Schoolboys kidnapping:  Northern elders restate call for sacking of service chiefs  

Northern elders have expressed concerns on the worsening security situation in the region, saying Friday’s attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, in Katsina State, had further confirmed their position that the region was only now at the mercy of terrorists, bandits, and other criminal elements.

The elders, under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development, pointed out that the continuous stay in office of the service chiefs whom they noted, have been exhausted with nothing more to offer in security service, was emboldening the adversaries in their increasing dastardly actions against the country.

“The latest attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, in Katsina State, where over 333 children are reportedly missing has further confirmed our position that our region is now at the mercy of terrorists, bandits, and other criminal elements,” the elders said in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Engr Zana Goni and National Women Leader, Hajiya Mario Bichi, on Monday.

“And as a result of this, we strongly believe that time has come for our president to bring in fresh hope and clear directions on how best the country will strategize to overcome the present insecurity situation in the country in general,” it added.

They reiterated their earlier call on President Muhammadu Buhari to seek foreign help, saying any further delay by the president may lead to the extinction of the region following increasing mass killings of its people by the terrorists.

Noting that the attack on school children was callous and reprehensible, the group tasked the government to seek foreign help in addressing the nation’s security problem once and for all.

“At the boiling point we have found ourselves in today, we strongly believe that it will not be out of place to seek assistance in dealing with these threats from outside,” they added.

While extending their sympathies to the families of the victims, the elders said “We would say in the strongest possible terms that there can be no justification for the deliberate targeting of innocent school children.

The elders called on authorities to ensure that those responsible for the action are brought to justice just as they tasked communities in the region to demand that schools be considered as places of safety.

On the other hand, they called on those responsible to refrain from any attacks directed at or in the vicinity of schools and warned that the killing and maiming of children, as well as attacks on schools, teachers, and school children, are serious violations of international law.

Insisting that the service chiefs have lost the support of human, nature and spirit and also exhausted their energies, ideas and capacities hence can no longer turn around the country’s security for good, the northern elders charged the president to see reason with a majority of Nigerians who are of the view that the nation’s top security heads be relinquished of their positions and fresh hands and ideas injected for positive results in the security of the nation.

They reminded the president that in democracy, the voice of the majority prevails, saying the recent resolution of both chambers of the National Assembly that he replaces the services chiefs, was the view of the majority of Nigerians given that the parliament is a representation of the people.

“Our president was elected by Nigerians and the same Nigerians have spoken through their representatives in the National Assembly. Our president should listen to them by dropping the service chiefs, who have since reached retirement age in the military and appoint new ones with fresh ideas to do the job for which we elected him to do,” the statement read.

While insisting that the president listens to what they called “the voice of the people” by reorganizing the security architecture of the country, the elders said:” The time has come when the entire country expects new ideas, philosophy, and method in the fight against insurgency in the country.”

Noting that the “president’s idea about insecurity has proved inadequate to deal with the threat to our lives and property”, the northern elders charged him to “urgently change tactics and personnel in order to win the war against rising threats to the lives of Nigerians.”