{"id":96327,"date":"2025-11-27T21:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96327"},"modified":"2025-11-27T21:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:50:22","slug":"96327","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96327","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

By Group Captain Sadeeq Garba Shehu (rtd)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write as someone who has followed the Safe Schools idea from Chibok to the latest mass abductions, and as a member of the Safe Schools Community of Practice\/Partnership Alliance for Safe Schools (PASS).<\/p>\n

The painful truth is this: on paper, Nigeria is a Safe Schools champion; in reality, children and teachers are still being hunted.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0WHAT SAFE SCHOOL WAS SUPPOSED TO MEAN<\/p>\n

After Chibok in 2014, Nigeria launched the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) with an initial $10 million pledge, later expanded to a multi-donor trust fund coordinated with the UN. Nigeria then advanced its commitments:
\n\u25aa\ufe0eEndorsed the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) in 2015
\n\u25aa\ufe0eRatified the SSD in 2019
\n\u25aa\ufe0eHosted the 4th Global SSD Conference in Abuja
\n\u25aa\ufe0eAdopted the National Policy on Safety, Security & Violence-Free Schools (2021)
\n\u25aa\ufe0eApproved Minimum Standards for Safe Schools
\n\u25aa\ufe0eLaunched the National Plan on Financing Safe Schools (2023\u20132026) \u2014 a N144.8bn plan targeting at-risk schools
\n\u25aa\ufe0eSave the Children developed the SSD Training Manual for Nigerian security agencies, strengthening the capacity of the military, police, DSS and NSCDC to protect education facilities and prevent military use of schools
\n\u25aa\ufe0eUNICEF supported the development of school-level Early Warning Systems (EWS) in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Niger and Zamfara, producing risk-detection and reporting models that should have been scaled nationwide.<\/p>\n

On paper, this is an impressive architecture.
\nBut on the ground, Nigerian schools remain desperately vulnerable.<\/p>\n

2. REALITY: NIGERIA IS STILL CLOSING SCHOOLS AFTER EVERY ATTACK<\/p>\n

Despite all the frameworks and global endorsements:
\n\u25aa\ufe0eHundreds of schools in the North-East and North-West remain shut
\n\u25aa\ufe0eOver 1 million children did not return to school in 2021 out of fear
\n\u25aa\ufe0e2020\u20132024 saw serial mass kidnappings in Niger, Kebbi, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara
\n\u25aa\ufe0eIn 2025, the cycle continued with new mass abductions and new statewide school closures<\/p>\n

Clearly, Safe Schools has not yet made schools safe.<\/p>\n

3. THE ABUJA SYNDROME \u2014 A Safe Schools Architecture That Exists in Abuja, Not in Schools<\/p>\n

In my opinion, Safe Schools in Nigeria has remained largely a slogan, not a functioning safety system.<\/p>\n

For a decade, we have witnessed:
\n\u25aa\ufe0eHigh-profile launches in Abuja
\n\u25aa\ufe0e\u201cSpecial Safe School Squads\u201d announced
\nJoint Operations Centres commissioned
\nWorkshops, vests, banners, speeches and TV cameras.<\/p>\n

But the reality in rural and peri-urban schools \u2014 where attackers strike \u2014 is very different.<\/p>\n

At the school level:
\nThere is no functional early warning system (EWS) in most schools.<\/p>\n

The UNICEF-supported EWS pilots in five states remain isolated pilots, not a national system.<\/p>\n

Most schools lack Emergency Response Plans for their terrain or threat profile.<\/p>\n

No evacuation or lockdown drills are conducted.<\/p>\n

School security personnel are still overwhelmingly ‘Baba Maiguard’ \u2014 elderly, untrained night watchmen, unarmed, unequipped and unable to delay attackers for even five minutes.<\/p>\n

Neither teachers nor students are trained in emergency procedures.<\/p>\n

Communities lack structured reporting pathways to security agencies.<\/p>\n

States continue to establish schools in ungoverned areas<\/p>\n

In short: we built a Safe Schools structure at the federal level, but not a Safe Schools system at the school level.<\/p>\n

4. A GOVERNANCE MISTAKE:<\/p>\n

Safe Schools Is Anchored in the Wrong Ministry. Globally \u2014 in Kenya, South Africa, Norway, Indonesia, the U.K. \u2014 Safe Schools programmes are education-led:
\n– Education Ministries lead
\n– Security agencies support
\n– Finance ministries fund
\nBut Nigeria reversed this logic.
\nBy anchoring Safe Schools under the Federal Ministry of Finance, the country created a programme treated as a budgeting\/procurement exercise, not an operational school-safety system<\/p>\n

– Fragmented implementation across Police, NSCDC, DSS, Defence HQ
\n– Weak leadership from the Federal and State Ministries of Education
\n– No single national Safe Schools \u201cCommander\u201d with authority<\/p>\n

