Bite-sized: Jos North Local Government shut down Abu Sinan High School this week because the building is too dangerous for students. Add this to the list of things government can't provide: security, power, roads, and now safe school buildings. Parents now scrambling to find alternative schools mid-term. Infrastructure doesn't just collapse from age, it collapses from decades of no maintenance, no investment, no accountability.

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Authorities in Jos North, Plateau State, ordered the immediate closure of Abu Sinan High School this week. The reason: severe structural risks and safety concerns. The building is too dangerous for students to occupy.

Jos North Local Government didn't specify exactly what structural problems prompted the closure. They didn't say when the building would be repaired or if it would be repaired at all. They just ordered it shut down. Mid-term. Students in class one day. School closed the next.

Parents are scrambling. Finding alternative schools mid-academic session isn't simple. Other schools are full. Enrollment periods are past. Transferring means new uniforms, new fees, new commutes, new adjustment periods for children. The disruption is total.

Add Abu Sinan High School to the list of basic things Nigerian government cannot provide. Security, power, roads, water, and now structurally sound school buildings. Children can't learn in buildings that might collapse on them.

The closure raises questions nobody in Jos North Local Government has answered publicly. How did the building deteriorate to the point where it's too dangerous to occupy? Didn't anyone inspect it before now? Were there warning signs? Were they ignored?

Buildings don't collapse spontaneously. They deteriorate over time. Cracks appear. Foundations weaken. Roofs leak. Walls shift. These things show up gradually before becoming critical.

Structural problems suggest years of deferred maintenance. No repairs. No upgrades. No regular inspections. Just students and teachers showing up daily until one day authorities decide it's too dangerous to continue.

This is infrastructure collapse in slow motion. Not a dramatic event like a building falling. Just steady neglect until the building becomes unusable. Then sudden closure. Then parents scrambling.

Nigeria is full of these buildings. Schools with cracked walls. Hospitals with leaking roofs. Government offices with broken windows. Infrastructure that was built decades ago and hasn't been maintained since. It deteriorates slowly until it fails completely.

Abu Sinan High School failed. It's closed. Students are displaced. Parents are frustrated. Jos North Local Government made the right decision shutting it down. But the right decision now doesn't erase wrong decisions over years of neglect.

Someone is responsible for maintaining that building. Someone had a budget for school maintenance. Someone was supposed to conduct regular inspections. Someone was supposed to make repairs before problems became critical.

Those responsibilities weren't met. The building deteriorated. Now it's closed. The students suffer the consequences of governance failures they had no part in creating.

This pattern repeats across Nigeria. Infrastructure built in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. Minimal maintenance ever since. Steady deterioration. Eventual failure. Sudden closure or collapse. Scrambling response. Promises of reconstruction. Long delays. Continued suffering.

Your child's school could be next. Not because schools are inherently unsafe. Because maintenance is neglected systematically. Because inspection regimes aren't enforced. Because accountability doesn't exist for infrastructure failures until buildings become too dangerous to use.

Jos North authorities did the minimum by closing Abu Sinan High School. The minimum is keeping children out of dangerous buildings. The maximum would have been maintaining the building properly so closure wasn't necessary.

Parents in Jos North now know what parents across Nigeria know. You can't rely on government infrastructure. Schools aren't safe just because they're government schools. Buildings aren't maintained just because they're public property. Your child's safety isn't guaranteed just because authorities are theoretically responsible.

The infrastructure won't fix itself. The maintenance won't happen automatically. The accountability won't materialize spontaneously. Abu Sinan High School is closed. Other schools are deteriorating. The pattern continues.

Calculate your risk accordingly. That's what Nigerian parents do now. Check your child's school building. Look for cracks. Notice leaks. Ask about last inspection. Ask about maintenance schedule. Ask who's responsible.

Because if you don't ask, you might get the answer Jos North parents got this week. Sudden closure. Mid-term scramble. No alternatives ready. Your child's education disrupted because basic maintenance didn't happen.

Abu Sinan High School won't be the last closure. Infrastructure collapse doesn't stop with one building. It's systemic. Decades of neglect create decades of failures. The failures are arriving now. More schools will close. More parents will scramble. The pattern is established.

Your child's school could be structurally unsafe right now. Someone is supposed to know. Someone is supposed to care. Someone is supposed to maintain it. Abu Sinan High School proves that someone isn't doing their job.

Adjust accordingly. That's governance in Nigeria. Figure it out yourself. The system won't protect you. Your child's school might not be safe. Find out before authorities shut it down mid-term.