Insecurity affecting Boys Brigade in Nigeria,

From John Adams Minna

The National President, Boys Brigade of Nigeria, Professor Samson Duna, has said the current security challenges in parts of the country has greatly affected activities of the Boys Brigade.

The National President, who stated this in Minna, the Niger State capital, on Sunday, when he inaugurated the new executive of the Boys Brigade of Nigeria, Niger State council, pointed out that all the routine training activities of the association could no longer take place because of security challenges in the country.

He disclosed that all the places where the Boys Brigade, hitherto, undertake its annual training activities, like mountain climbing and bush endurance training, among others, are now being occupied by bandits and other insurgents.

“The security situation is a huge challenge to the Boys Brigade in the area of training because all the places we usually carry out our annual training are no longer accessible.

“Our conferences are also affected. We are restricted to a few places now, so we don’t put the lives of our boys in danger. It is a huge problem and I strongly believe and urge the government to act fast in the area of security challenges in the country”.

While stressing the importance of the Boys Brigade, which was founded in 1883, Professor Duna maintained that the Boys Brigade is the foundation for moral training of Christian youths, The Boys Brigade has continued to inculcate moral training on our youths and this has brought some level of discipline in our christian youths,” he added.

Earlier in his address, the Niger State governor and the Grand Patron of the Boys Brigade in the state, Umaru Mohammed Bago, urged the Boys Brigade to continue to uphold its core objectives, which are anchored on moral discipline and the fear of the lord. He said one of the major problems facing society, today, is lack of moral training of our children to have the fear of God, adding that “if we must get it right, then our children need to be taught the fear of God in all their dealings”.

The governor, who was represented by the Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Affiniki Dauda, assured the Boys Brigade of the state government’s support and collaborations.

The newly inaugurated state council of the Boys Brigade has the former commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism and a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa, as the president.

The Niger State correspondent of the Sun Newspapers, John Adams, emerged as the state Director of Media of the Boys Brigade.