Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial district has decried the incessant kidnappings for ransom, rape, and other kinds of insecurity that continue to plague the country’s northern regions.
He noted terrorists’ proclivity for underage marriage, which is a culture in the north, and stated that underage marriage would continue to allow for procreation in the face of poverty until it was abolished.
On Wednesday, he stated this while contributing to a motion sponsored by Senator Bala Ibn’Nallah, representing Kebbi South Senatorial district, titled “Urgent need to surmount all types of kidnappings, banditry, and related security challenges in Wasagu-Danko, Sakaba, and Yauri Local Government Areas of Kebbi State.”
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Senator Odebiyi reiterated in his presentation that high-level insecurity in the north will persist owing to the government’s “ad-hoc approach,” emphasizing that the answer to insecurity in the north and elsewhere must be carried further.
“We appear to be extremely reactive and ad hoc in our approach to solving problems like security in this nation, but I believe we need to go a little deeper.”
“It’s a rich field for recruiting bandits, especially when you consider the collapse of nations around Nigeria in the Sahel and other places,” he added.
According to him, “when underage marriage takes place in poverty”, the couple gave birth in that condition and the baby grew up only to be recruited by criminal gangsters.
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The lawmaker further decried the increasing number of out of school children, noting that in nine years, Nigeria recorded ten million out of school children, a development, he said portended dangers.
“If you look at from 2013, we had about 4million children out of school, today you have 14m children out of school, add that to about 100 million people in poverty, especially if you look at the northeast and the northwest.
“If we sit down here by 2025, we will have 20million children out of school, the security issue in this country will continue to get worse.
“So, all these adhoc reaction of calling on Army, the police, we must have a compressive approach and declare a marshal law against out of school children.
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“As long as we have poverty and more children out of school, as long as we have under age children giving birth, to more poverty, it is a fertile ground,” he further stated.
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