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From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Northern Christian Youth Professionals (NCYP) has warned that Nigeria may be drifting toward dangerous security fragmentation as communities increasingly establish local self-defence groups in response to worsening attacks across the country.
In a statement by its chairman, Isaac Abrak, the group said the rise of vigilante formations, hunters’ groups, and informal community defence structures reflects growing public frustration over persistent insecurity and gaps in territorial control.
While commending the armed forces and defence headquarters for ongoing counterterrorism operations, including recent offensives targeting forest-based attackers linked to school attacks in the South-West, the NCYP cautioned that military victories are often undermined by the absence of a long-term territorial holding strategy.
According to the group, armed groups repeatedly return to forests after military operations because cleared areas are not permanently secured.
“Security pressure in one state often displaces armed groups into adjacent unguarded forests, from where they regroup and re-enter affected communities,” the statement said.
The organisation warned that Nigeria is approaching a “preventable stage of security fragmentation,” citing the growing emergence of loosely coordinated security outfits across states battling terrorism, banditry, and rural violence.
Drawing comparisons with Iraq, Burkina Faso, and Mali, the NCYP said community-based defence systems can become effective stopgap measures but may also create governance and operational problems if left outside a coordinated national framework.
The group pointed to existing regional and state-backed security outfits such as Amotekun, the Kaduna Vigilance Service, the Katsina Community Watch Corps, and Zamfara Community Protection Guards as evidence of increasing decentralised security responses.
It also identified major forest corridors, including the Rugu Forest belt, Birnin Gwari axis, Kamuku and Kuyambana reserves, and Plateau’s rural highland corridors as critical mobility routes exploited by armed groups operating across state boundaries.
The NCYP argued that Nigeria’s ongoing Forest Guard pilot programme in seven states should be urgently expanded into a nationwide operation to prevent terrorists and bandits from exploiting ungoverned forest spaces.
According to the statement, the military remains overstretched by simultaneous security crises across the North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-East, Niger Delta and parts of the South-West.
“A nationwide forest guard structure would not replace the military, but serve as a critical stabilisation and holding force,” the group said.
The organisation urged the Federal Government, Defence Headquarters, the Office of the National Security Adviser, and the Presidency to treat the nationwide expansion of Forest Guards as an urgent national security priority.
“The cost of delay will not be theoretical, it will be operational, structural, and increasingly difficult to reverse,” the group said.
