Armed gunmen kidnapped 42 students from schools in Mussa, Askira-Uba Local Government Area, Borno State. Gunmen stormed three schools in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, abducting seven teachers and thirty-nine kids.
The state had previously been thought to be relatively safe from such mass abductions.
There is a pattern to these occurrences. They serve as more evidence that Nigeria has failed to adequately safeguard its most defenceless residents even after a decade have passed since the Chibok tragedy.
It is deeply concerning that these attacks have occurred at the same time that it has been revealed that around N145 billion will be allocated to the Safe Schools Initiative and similar security programs from 2023 to 2026. However, about 600 students and educators were allegedly kidnapped at the same time.
This inconsistency calls into doubt the efficacy, openness, and trajectory of a program put in place with the express purpose of averting such catastrophes.
Following the 2014 kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls, the Safe Schools Initiative was established. The program was created with the help of international organisations to make sure that schools in areas prone to conflicts had basic safety measures such perimeter fence, security lighting, guards, early warning systems, and communication lines to security formations.
When applied seriously and with responsibility, comparable systems have yielded observable outcomes in a number of nations ravaged by conflict. On the other hand, Nigeria’s story is very different.
The instability that has afflicted the nation since 2009 has disproportionately affected school-aged children. It appears that the issue extends beyond financial resources, as this condition continues despite significant financing and repeated promises from the administration.
The Safe Schools Initiative does not appear to have been carried out as planned.
Rather, it seems like just another intervention plan that focuses more on making announcements and getting the word out than actually changing anything.
Disconnect between spending and impact is one of the most troubling elements. Many rural schools, which were supposed to be prioritised under the initiative, still lack basic security infrastructure, despite billions of naira supposedly being funded for school protection. Many neighbourhoods lack basic safety features including perimeter fences, lighting, qualified security guards, alarm systems, and connections to other security formations.
The inevitable outcome is that criminal gangs, terrorists, and bandits will continue to target schools.
An further factor is that a substantial portion of Nigeria’s political and economic class has mostly stopped supporting public education. There shouldn’t be as much of a rush to ensure public education when their kids go to private schools or study abroad.
The fact that the institutions working on the program don’t seem to have a solid plan for coordinating their efforts is equally concerning. It would appear that federal and state authorities are not working together to ensure proper implementation, oversight, and accountability.
Some have also questioned the rationale of a program that focuses on education being overseen by security and financial agencies instead of those directly responsible for school administration.
As a result of this haziness, the program seems to have strayed from its original goals. Instead of directing such funds toward effective school safety measures, they are frequently going toward causes whose effects are hard to prove. The end result is a program that has used up a lot of money without producing anything to show for it.
Operational coordination was the planned purpose of locating the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre within the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. Nevertheless, valid doubts regarding the efficacy of the present structure have been highlighted by the repeated assaults on educational institutions.
There shouldn’t be any one agency that has to shoulder the whole load, but the data we have so far doesn’t make us think the current setup can do it.
Worryingly, there is a growing belief that the program is just a moneymaker. Transparent audits, measurable benchmarks, and publicly verifiable outcomes are lacking, which contributes to these impressions.
Accountability concerns are bound to arise in the wake of reports of massive expenditures while schools go unchecked.
Safe Schools Initiative desperately needs an outside evaluation. There need to be transparency on the distribution of funds, the completion of specific projects, the identification of beneficiary schools, and the reasons behind the non-materialization of anticipated outcomes.
However, taking responsibility is not enough to resolve the issue.
The government should remember the initiative’s initial goal and carry it out correctly. Schools in neighbourhoods the most at danger should be given top priority.
A bare minimum of perimeter fencing, proper illumination, qualified security guards, early warning systems, and direct lines of communication with law enforcement should be in place at every susceptible institution. School protection frameworks could also incorporate community participation.
No school, however, is immune to the dangers of its surrounding community, and lawmakers must acknowledge this. The larger problem of national insecurity is inseparable from the issue of school security. School safety is going to be an issue so long as armed gangs can freely move across the nation.
However, you shouldn’t let this fact get in the way of your success. A policy designed to safeguard schools should not be ineffectual just because there is broader instability.
It is imperative that the kidnappings in Borno and Oyo be taken seriously. While underlying weaknesses are not addressed, Nigeria can only respond to school attacks with anger, sympathy, and new promises.
After a decade of promises, lessons, and billions of dollars, the nation has a far greater responsibility to its children: to provide them with secure schools.
A violation of public trust and the nation’s future would be the consequence of anything less.