“We Are Failing Our Own”: Over 600 Kids and Teachers Snatched from School in Just Two Years, Despite Billions Spent on “Safe Schools”

It starts the same way every time. The squeal of motorcycle tires, the crack of gunfire, and then the silence a silence filled only by the sobs of children being marched into the bush.

Between March 2024 and May 2026, that nightmare has played out at least seven times across Nigeria. Our counting shows that 603 students and teachers have been taken in mass abductions alone. And this is happening while a N145 billion "Safe Schools" programme meant to protect them stumbles on paper.

Think about the numbers for a second. In March 2024, 137 kids from Kuriga, Kaduna State. Two days later, 15 more from a Tsangaya school in Sokoto. Fast forward to November 2025: 25 schoolgirls snatched in Kebbi. Just four days after that, gunmen walked into St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State and walked out with 303 students and 12 teachers. Three hundred and fifteen human beings in one raid.

The attacks don't spare any region. In April 2026, it was an orphanage and school in Kogi 23 pupils gone. In May, 42 students in Borno. And then, just weeks ago, Oyo State in the South-West three schools hit, 39 students and seven teachers abducted.

Where is the N145 billion?

You might remember the Safe Schools Initiative. It was born from the horror of the 2014 Chibok kidnappings. In 2023, the government proudly launched a plan to spend N144.8 billion between then and 2026 to secure high risk schools. Walls. Guards. Resilience.

So what went wrong?

According to a senior official who spoke to us off the record, "Making the budget is not enough. You can put a budget, but funding becomes an issue."

That’s the polite version. The reality on the ground is starker. The National President of the Parent Teacher Association, Haruna Danjuma, didn’t mince words: “Governments do not have an interest. You still find schools with dilapidated buildings, no perimeter fencing, and no responsible security personnel.”

He added a bitter truth that many parents whisper: "They take their own children to private schools while leaving ordinary Nigerian children to suffer."

The head of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Audu Amba, says even states that signed up for the safety programme show no real improvement. “Our schools have become exposed to danger. The bandits have shifted their tactics. They are focusing on schools.”

Who is actually trying?

A few states are making an effort. Benue says it has fenced over 300 schools. Katsina just launched a new safety policy, with Governor Radda promising that "every school must become a safe environment, free from fear."

But in Bauchi? When asked why the state hasn't fully signed up to the Safe School plan, the Ministry of Education’s information officer simply said, “No comment.”

The breaking point for teachers

The Nigeria Labour Congress is now backing the teachers' union, which has threatened to shut down schools nationwide.

NLC President Joe Ajaero put it bluntly: “We cannot continue to fold our hands while this horror movie continues to play, from Zamfara to Oyo, from Maiduguri to Port Harcourt.”

A security analyst, Chidi Omeje, called the figures "staggering" and said the trend is now "deeply alarming."

Here is the simple truth: A country where parents are afraid to send their children to a public school is a country on the edge. And as one teacher put it, “If the learning environment is not safe, then education can never take place.”

We have the plans. We spent the money. But the bandits are still coming, and our children are still waiting to be rescued.