The Senate on Wednesday said no fewer than 1,680 schoolchildren have been abducted across Nigeria since 2014, the year Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State.
The legislative arm added that at least 180 school facilities were attacked within the same period, citing preliminary findings by its Ad-hoc Committee investigating the implementation of the Safe School Initiative (SSI).
Chairman of the committee, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, disclosed the figures in Abuja after the panel’s inaugural meeting.
Mr Kalu said the frequency of attacks on schools raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the Safe School Initiative, despite the federal government and its partners investing more than $30 million in the programme between 2014 and 2021. The government recently released an additional N144 billion for the initiative.
“The fact that our schools remain soft targets for terrorists and kidnappers is unacceptable,” Mr Kalu said. “We will track every naira and every dollar allocated to the Safe School Initiative. Nigerians deserve to know why, despite enormous investment and global support, our schools remain unsafe.”
To this end, the committee summoned key government officials including the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun; Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa; Minister of Defence–designate, Lt-General Christopher Musa (retd); and the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ahmed Audi. Representatives of school proprietors are also expected to appear before the panel.
The committee will carry out a comprehensive audit of the programme’s funding and operations, examining security personnel deployment, early warning systems, emergency response capacity and infrastructure upgrades in high-risk schools. It will also review partnerships with state governments, development partners and private-sector contributors.
Mr Kalu said the investigation is not intended to witch-hunt officials, but to strengthen accountability and determine why the SSI has failed to prevent major school attacks—including the recent abduction of 25 female students from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State, during which the school’s vice principal was killed.
Lawmakers had raised similar concerns during Tuesday’s plenary, questioning how funds released for the SSI were utilised in light of persistent school abductions.
