Human Rights Writers of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the panic and fearful closure of schools by the Federal government and some states in the North without working out alternative home teaching mechanisms for the children who would be academically and educationally displaced and disadvantaged just as HURIWA said the actions of the Federal and state governments was tantamount to surrendering to the ideology underpining the establishment of the dreaded terrorists group of Boko haram which means education is forbidden.
HURIWA recalled that the Federal Government and some northern states have ordered a shutdown of academic activities in some schools over rising insecurity and abduction of pupils.
While the Federal Government closed 41 unity schools, governors of Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Benue, and Katsina also shut down schools in their states.
It, also, recollected that panic and tension escalated on Friday after bandits attacked St Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in the Papiri community of Agwara Local Government Area, Niger State, abducting 215 students and 12 teachers.
This was only four days after 26 schoolgirls were abducted from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi.
HURIWA recalled that durring that Monday attack, the terrorists shot dead the school’s Vice Principal, Hasan Makuku, and left the principal with a gunshot wound.
Two of the abducted girls later managed to escape, one returning late on Monday and the other fleeing moments after the attack.
While Nigerians were still reeling from the kidnap of the Kebbi schoolgirls, gunmen again struck the Niger Catholic school around 2am on Friday just as it was confirmed that the bandits stormed the school while the boarding students were asleep and whisked away over 300 students.
HURIWA in a media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko said the closure of the public schools amounts to the government’s surrender and an open admission of defeat by mainly the boko haram terrorists who had in the last 13 years bombed both civilian and government establishments just so they ensure that their ideology of demonising western education is accepted.
“We are sorry to say that what the federal and state governments have just done by hurriedly closing down public boarding schools across the Country and in many Northern States is a collective acceptance of defeat to the terrorists. What exactly did the federal government and the states in the federation done since the first case of mass abductions from schools which happened close to a decade now in Borno state? What has government done with the budgets approved for Schools safety initiative which the central government informed Nigerians that the government of the United Kingdom donated money for its implementation? What is the fate of millions of school children displaced by the thoughtless, irrational and cowardly decision of the Federal and state governments to shut down schools in the wake of the terror attacks by murderous Fulani tertorists and ISWAP? Does government have any plan to send home tutors to these pupils or what happens to their educational activities that they have now been forced to forfeit? HURIWA asked.
HURIWA recalled that the Federal Government had disclosed in November 2024 that an allocation of N122 billion had been made through the National Plan for Financing Safe Schools and would span the next three years.
The Minister for Minister for Women Affairs, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, disclosed this information 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 ¦ 122 billion has been allocated to safeguard learning environments over the next three years. “This ensures that schools remain safe and inclusive spaces for all children, regardless of background or circumstance.”
Suleiman-Ibrahim also highlighted the Federal Government’s efforts to advance children’s rights, noting that all 36 states of the Federation had adopted the Child Rights Act.
Before then, in August 2022, then-Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, announced that the Federal Government was set to launch a National Safe School Plan before the end of the third quarter of that year.
“The plan outlines how Nigeria intends to protect her schools and other learning places, so that our children can once again return to learning in a safer and more secured environment”, he had said.
The former Minister, who was represented by his then-Permanent Secretary, lamented that Nigeria had faced major security challenges, including attacks on schools and other places of learning, leading to closure of schools in impacted and most at risk communities.
He recalled that the Federal 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 the governors in the effort towards ensuring a safer school and learning environment.
Fayemi declared that the Governors Forum would liaise with local government Chairmen in ensuring that commitments made towards the realization 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 has also been revealed that the Safe Schools project has 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 is expected to be sourced from various stakeholders, including federal, state, 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: Federal Government Contribution (overall): Expected to be N119.83 billion, or 83% of the total investment plan; States’ Contribution (overall): Expected to be N24.93 billion, or 17% of the total investment plan. 2023 Federal Government Take-off Grant: 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.
HURIWA said that now that it has become evidently clear that the school safety initiative has never been implemented despite the N122 billion voted for that project line in 2024, the President should 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 may habe been stolen by some government officials at thd 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.
