The Nigerian Senate has launched a sweeping investigation into the Safe School Initiative, opening what lawmakers say is a long-overdue probe into billions of naira and millions of dollars spent over the past decade to protect schools from attacks.
The inquiry follows persistent assaults on educational institutions, mass abductions and what lawmakers describe as the alarming collapse of a programme created to safeguard schoolchildren.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who chairs the newly inaugurated 18-member ad hoc committee, said the National Assembly would scrutinize every aspect of the initiative’s funding, implementation and performance.
Presiding over the committee’s first sitting, Kalu said the probe would examine failures in security deployment, coordination among agencies and gaps that have left schools exposed despite years of investment.
Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, said the rising pattern of violence against schools was “unacceptable for a nation committed to educational development and child safety.”
He cited disturbing figures, noting that more than 1,680 schoolchildren had been kidnapped and at least 180 schools attacked since 2014—despite local and international donations to the Safe School Initiative.
The SSI, launched in 2014 after the Chibok abductions and backed by foreign governments, private partners and multilateral agencies, was designed to fortify schools, improve early-warning systems and prevent mass kidnappings. But lawmakers say the programme has failed to achieve its objectives as abductions continue to increase across northern Nigeria.
Kalu said the committee would “leave no detail unexamined” as it works to determine how funds were allocated, why crucial infrastructure remains undeveloped and whether officials mismanaged or diverted resources meant to secure schools.
The Senate is expected to summon ministries, security agencies, state governments and development partners as part of the investigation.
The committee will submit its findings to the full chamber after completing its review.
