By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The abduction of 333 students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina state, calls for an urgent change in Nigeria’s security architecture, says president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima.
The Katsina schoolboys were abducted on Friday, December 11, by unknown gunmen.
The large scale kidnapping, analysts say, may be Boko Haram or Islamic State West Arican Province (ISWAP) as they are the ones with the capacity for mass abduction.
In April 2014, Boko Haram abducted 270 school girls in Chibok Borno State. While some of the girls have been returned through negotiation and perhaps, ransom payment, a large number are still missing.
In February 2017, ISWAP abducted 110 school girls in Dapchi, a village in Yobe state. All but one of the girls have been returned. The lone girl, Leah Sharibu, is still being held by the terrorists.
The Katsina state’s governor, Aminu Masari, confirmed the abduction of the Kankara schoolboys to federal government delegation led by the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno on Sunday, December 13.
In an interview, Shettima said it is no longer realistic to continue run the kind of centralise system Nigeria operates.
“We have said it several times. The architecture must change. We must decentalise power. We must adopt community policing,” he said.
He said Nigeria’s security crisis is beyond only sacking the service chiefs. He said the security operatives must be take care of, and the equipped with the state-of-the-art tools to do their jobs.
The Arewa youths leader countered those who argue that the northern youths refused to participate in the #EndSARS protest because they were complacent about the state of security in Nigeria.
“The fact of the matter is that the challenges of the North is different from the challenge in the South. We don’t have the problem of yahoo boys in the North. But we have high level of kidnapping, insurgency, banditry and so on.
“Secondly, the protest was not peaceful. What kind of protest would lead to such destruction?” he queried.