This bureaucratic misplacement is a major reason why policy has not translated into protection.<\/p>\n

5. UNDERFUNDING AND THE ILLUSION of READINESS<\/p>\n

The National Plan on Financing Safe Schools (2023\u20132026) costs N144.8bn, yet the 2023 budget released less than half of the required funding.
\n– State co-funding is inconsistent
\n– Donor support remains supplemental, not foundational
\n– Many high-risk LGAs lack predictable Safe Schools financing<\/p>\n

The result is:pilot projects, ceremonial visits, workshops, a few model schools,
\nbut no nationwide protection.<\/p>\n

6. FOCUS ON FENCES, NOT INTELLIGENCE, ROUTES OR RESPONSE<\/p>\n

Many \u201cSafe School compliant\u201d institutions have new paint, a gate, a fence, a signboard, a couple of guards.<\/p>\n

But this is cosmetic. Bandits are not deterred by signboards or walls.<\/p>\n

What is missing:
\n1. Intelligence-led early warning
\n2. Safe routes for learners
\n3. Rapid response coordination with security agencies
\n4. Twice-termly emergency drills
\n5. Trained school safety officers
\n6. Community surveillance networks
\n7. Emergency communication systems<\/p>\n

Physical structures without operational capacity are useless.<\/p>\n

7. SAFE SCHOOLS CANNOT WORK WHERE THE STATE HAS LOST TERRITORIAL CONTROL<\/p>\n

No school in Nigeria can be safe if its surrounding LGA is insecure. Safe Schools cannot succeed where police presence is thin, bandits move freely, response times are slow, communities are unprotected.<\/p>\n

School-level measures cannot compensate for territorial insecurity.<\/p>\n

8. WEAK DATA, WEAK ACCOUNTABILITY<\/p>\n

Nigeria still lacks:
\n– a centralised database of school attacks
\n– a public Safe Schools compliance map
\n– routine audits of Safe School spending
\n– annual state-by-state Safe School scorecards<\/p>\n

Without data, you cannot enforce accountability. Without accountability, implementation collapses. Without implementation, children remain unsafe.<\/p>\n

9. THE CORE PROBLEM SUMMARISED<\/p>\n

Safe Schools in Nigeria suffers from:
\na. strong declarations but weak implementation
\nb. impressive Abuja activity but weak school-level continuity
\nc. fragmented leadership. Who leads? Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Education?
\nd. misaligned governance
\ne. insufficient funding
\nf. absence of drills
\ng. weak EWS
\nh. poorly trained security personnel
\ni. lack of community engagement
\nj. no nationwide monitoring and evaluation
\nk. Weak participation by some states
\nThis is why Safe School is not providing safety for schools.<\/p>\n

10. WHAT MUST CHANGE<\/p>\n

For Safe Schools to become real:
\n1. Place leadership back under the Ministry of Education, supported by Police, DSS, NSCDC and Defence HQ.
\n2. Fully fund the National Safe Schools Plan and ring-fence funds for high-risk LGAs.
\n3. Establish a National Safe Schools Operations Command with unified authority.
\n4. Scale the UNICEF EWS pilots into a nationwide early warning architecture.
\n5. Mandate school emergency drills every term.
\n6. Replace ‘Baba Meguard’ with trained, certified school safety officers.
\n7. Publish a real-time national Safe Schools compliance map.
\n8. Integrate Safe Schools into the National Security Emergency Response Framework.
\n9. Make school safety a core KPI of police and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/p>\n

The founding idea of Safe Schools is simple: even in conflict, education must not die. Schools should be the last spaces to fall \u2014 not the first to be shut.<\/p>\n

But until Safe Schools becomes school-led, security-backed, community-rooted and fully funded, Nigeria will continue launching programmes in Abuja while children in rural areas face the terror of abductions.<\/p>\n

That is why the question persists: Why is Safe School not providing safety for schools in Nigeria?<\/p>\n

The honest answer is:Because Nigeria built a Safe Schools framework on paper \u2014 not a Safe Schools reality on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u25cf Group Captain Shehu (rtd) is a Security & Defence Analyst\/Conflict Security & Development Consult Ltd<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Group Captain Sadeeq Garba Shehu (rtd) I write as someone who has followed the Safe Schools idea from Chibok to the latest mass abductions, and as a member of the Safe Schools Community of Practice\/Partnership Alliance for Safe Schools (PASS). The painful truth is this: on paper, Nigeria is a Safe Schools champion; in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5777],"tags":[7607,7605,7606,7604,2354],"class_list":["post-96327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","tag-meguard","tag-ministry-of-education","tag-ministry-of-finance","tag-safe-schools","tag-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}