Against the backdrop of panic and fears that led to the closure of schools by the federal government without any alternative home teaching mechanisms for the children who would have been academically displaced, ADEOLA AKINBOBOLA writes on why the allocation of N122 billion national plan for financing safe schools should be put into good use as home lesson fees.
Background
It is no longer news that panic and tension escalated after bandits attacked St Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in the Papiri community of Agwara local government area of Niger state where about 215 students and 12 teachers were abducted.
The development occurred four days after 26 schoolgirls were equally abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi.
While Nigerians were still reeling from the kidnap of the Kebbi schoolgirls, gunmen again struck the Niger Catholic school around 2am last week just as it was confirmed that the bandits stormed the school while the boarding students were asleep and they whisked away over 300 students.
Demonisation of Western education
The Boko Haram terrorists who had in the last 13 years carried out dastardly attack on both civilian and government establishments hinged their justification on the need for their ideology of demonising Western education to be accepted.
Ever since their first strike, millions of Nigerian school boys and girls have either been displaced or have their academic calendar jeopardised.
Worst still, the fate of millions of school children would again hang in the air as the federal and state governments have shut down schools in the wake of the renewed terror attacks by ISWAP.
Blueprint observed that after the government decisions via a directive, 47 Federal Unity Schools were immediately shut down across the country due to escalating security concerns.
A few days after, hundreds of anxious parents, who were seen at the school gate of the Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC) Bwari, located on the outskirts of Abuja followed the directive by picking their wards the following day, Saturday.
Outside the school gates, long lines of vehicles stretched along the road, just as parents hurriedly loaded luggage, mattresses and their ward’s personal belongings into cars.
Many students, some still wearing their school uniforms, were seen hugging classmates goodbye while others assisted friends in packing.
Tears and embraces were common as the reality of an abrupt end to the school term sank in. One madam Lydia Ishaya, a parent said she couldn’t sleep again after hearing the news.
“We’ve heard too many stories of attacks on schools. I just want my child home safe.”
Matters arising
Before now, there was the school safety initiative where the government of the United Kingdom donated money for its implementation.
During an interaction sometimes in November 2024, the federal government hinted that an allocation of N122 billion had been made through the National Plan for Financing Safe Schools and would span after three years.
The minister of women affairs, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim made the disclosure in a statement released during the Universal Children’s Day with the theme, ‘Advancing Children’s Rights for a Sustainable Future.’
The minister, who noted that the allocation was designed to ensure that schools across the country remained safe and inclusive said, “Through the National Plan for Financing Safe Schools, over N122 billion has been allocated to safeguard learning environments over the next three years. This ensures that schools remain safe with inclusive spaces for all children, regardless of background or circumstance.”
While it was meant to advance the children’s right to education, Suleiman-Ibrahim also noted that all 36 states of the federation had adopted the Child Rights Act.
What looked like govt’s intervention
Before then, in August 2022, then minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed announced that the government was set to launch a National Safe School Plan before the end of the third quarter of that year.
The plan, according to her, outlined how Nigeria intends to protect her schools and other learning places so that children can once again return to learning in a safer and more secure environment.
The minister, who was represented by the permanent secretary as at that time lamented that the country had faced major security challenges, including attacks on schools and other places of learning, leading to schools closure in impacted and most at-risk communities.
He recalled that as part of efforts towards ensuring a safer school and learning environment, the government had, in 2014, launched the SSI.
At the event, then-chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF and former governor of Ekiti state, Dr Kayode Fayemi pledged the commitment of all governors towards ensuring a safer school and learning environment.
Fayemi back then declared that the forum would liaise with local government chairmen towards ensuring that commitments made towards the realisation of a safer school environment were promptly implemented, since most of the schools and children were in the localities.
As a follow-up, the federal government, in December 2022, launched the National Plan on Financing Safe Schools 2023-2026 with a total investment size of N144.8bn.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Ahmed said that the plan was designed to achieve measurable outcomes such as reducing the number of out-of-school children and improving Nigeria’s rating in the Human Capital Index in the long run.
It was also learnt that the Safe Schools project registered 11,550 schools on the National Safe Schools Response and Coordination Centre’s central monitoring platform.
According to reports, the total funding for the SSI 2023-2026 National Plan is approximately N144.8 billion, with a 2023 federal government take-off grant of N15 billion.
The funding, among other things, is expected to be sourced from various stakeholders, including federal, states and local governments, intervention agencies, foreign governments and private donors.
Reports also have it that a year-by-year breakdown of allocations for initiative shows that the federal government contribution (overall) was expected to be N119.83 billion, or 83% of the total investment plan, states’ contribution (overall) was expected to be N24.93 billion, or 17% of the total investment plan. 2023 federal government take-off grant was N15 billion. Specific Annual Commitments (Total Investment Plan):2023: N32.58 billion; 2024: N36.98 billion; 2025: N37.15 billion and 2026: N38.03 billion.
CSOs laments
Meanwhile, some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) like the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) are already reacting, expressing worries that it has now become evidently clear that the school safety initiative has always been there but was never implemented despite the N122 billion voted for that project line in 2024.
Consequent upon that, the national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to constitute a high powered investigative panel with membership drawn from the DSS, Nigeria police Force, Directorate of military intelligence, the EFCC and the ICPC to investigate how the humongous sum meant for school safety was spent at the federal and state levels.
“Government should pay good amount of money to parents of all the displaced students whose schools were shut down by government for fear of terrorists so the parents can hire home tutors for their children during the period they would be staying in their homes due to insecurity,” he said.
Also, baring his mind, sometimes in August, at a programme held by ActionAid Nigeria, the country director Andrew Mamedu described budgets as more than just figures on paper, but blueprints for people’s lives.
At a three-day media capacity workshop bordering on Public Finance Reporting and Accountability in Lagos state, he further stressed the need for stakeholders, particularly journalists, to ensure they reflect the needs of citizens.
The director of Amnesty International, Isa Sanusi while also making a contribution lamented that the future of thousands of school children in northern Nigeria remains bleak, as hundreds of schools in some states have been closed indefinitely due to rising insecurity.
“Hundreds of children would entirely abandon education due to the psychological trauma of witnessing violent attacks or living in captivity,” he said.
In the same vein, the Save the Children’s Country director, Duncan Harvey expressed worries that the brutal attack violates every child’s right to safety and education.
He recalled that that between 2014 and 2022, over 1,600 students were abducted nationwide with North-west as the most affected.
