Northern group to engage 2.7m youths to fight kidnapping, terrorism
The Arewa Youths Consultative Council, AYCC, a coalition of Northern youths, has begun the engagement of over 2,750,000 youths across the 19 northern states to help end the rising spate of kidnapping, banditry and Boko Haram insurgency, which have ravaged the region over the years.
Zaid Ayuba, AYCC national president, disclosed this during the 2021 National Youth Conference, held at Mambayya House, Kano, on Saturday,.
He said about 137,500 youths would be drawn from each of the 19 northern states, including Abuja.
Ayuba said that AYCC would engage 1,145 youths every month and 13,750 youths every year, who would be trained to acquire security training.
He said that this would include basic training on community policing, with a view to helping security agencies in the ongoing fight against banditry, kidnapping and insurgency.
According to him, the current security challenges in the north have negatively affected the socio-economic development of the region.
The program according to him, is expected to be carried out under “Sustainable Security Project for 19 Northern States (Project SUSPRONS 2021-2031), adding that it would run for a period of 10 years.
Ayuba listed the objectives of Project SUSPRONS 2021-2031 to include engagement and sensitization of youths as critical stakeholders to bringing to an end the spate of kidnapping, banditry and Boko Haram insurgency in the North.
He added that the project was also designed “to build the capacity of women to actively play their role as mothers and to empower them in countering violent extremism and radicalization.
The AYCC president further stated that the project also has a vision, which is “to establish a permanent and reliable avenue for engagement and sensitization of young people across the 19 northern states on the implementation of youth’s strategy in community policing and other security conscious efforts in order to effectively tackle the rising problems of insecurity in our region and Nigeria.”
The chairman of the occasion, who is also the vice chancellor of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano, Prof. Mukhtar Kurawa, in his remarks, urged the northern youths to wake up to the challenges of saving the region from the problems occasioned by insecurity.
In his keynote address, the managing director of Dala Inland Dry Port, Ahmad Rabi’u, reminded the youths of how former Nigerian leaders made waves and positive impacts in the region and the country in their early days as youths.
He urged the youths to get inspired and motivated through the legacies of those leaders.
