The Middle-Belt Journalists Forum (MBJF), has said that the kidnapping of the students of Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, Niger State comes as one incident too many, especially as it happened not long after the mass abduction of the students of another school in Kankara, Katsina State, which was preceded by that of the Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, in Yobe State.
It therefore called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, do everything possible to rescue the students of Government Secondary School, Kagara, Niger State, who were abducted in the early hours of Wednesday.
The MBJF in a statement by its President, Mr Jonathan Ipaa, said that the Forum is of the strong view that the innocent students do not deserve the misfortune of staying a day longer in the unimaginable conditions in their captivity and in the hands of terrorists who are masquerading as bandits.
It stressed the need to swiftly rescue them unharmed and return them to their parents and schools to enable them continue with the pursuit of their academic careers.
The Forum said that with this rather unfortunate chain of events and other security challenges nationwide that give the semblance of a recurring decimal, and giving away the nation as a failed state, it has become obvious that Nigeria’s security architecture has collapsed and the nation is currently facing an insecurity emergency that can only get worse if nothing is done to rescue the nation’s sinking ship.
According to the MBJF; “Government must show a stronger commitment to the protection of lives and property, as unequivocally enshrined in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to which our leaders have all sworn to abide by, observe and execute to the letter.
“This can be done by adopting an intelligence-driven, proactive approach to security as opposed to the present reactionary, knee-jerk approach by the security agencies to such incidents.
“It goes without saying that if you do something the same way all the time, you can only get the same result, but when you try something new, you will surely get a different result. Since the national security architecture has obviously crashed, a new drastic approach to Nigeria’s security challenges is what is needed now to secure not just our schools but the nation at large,” it stressed.
The MBJF also strongly demanded within its statutory rights, and as professionals tasked with holding leaders accountable to the people, that government should not only hasten to rescue the Kagara school pupils, but as a matter emergency, come up with a broad, effective and achievable way of securing the country, to avoid the imminent collapse of the nation in the no distant future.
