It began with a nightmare that was supposed to never happen again.
In April 2014, the world watched in horror as 276 schoolgirls were dragged from their dormitories in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram insurgents. The abduction did not just shock the nation; it forced a response. In the aftermath, the Goodluck Jonathan administration, in partnership with global donors and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, launched the Safe School Initiative. The idea was noble and simple: protect vulnerable children by making their schools fortified sanctuaries. An initial $10 million was committed, later growing to over $30 million in international and private sector funding by 2021 . Fences were built. Drills were conducted. The nation was assured: never again.
The intention was never in question. The strategy, however, was doomed from the start.
Because “never again” did not last four years.
The Jonathan Era: The Blueprint for Failure (2014–2015)
President Jonathan inherited a nascent insurgency and watched it produce the defining image of his tenure: the Chibok girls. The Safe School Initiative was his administration’s signature response. Yet even as the plan was being drafted, the vulnerabilities remained unaddressed. Schools were soft targets, and the insurgents had learned that attacking them guaranteed global headlines. By the time Jonathan left office, the blueprint for school abduction as a tactic had been written—and no one had burned it.
The Buhari Years: The Normalisation of Terror (2015–2023)
If Jonathan witnessed the birth of the crisis, Muhammadu Buhari presided over its metastasis. Despite promising to crush Boko Haram, the Buhari years saw school abduction evolve from a shocking anomaly into a routine criminal enterprise.
In February 2018, over 110 schoolgirls were abducted from Dapchi, Yobe State. Most were released, but Leah Sharibu remains in captivity to this day for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
Then came the avalanche. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Nigeria witnessed a coordinated wave of attacks that should have triggered a national emergency:
· December 2020: Over 300 boys kidnapped from Kankara, Katsina State .
· February 2021: 42 students and staff taken from Kagara, Niger State .
· February 2021: 317 schoolgirls abducted from Jangebe, Zamfara State—one of the single largest mass abductions on record .
· March 2021: 39 students kidnapped from Afaka, Kaduna State .
· May 2021: About 150 students taken from an Islamic school in Niger State .
· June 2021: Over 96 students and eight teachers abducted from Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State .
· July 2021: 153 students and staff of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna State, seized from their dormitories .
By the time Buhari left office in 2023, The ICIR reported that his administration had recorded a staggering 300 per cent increase in schoolchildren abductions compared to Jonathan’s tenure. The Safe School Initiative, meanwhile, had become a ghost programme. Reports indicate that by early 2023, the initiative had largely ceased to function across most states. Billions had been spent. The abductions had not stopped. They had multiplied.
The Tinubu Era: The Spread Southward (2023–Present)
President Bola Tinubu inherited a crisis that had become endemic. But instead of containment, Nigerians have watched the terror spread to regions previously considered safe.
In March 2024, gunmen abducted 287 pupils and staff from Kuriga, Kaduna State . Days later, another 15 students were taken from a Tsangaya school in Sokoto State .
In November 2025, the horror reached new depths. On November 17, 25 female students were abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Kebbi State; the school’s vice-principal was killed in the attack . Just four days later, on November 21, gunmen struck again—abducting 315 people, including 303 students and 12 teachers, from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, Niger State .
Then came the expansion no one predicted. In May 2026, armed men invaded three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, in the South-West, kidnapping 39 students and seven teachers . An assistant headmaster, Mr. Adesiyan, was killed . Almost simultaneously, 42 children were abducted from a primary school in Chibok, Borno State—the same community that started this nightmare twelve years earlier .
The message could not be clearer: no region is exempt. No school is safe.
The Reckoning: N144.8 Billion for What?
The Senate is currently investigating how N144.8 billion earmarked for security—including funding for the Safe School Initiative—has been spent since 2014 . According to the ad hoc committee chaired by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, over 1,680 schoolchildren have been kidnapped and 180 educational facilities attacked in the past twelve years . The ICIR’s more recent tally puts the figure at 2,416 students abducted across 26 documented mass school attacks between April 2014 and May 2026 .
Thirty out of Nigeria’s 36 states have yet to implement the Safe School Initiative proposal . More than 42,000 primary and secondary schools across northern Nigeria reportedly lack perimeter fencing . The plaster has not merely fallen off. It was never properly applied to begin with.
The Inconvenient Truth
The painful reality, which no amount of senatorial investigation can obscure, is that you cannot fence off 60,000 schools. And you cannot secure any school inside a failed society.
The terrorists of the Shaikaru faction, ISWAP, and Boko Haram do not mass their troops in open fields for a decisive battle. They rely on speed, surprise, ambushes, and intimate knowledge of local terrain. Yet, as retired Colonel Ahmed Usman, Special Adviser on Security to the Sokoto State Governor, recently warned, our troops are still operating under a “conventional warfare” framework. The result is a fatal mismatch. Convoys are ambushed. Checkpoints are overrun. Soldiers die avoidable deaths.
But here is what the headlines do not always tell you: the alternative works.
In May alone, Operation Hadin Kai—operating in a more intelligence-driven, unconventional manner—killed a top ISWAP commander and repelled major attacks. Joint US-Nigerian strikes have successfully targeted terrorist leadership. The United States has deployed 200 troops for technical support. France has renewed its commitment to the Lake Chad region. When we fight like a guerrilla, we win.
The Cure
To truly secure our schools, we must first secure our society. That means:
- Tactical Overhaul: Dissolve static checkpoints in volatile areas and replace them with mobile, intelligence-driven “hunter-killer” teams trained specifically for counter-insurgency.
- Economic Warfare: Treat the taxation networks and illegal mining sites that fund ISWAP as what they are: acts of war. Destroy them.
- Tech and Intel: Accelerate drone surveillance and intelligence sharing with our allies so that we strike terrorist commanders, not civilians. The recent joint strikes that killed terrorist leaders prove this works.
The Safe School Initiative was conceived in the dark days after Chibok. It was born of good intentions. But twelve years, three presidents, and over 2,400 abducted children later, we must admit the truth: a plaster was never going to stop a haemorrhage.
The real cure is not around the schools. It is in the forests, on the smuggling routes, and in the operational tactics of our military. We must think like the enemy to defeat him.
Anything less is just another plaster. And we all know where that ends.
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