Sir: In a country where the simple act of going to school has become fraught with danger, it is necessary to call for a transformative shift in how Nigerian schools are designed and built.
The solution to Nigeria’s recurring cycle of school kidnappings lies not only in manpower or surveillance, but in architecture itself.
There is need for advocacy which comes aftermath of another heartbreaking week in November 2025, when news of student abductions once again rippled across the country. On November 17, 25 female students and their principal were seized from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State.
Their vice principal, Mallam Hassan, was killed in the attack. Within days, 52 students were taken from a Catholic school in Agwara, Niger State, followed by the kidnapping of over 100 children from St. Mary’s School in Nasarawa and with 41 Unity Secondary Schools being shut down in the North.
These tragedies are not isolated incidents; they are warnings. “Nigerians can no longer treat school safety as an afterthought. It must be built into the walls, layout, and heartbeat of our schools.”
As President of the Association of Security & Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON) and a leading figure at Transworld Security, the writer believes that safe school architecture, the intentional design of school spaces to deter crime, offers a practical, sustainable, and long-lasting solution to protecting young learners.
The foundation of the writer’s approach is Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), a method that reduces criminal opportunities through design. In her view, schools must be structured to naturally monitor activity, control access, reinforce territorial boundaries, and create defensible spaces that frustrate would-be attackers.
Good design does what guards cannot always do. It watches every corner, guides movement, and creates barriers that slow down intruders.
The need for recommendations such as controlled entry and exit points. A school should not resemble an open marketplace where people drift in and out unchecked. Instead, it should channel all visitors through a single monitored entrance, while giving students and staff designated access routes.
The emphasis on the importance of perimeter security, solid fencing with anti-climb features, buffer zones between walls and buildings, and unobstructed visibility along fence lines. Blind spots invite danger. A secure school is one where you can see every approach.
Inside the school grounds, placement matters. Classrooms should be situated away from perimeter fences to reduce exposure to attacks. Administrative offices, on the other hand, should be near the main entrance to provide oversight of visitors movement.
Perhaps one of the most urgent recommendations is the creation of safe rooms or lockdown areas, secure internal spaces fortified with reinforced doors, protected windows, and communication systems to reach security agencies in real time.
These rooms may save lives during moments when every second counts.
Visitor management, accordingly should be enforced architecturally and the schools where the layout itself forces every visitor through checkpoints, registration areas, waiting rooms, and ID issuance points, removing the possibility of bypassing protocols.
The importance of safe drop-off zones, bollards to stop vehicle intrusions, and pedestrian walkways separated from moving cars.
Modern security tools, CCTV cameras, alarm systems, panic buttons, public address units, and solar backup power, should be factored into the building plans, not added as afterthoughts. A school must be able to see, hear, and respond.
For schools with limited budgets, there is a need for practical, affordable solutions, strong locally produced fencing, concrete block walls, solar lighting, high-visibility open layouts, and basic alarm systems that still deter criminals without overwhelming costs.
Ultimately, architecture as a quiet but powerful guardian of Nigeria’s most vulnerable population, its children.
Every school should be a sanctuary, when Nigerians design with safety in mind, we give our children what they deserve: the freedom to learn without fear.
Dr. Victoria Ekhomu, a Security Consultant wrote from Transworld Security Ltd, Lagos.
