The Senate erupted in rare unanimity last Tuesday, launching its toughest security action yet after terrorists abducted 25 schoolgirls in Kebbi State, Sunday Aborisade reports.
The Red Chamber last week finally reached its breaking point. What began as another sombre review of a tragic attack on a Nigerian school quickly spiralled into one of the chamber’s strongest security interventions in years.
Shock, anger and deep institutional frustration converged as lawmakers confronted the reality that, despite nearly a decade of funding, donor support, special programmes and emergency interventions, Nigeria is still unable to guarantee the safety of children in their classrooms.
The trigger was last Monday’s horrifying attack at Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State. Armed terrorists stormed the school around 4 a.m., killed the vice principal, wounded the principal, and abducted 25 girls. The incident occurred despite the presence of some police personnel. For senators already weary of incessant school kidnappings, it was the final straw.
By midday, the chamber, presided over by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had adopted one of its most far-reaching security resolutions yet: an immediate, comprehensive investigation into the more than $30 million raised for Nigeria’s Safe-School Programme between 2014 and 2021.
They also demanded that President Bola Tinubu authorise the recruitment of at least 100,000 additional military personnel to respond to what lawmakers now openly describe as an existential crisis for the country’s education system.
A minute’s silence was observed for the slain vice principal. Prayers were said for the safe return of the abducted girls. But the chamber’s mood darkened quickly.
“We are losing an entire generation,” a visibly distraught former Senate President Ahmad Lawan warned. “If the schools are not safe, nothing else matters,” he added.
The Kebbi attack reopened deep wounds and long-standing questions about the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI), launched in 2014 in the global outcry that followed Boko Haram’s abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls.
At the time, the Nigerian government, working with international partners and private-sector donors, raised $30 million for the programme.
Then-UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, coordinated the global fundraising effort. Nigeria contributed $10 million; the balance came from donor countries, NGOs and corporate partners.
The programme was further expanded in 2022 with the launch of a new National Plan on Financing Safe Schools (2023–2026), cost at N144.8 billion, with the federal government budgeting N15 billion in 2023 alone and committing to secure at least 50 percent of the country’s most vulnerable public schools.
But despite the ambition, the coordination centre, and years of heavy investment, schools across large swathes of Northern Nigeria remain defenceless. From Chibok to Dapchi, Jangebe to Birnin Yauri, and now Maga, terrorists continue to strike with devastating ease.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) captured the Senate’s outrage:
“People have turned security into business. We cannot monetise the deaths of our citizens. If these funds were properly used, we should not still be witnessing terrorists walking into schools to kidnap children with ease.”
His voice, firm, accusatory and uncompromising, set the tone for what became a blistering critique of Nigeria’s entire school-security architecture.
The motion that ignited the debate was moved by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP, Kebbi North), whose constituency has now suffered two major school abductions within three years.
His voice shook as he narrated the ordeal of parents in Maga and described the attack as “a slap in the face of our nation.”
He said, “Mr. President, a country that cannot secure its children cannot fulfil its obligations to its citizens.
Abdullahi recalled that it took four years to rescue girls abducted in a similar incident in Kebbi in 2022. “This terrorisation must stop immediately,” he said, urging security agencies to act with urgency and precision.
Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno North) reinforced this point, tying the crisis to the social contract between citizens and the state.
“The people surrendered part of their sovereignty for government to ensure peace and security. If schools are no longer safe, the contract is broken.”
Lawmakers across party lines echoed this sentiment. The message was unmistakable: the Safe-School Programme has failed, and unless the country confronts that failure honestly, more children will be abducted.
If the probe into the $30 million Safe-School fund dominated the session, the second urgent concern was the dire shortage of military personnel.
Senator Mohamed Sani Musa (APC, Niger) delivered a stark assessment: “With a population of over 230 million and only 177,000 personnel, Nigeria cannot cover its vast territory. The armed forces are overstretched, overwhelmed, and incapable of defending every community.”
He called for a radical shift, one that not only expands the military but mobilises traditional rulers, community leaders and citizens into a structured intelligence-gathering network.
Oshiomhole took the argument further:
“We don’t have enough men and women in uniform to cover this country. A recruitment drive of at least 100,000 is necessary, not just for defence, but to provide employment for our youth.”
The chamber agreed. The demand for new military recruitment was adopted unanimously.
