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The Senate has extended the tenure of its ad hoc committee investigating the Safe Schools Initiative by three weeks and broadened the scope of the probe to include key education and social intervention agencies.
The resolution followed a motion moved on Tuesday by the committee chairman, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who said a broader investigation was necessary to assess funding, implementation and accountability across programmes linked to student safety and welfare.
Under the expanded mandate, the committee will also investigate the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
Kalu said preliminary findings showed strong connections between the Safe Schools Initiative and several agencies responsible for educational funding, student welfare and humanitarian interventions.
He argued that limiting the probe to the Safe Schools Initiative would prevent a comprehensive assessment of issues affecting school security and education.
The committee will examine financial flows, operational challenges and accountability mechanisms within the affected agencies.
It will also review school feeding and emergency relief programmes, audit TETFund-funded security and infrastructure projects, assess NELFUND’s loan disbursement process and evaluate UBEC’s basic education interventions.
Kalu requested additional time to complete the investigation, citing outstanding aspects of the assignment and the committee’s extensive workload.
The request was approved unanimously through a voice vote presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate constituted the committee in December 2025 following renewed concerns over attacks on schools and the effectiveness of the Safe Schools Initiative, which was launched in 2014 after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls.
Previous hearings focused on the utilisation of ₦15 billion released for the initiative in 2023, with lawmakers examining allocations to security agencies and the Ministry of Education while raising questions over consultancy payments and other expenditures.
The committee is expected to submit a comprehensive report on the management of education, security and humanitarian intervention funds after completing its expanded investigation.
