Nigeria's basic education sector has become a theatre of fear in recent times. Across the country, schools are no longer safe, with pupils instead becoming targets. The stories behind this reality are not just statistics but mourning, grief and lamentation.
On the morning of May 15th, 2026, a coordinated attack across three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State saw thirty-nine students, the youngest of whom was two years old, abducted. Seven teachers were also taken. In a video circulated on social media 13 days later, Folawe Alamu, the school's principal, was on her knees pleading for the government to free them from their captors. Days later, one of the abducted teachers, Michael Oyedokun, was killed.
Some 1400 kilometres away, Boko Haram insurgents walked into Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State and left with 32 students. Ten other people were taken from their homes within the community.
These incidents are not new. The spate of school attacks and kidnappings has increased across the country, with about 2,310 students abducted from schools and learning centres over the last 12 years, according to a report by Premium Times.
Nigeria's Education crisis is not just a story of insecurity; it is the story of a system that has been stretched beyond its capacity, not properly funded, and now fighting for survival in the absence of physical safety and a conducive learning environment.
The Safe School Initiative (SSI)
After the abduction of over 200 Chibok girls in Borno State by Boko Haram in 2014, the Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and international development partners launched the Safe School Initiative (SSI) at the World Economic Forum Africa as a formal commitment to forestall the recurrence of school attacks and abductions. The federal government of Nigeria donated $10 million to the Trust Fund domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In 2015, another $10 million was pledged by Nigerian business leaders. A multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) was also set up within the United Nations, with $2 million donated by the governments of the United States and Qatar. The African Development Bank, USAID and the governments of Norway and Germany also pledged additional commitments.
7 years later, the federal government announced the National Plan for Financing Safe Schools for 2023-2026, with an allocation of NGN 144.8 billion over four years. Of the N32.58 billion allocated in 2023, only N15 billion was released, which was distributed to the Nigerian Police Force (N6.22bn), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (N3.36bn), Defence Headquarters (N2.25bn), Federal Ministry of Education (N519m) and an undisclosed sum to the Department of State Security (DSS).
N36.98 billion and N37.15 billion were allocated for 2024 and 2025, respectively, but the initiative received nothing. SSI's national coordinator, Halima Iliya, told the Senate that the 2024 request was submitted too late for presidential approval, so the programme did not receive any funds for both consecutive years, the same years in which mass school kidnappings accelerated dramatically. N38.03 billion has been allocated for 2026.
There have also been concerns over corruption and misuse of funding released for SSI. In December 2025, the Senate established a committee led by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu to investigate the $30 million mobilised for SSI between 2014 and 2021 and the N144.8 billion allocated to fund the 2023-2026 plan.
The senators found that almost half the project funds were spent as consultancy fees. "You have used almost half of NGN 4.44 billion for consultancy and operational expenses, and spent about N4 billion on the project itself. Do you not think that is why you are not getting another budget?" Senator Idiat Adebule queried the project's handlers. The committee also found that there were no perimeter fences in over 10,000 schools and over 800 schools in northern Nigeria remained entirely closed due to insecurity. 30 out of 36 states had also not operationalised the Safe School Initiative.
Nigeria's Priorities
Nigeria's security expenditure grew from ₦2.74 trillion in 2024 to ₦6.21 trillion in 2025, a 126% jump in a single year, before settling to ₦5.85 trillion in 2026. The Ministry of Defence alone went from ₦1.31 trillion in 2024 to ₦3.15 trillion in 2026, a 141% increase over three years. In a country where inflation has eroded purchasing power, the allocation depicts a deliberate, sustained political choice.
Nigeria is clearly spending on security, but what is the spending producing?
Between 2024 and 2026, defence allocation has more than doubled, but school attacks have expanded geographically. They moved from the North-East and North-West, where they had been concentrated for a decade, into North-Central and South-West. The Chibok abduction in 2014 shocked the whole nation because it seemed exceptional, but the attacks in 2026 have shifted the nation to normalisation.
The Ministry of Defence is one of the highest recipients of budgetary allocations, but what is the money used for?
According to the 2025 budget, the Ministry of Defence was allocated ₦3.10 trillion, ₦2.15 trillion, roughly 69%, went to personnel costs. In 2026, personnel consumed ₦2.39 trillion of ₦3.15 trillion, while capital expenditure that buys equipment, builds capacity, and deters future attacks fell to ₦464 billion, about 15% of the total.
