In the aftermath of the intensification of the Boko Haram insurgency, particularly in the North East, that had an offensive against western education as its rallying battle cry, and the consequent attack on schools at all levels in the region, including mass abduction of pupils, students and teachers, the international community responded with an initiative to make schooling safe in the north primarily and across Nigeria generally. The Safe Schools Initiative, launched at the World Economic Forum in Abuja on May 7, 2014, came in the wake of the abduction of over 200 school girls from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.

Speaking on the occasion, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, had noted that “The first step in response to the crisis has been to show our support. The next phase is now to take practical measures to make schools safer. We cannot stand by and see schools shut down, girls cut off from their education and parents in fear of their daughters’ lives”.

Working in conjunction with a coalition of Nigerian business leaders who had pledged $10 million towards the effort, the UN-inspired Safe Schools Initiative was designed to initially reach 500 schools in the northern states of Nigeria, but to gradually expand to encompass schools across the country. The amount pledged by the Nigerian businessmen involved in the enterprise was also to be augmented by donations from foreign governments and donor agencies. Elements of the initiative included building community security groups to promote safe zones for education stakeholders consisting of teachers, parents, police, community leaders and young people; providing school guards and police in partnership with Nigerian authorities to boost safety in schools; as well as training staff as school safety officers and providing counsellors to schools at risk of attack.

That cases of attacks on schools and abduction of school children increased rather than abate, with scores of pupils kidnapped in schools across Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Yobe and Zamfara states, for example, show that the Safe Schools Initiative grossly failed to meet the objective for which it was introduced. The continued attacks compelled the Senate to mandate its Committees on Education (Basic and Secondary), Tertiary Institutions and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), to investigate the utilisation of over $20 million funding proposed and budgeted for the initiative in February, 2021.

However, at an investigative hearing by the relevant Education Committees of the Senate early this month, the President of the Senate, Dr Ahmed Lawan, was forced to conclude that the Safe School Initiative Programme in Nigeria was designed to fail. Senator Lawan was responding to a submission before the committees by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, that the ministry played no role whatsoever in the funding or application of funds meant for the initiative.

An exasperated Lawan had said: “I would have thought that the National Council on Education involving the Federal Ministry of Education and all the states’ ministries of education would come up with a national policy and strategy for Safe Schools Initiative…so this programme was designed to fail and that is why we are where we are today. I believe that at the end of the day, we should look at the possibility of taking that programme from the Ministry of Finance and domicile it where it belongs, which is the Ministry of Education”.

Another cause of discomfiture for the Senate President was the absence at the hearing of the beneficiaries of the initiative, to give their testimonies on its impact on their operations, for better assessment.

However, the case of Borno State is a clear indication that where there is the political will on the part of the leadership, concrete and realistic steps can indeed be taken to stem the tide of attacks on schools and kidnap of students and teachers. In the state, the government of Prof. Babagana Zulum shut down schools in far flung, remote and vulnerable areas of the state and relocated the children to newly built, well equipped and fortified structures in the state capital and adjoining areas, thus enabling their education to proceed unimpeded.

The lesson is that the various state governments and the country as a whole cannot be as helpless as it appears when it comes to taking necessary measures to make schooling safe for children, teachers and parents. The relevant stakeholders should take maximum advantage of the opportunities offered by the Safe Schools Initiative. We agree with the Senate President that “…there should be a National Safe School Initiative Committee that should bring together the Ministry of Education, relevant security agencies and so on. Until we have a national strategy and policy, driven by a committee that is given the responsibility, we cannot achieve anything”.

Update news