By Abbanobi -Eku Onyeka
The Senate has expanded the mandate of its Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Safe Schools Initiative, SSI, and granted it a three-week extension to complete its assignment.
The probe will now cover TETFund, NELFUND, UBEC, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and NSIPA.
The decision followed a motion moved on Tuesday by the Committee Chairman, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, APC, Abia North, pursuant to Orders 41 and 51 of the Senate Standing Orders, 2026, seeking an expanded scope and more time to conclude investigations.
Senator Kalu told the Senate that preliminary findings showed clear links between the funding and implementation of the Safe Schools Initiative and several federal institutions responsible for education, student welfare and social intervention.
He argued that investigating SSI in isolation would produce an incomplete assessment of school security, educational infrastructure and support programmes for vulnerable learners nationwide.
“The issues surrounding student security, educational infrastructure funding and social intervention schemes are deeply interwoven,” Kalu said. “Investigating SSI without reviewing these bodies will result in fragmented legislative oversight.”
Under the expanded mandate, the committee will evaluate financial flows, operational bottlenecks and accountability structures across SSI and the newly included agencies. It will also review social safety net allocations tied to school feeding, emergency relief for displaced students and rehabilitation programmes.
The committee is further expected to audit TETFund’s infrastructure and security projects in tertiary institutions, assess NELFUND’s disbursement processes and student access, and examine UBEC’s interventions in basic education.
Senator Kalu said time constraints and other legislative engagements had affected planned visits to critical locations. “We’re supposed to submit our report, and there are four key areas that were not done. We need two to three weeks to conclude,” he told the Senate.
