Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded a full public accounting of the ₦144.86 billion Safe Schools initiative, warning that rising violence has forced schools to close across approximately 40 local government areas.
In a statement released on Tuesday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), argued that financial allocations have failed to guarantee physical safety. “Budgeting money is not the same thing as securing schools,” he said. “The true measure of a Safe Schools programme is whether our children can actually go to school safely. By that elementary test, the present approach is failing.”
The Safe Schools initiative was launched to safeguard academic institutions following relentless insurgent raids and mass abductions in northern Nigeria. Atiku cited recent incidents in Borno State, including the late June abduction of 36 students and a staff member from Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, alongside 42 pupils still missing after a May 15 raid in Mussa.
Calling for an immediate overhaul of the central security framework, Atiku advocated replacing “Abuja contract-awarding” models with a community-driven, intelligence-led system. He noted that rural residents observe warning signs long before national agencies, proposing early-warning networks and targeted security plans for high-risk institutions to prevent closures that fuel poverty and radicalisation.
Atiku also challenged President Bola Tinubu directly over reports that security agencies have pinpointed terrorist hideouts. “Since Mr President says his government knows the forests where these kidnappers and terrorists operate, Nigerians are entitled to ask: what exactly are they still doing there?” he declared, urging military action to free captives rather than treating missing children as statistics.
Demanding complete transparency for every naira spent under the scheme, Atiku asserted that under an ADC administration, criminal networks would no longer dictate whether Nigerian children can safely access education.