead and many taken. As international tension rises, with Donald Trump threatening military action over alleged persecution of Christians, Nigerian authorities keep insisting the situation is ‘more complex’, which is beginning to sound like the country’s unofficial slogan for everything that refuses to get better.

Our Take: At this point, Nigerians don’t need another committee or another ‘we’re on top of the situation’, citizens need coordinated intelligence, rapid rescue operations, accountability for failures, and transparent updates, because clearly, the terrorists are the only ones showing consistency, and that in itself should embarrass the people paid to keep citizens safe.

2. Punch: Mass abduction crisis: Tinubu pulls 100,000 policemen from VIPs

President Bola Tinubu has ordered the withdrawal of about 100,000 police officers from VIP protection and directed that they be reassigned to core policing and counter-insurgency duties, following a security meeting in Abuja with service chiefs and the DSS director-general.

Our Take: The president’s long overdue decision is commendable. Now, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, the National Security Advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Service Chiefs must ensure this isn’t another headline that sounds good today and quietly fades tomorrow. Nigerians need to actually see these officers on the streets, in vulnerable communities, in schools, and in counter-insurgency operations, not escorting one politician’s six-car convoy to a wedding.

3. The Guardian: International Pressure Mounts on FG as States Close Schools over Kidnapping

Concern over students’ safety has intensified as the Kebbi State Government ordered an immediate shutdown of all public and private schools in response to escalating kidnapping threats after the recent mass abductions.

Our Take: Governor Nasir Idris, the Minister of Education, the National Security Advisor, the Inspector-General of Police, and the Service Chiefs must treat this as a signal to finally deliver real solutions. Nigeria cannot keep turning classrooms into temporary structures that close whenever criminals sneeze.