Despite having high allocations for Defence and security in Nigeria, more than N12 billion from the Safe School Initiative went to Defence and security, while the Federal Ministry of Education got only N519 million. This raises the question of whether Nigerians are forced to pay double for the same systemic failure?
Education expectations vs reality
The foundational crisis of Nigeria's education system begins with underfunding. UNESCO recommends that countries allocate 15% to 20% of their total national expenditure to education, or 4% to 6% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, Nigeria's federal allocations consistently fall short of these global benchmarks. In 2025, the education budget stood at ₦3.52 trillion, representing about 7.3% of national expenditure, while for the 2026 Proposed Budget, the federal government allocated ₦3.59 trillion to education, representing about 6.15% of the total budget. This benchmark further negates the recommendation towards education.
This persistent funding deficit directly undermines the country's ability to keep children in classrooms. According to UNICEF, Nigeria has over 18.3 million out-of-school children, the highest number globally. While primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.2 million of the country's children aged 5-14 years are not in school. In northern Nigeria, the picture doesn't look better, as the net attendance rate stands at 53 per cent, driven by economic barriers, long distances to school, and socio-cultural norms that discourage children from attending formal education.
Ultimately, the combination of underfunded schools and erratic attendance has culminated in a severe crisis of "learning poverty" as coined by the World Bank, the inability of a 10-year-old to read and understand a simple text. UNESCO data shows that only 36% of Nigerian primary school pupils achieved minimum proficiency in literacy and numeracy in 2022. By comparison, Kenya scored 57%, and South Africa scored 52%.
Insecurity by the numbers
According to Nigeria Watch, Nigeria recorded 12,954 violent deaths in 2025 alone.. Borno State led with 2,221 fatalities, followed by Niger State with 1,438, Zamfara with 1,426, Benue with 811, and Katsina with 731. In May 2025, Nigeria recorded at least 365 violent incidents, the highest for any country in Africa that month, with at least 635 deaths and 182 abductions. ACLED, the global conflict tracking body, ranked Nigeria as the fifth most dangerous country in the world in terms of conflict extremity as of November 2025.
About 81% of all violent deaths in 2025 occurred in Northern Nigeria. These are the same states where school attendance is already at its lowest. Where there is violence, education is fragile, and when education is fragile, violence finds its next generation of recruits.
The Ransom Economy
SBM Intelligence reports that between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 4,722 people were abducted, and ₦2.56 billion was paid in ransom across 997 incidents, in which 762 people were killed. Kidnappers demanded ₦48 billion in total, but only 5.3% was actually paid.In 2022, ₦653.7 million was paid in ransom. By 2023, it dropped to ₦302 million. In 2024, it rose sharply to ₦1.05 billion. By 2025, it reached a new high of ₦2.56 billion, a near-fourfold increase in two years. The industry is thriving, the naira has weakened, and kidnappers have scaled up naira demands to preserve the real value of their "hustle".
Schools are vulnerable targets within this economy. Governments in Nigeria have paid over ₦8 billion in ransom linked to school abductions between 2014 and 2025. This includes ₦1 billion reportedly paid following the 2024 Kuriga abduction of 287 pupils and ₦2 billion paid after the 2025 Papiri kidnapping of 327 students in Niger State.
The ransom paid to kidnappers is not unused; it buys motorcycles, weapons, ammunition, and informants. The people and government are, in fact, paying for the next round of kidnappings through the ransoms paid.
The way forward
Education in Nigeria is in an undeniable crisis, not just because of insecurity but also because of the lack of accountability. A viral video in May 2026 showed pupils on their knees pleading for government intervention, surrounded by mud-built structures with missing walls and collapsing roofs, at Community Primary School, Obulechi, in Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. The Ebonyi State Ministry of Education immediately suspended the headmaster, Iloke Hycienth, issuing a query for " misconduct" and accusing him of "sabotaging the effort of our education-loving governor". He was reinstated after some days.
Budgets keep getting approved, but no one is really accountable when it fails to be implemented. Nigeria cannot educate its way out of insecurity or secure its way into educational recovery if the two keep competing for the same shrinking attention span. Every child taken from a classroom is a cost no future budget can undo.