Senators also highlighted the systemic flaws within Nigeria’s security response. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu advocated stronger collaboration between states and the federal security apparatus.
Senator Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra) demanded immediate deployment of advanced tracking technology to fast-track the rescue of the abducted students.
“We have the capacity to deploy modern surveillance tools. There is no excuse for allowing terrorists to disappear with children,” he said.
Senator Francis Fadahunsi (APC, Osun East) criticised what he called the “silo mentality” of security agencies:
“The army, air force and police are not working together. Kidnappings are becoming normalised because we lack coordinated action and measurable targets,” he said.
Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong (APC, Cross River) added an important caveat saying:
“We must set clear deadlines for security agencies. Enough of open-ended directives that produce no results.”
Senator Solomon Lalong (APC, Plateau) invoked the spectre of Chibok: “Nigeria must avoid another Chibok. The World Bank–supported Safe Schools Initiative has not delivered what it promised,” he said.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who spoke in firm tones throughout the session, said the Senate would uncover the truth about every naira and dollar that went into the Safe-School Programme.
According to him: “These criminals are going after soft targets. We must find out why the Safe-School Programme has failed to protect them.”
He also cautioned against ethnic or religious interpretations of the Kebbi attack.
Akpabio said, “Crime is crime. It does not matter under which administration it occurs or the identity of the victims. We must rescue our girls.”
Akpabio’s intervention underscored a critical point: Nigerians are increasingly frustrated with the recycling of blame, excuses and committees. This time, he said, the Senate will not allow the matter to fade.
The Senate went beyond rhetoric. It established a high-level ad-hoc committee comprising the Committees on Finance, Defence, Army, Air Force, Education and Police Affairs. The mandate: investigate all appropriations and expenditures linked to the Safe-School Programme from 2014 to date, including the original $30 million fund, budgetary allocations between 2015 and 2023, and the ongoing N144.8 billion Safe Schools Plan.
The committee is expected to question federal ministries, state governments, donor agencies, security institutions and contractors.
“Nothing will be swept under the carpet,” Akpabio vowed.
To understand the Senate’s fury, one must return to the origins of the Safe Schools Initiative. It was a global rallying call after Chibok, with Gordon Brown, the UN, donor governments and Nigerian philanthropists all pledging support.
The programme promised relocation of at-risk students, reinforcement of school security infrastructure, emergency response centres, community security networks, and enhanced intelligence and early-warning systems.
Nearly 10 years later, the testimonies remain grim. Too many schools remain unfenced, unprotected and unmonitored. Teachers and students often fend for themselves. Many states have simply pocketed funds meant for safety projects.
This is the vacuum terrorists exploit, walking into schools and walking away with children.
Behind the Senate’s debate are families in Kebbi who have now entered the torment familiar to too many Nigerian communities: waiting for news from the forest, praying their daughters return alive.
Lawmakers warned that every new abduction undermines national morale, school enrollment and parents’ trust in government.
Senator Yahaya Abdullahi captured the national mood. He said, “The terrorisation of our students must stop. It is a tragedy not just for Kebbi, but for the entire country.”
The Senate’s Tuesday session was more than legislative routine. It was a reckoning. For the first time in years, lawmakers acknowledged, without evasion, that Nigeria has failed its children.
Their resolutions will form a key part of discussions at the upcoming national security summit, where lawmakers and security chiefs are expected to confront the uncomfortable truth that the country’s defence strategy is outdated, underfunded, and misaligned with the threats facing modern Nigeria.
The chamber’s final message was clear: unless accountability is enforced, unless the armed forces are expanded, and unless modern technology is deployed, school abductions will continue.
For now, the nation waits, again, for the rescue of its daughters.
But this time, the Senate insists, there must also be a rescue of Nigeria’s broken security system itself.
Within a week after the Senate resolution, gunmen had struck in multiple states in the North, abducting Catholic school students in Niger State, kidnapping worshippers during service at a CAC church in Eruku, Kwara State, and seizing several teenage students in Borno.
The coordinated assaults deepened nationwide anxiety over deteriorating security. Parents rushed to authorities, demanding urgent intervention, while local vigilantes launched search efforts in nearby forests.
State governments condemned the attacks and pledged collaboration with federal security agencies to secure the victims’ release.
The incidents, occurring within hours of one another, underscored Nigeria’s widening vulnerability as communities grappled with relentless criminal networks exploiting gaps in policing and intelligence.
