The Arewa Youths Consultative Council (AYCC) on Monday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack all the service chiefs immediately and appoint competent young people with the required energy, vigour and zeal to do the job.
The Youth Council also demanded the sack of Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola.
The group, led by its National President Zaid Ayuba Alhaji, in a press conference in Aminu Kano Mambayya House, said the service chiefs have failed to tackle the security challenge confronting Nigeria.
“We demand that Service Chiefs be sacked immediately and competent younger ones with required energy, vigour and zeal to curb insecurity appointed now. We appreciate the contribution of the service chiefs over the years, but let others come and apply different strategies to get a positive result,” Alhaji said.
The group asked President Buhari to set up “Antiterrorism/Kidnapping Volunteer Force (ATKVF) in the 19 States of the north that will accommodate every active youth in all villages, “because passionate volunteers if properly supported by government will create unimaginable impact in terror war.”
“For Fashola, his sin is that he has failed to fix the Kano-Abuja highway, which is causing a lot of road mishaps that kill many northerners daily,” the group said.
“Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, should be removed from that office. He can be taken to a different ministry but not Works and Housing.
“All scientific and practical evidence show that Julius Berger, as a road construction company, has the capacity to finish the Kano-Abuja Road before 2021, but we are painfully forced to wait for eight years, despite the incessant kidnappings and deaths of our people along that road.
“This is the most important economically valued road in the north, just like the Lagos-Ibadan express way in the South. As it is, armed robbers, bandits and kidnappers take advantage of the bad Kano-Abuja road to ambush their victims,” AYCC president added.
Alhaji queried: “The prediction of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, that terrorism and attacks may continue for the next 20 years, is the greatest shock of our lives. Does that mean we are hopeless and futureless or we should forget about peace, security and stability of our land for the next 20 years?.
“Reports on why it will take eight more years to complete Abuja-Kano road is another threatening insult to the people of northern Nigeria, which means more lives will be lost through road accidents, kidnappings and other forms of insecurity.”
The Arewa Youth Consultative Council also asked ASUU to call of strike immediately.
“The eight-month long academic strike is adding more injuries to the hardship of our youths and automatically creating room for youths’ engagement in unwanted activities.
“Idleness and falls in educational activities constitute some of the worst threats to the future of Nigeria,” AYCC said.
AYCC condemned the killing of some security agents and recent massacre of innocent rice farmers in Borno State.
The group called on the federal Government to also repair the Jalingo-Numan Road and complete the Mambilla Hydropower Electric Dam project in Taraba.
The group said, failure to heed to these demand will force northern youths to troop into the streets for protest.
