The Youth Arise Movement has urged the Federal Government to urgently direct all relevant security agencies to develop and implement comprehensive strategies aimed at protecting rural communities from bandits, kidnappers, and other criminal elements ravaging the country.
The group, in a press statement signed by its Convener, Comrade Ademola Babatunde, and released on Sunday in Abuja, expressed deep concern over what it described as the worsening insecurity across Nigeria, urging President Bola Tinubu and all relevant authorities to take urgent and decisive measures to safeguard lives and property.
“For over fifteen years, Nigerians have endured relentless attacks from terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, and other criminal elements. Thousands have been killed, kidnapped, displaced, and subjected to unimaginable suffering. Communities have been destroyed, businesses crippled, and places of worship and learning turned into targets of violence,” the statement partly read.
Babatunde particularly identified rural communities as among the most vulnerable, citing inadequate security presence and limited protection mechanisms as factors that have left them exposed to repeated attacks.
“These communities continue to bear the brunt of attacks by criminal elements,” Babatunde said, calling on the Federal Government to urgently bring together the Department of State Services, the Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police Force, and other stakeholders to tackle the crisis.
He also raised alarm over recent attacks on schools, students, and teachers, describing the trend as a dangerous escalation that threatened national development.
“Such attacks are not only assaults on innocent citizens but direct attacks on Nigeria’s future. Any threat to our children and educational institutions is a threat to national development and collective progress,” the statement warned.
Babatunde further urged governments at all levels to ensure that resources allocated for security and regional development were transparently and effectively deployed toward protecting schools, communities, farms, and critical infrastructure, particularly in vulnerable areas.
“The security of human lives must remain the primary responsibility of government,” Babatunde stressed, calling for stronger community-based security initiatives, improved intelligence gathering, and enhanced collaboration between security agencies and local communities.
The group also sounded a political warning, stating that persistent insecurity posed a direct threat to democratic governance in the country.
“A nation under constant siege cannot fully enjoy the benefits of democracy and development,” the statement noted, urging the President, members of the Federal Executive Council, and the National Assembly to rise above political considerations and prioritise the protection of Nigerians.
He described the security challenge as a national emergency that required unity and collective resolve, adding that it remained committed to advocating for policies that guaranteed the safety, dignity, and prosperity of all Nigerians.
The call comes amid a fresh wave of attacks on rural communities across Nigeria, the latest being the torching of five classrooms and a staff office at Government Day Secondary School, Kautikari Village, in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Saturday.
The attack on the school in Chibok — a community already etched in Nigeria’s painful security history following the 2014 mass abduction of schoolgirls — underscores the persistent vulnerability of rural educational institutions to terrorist violence.