Air Chief: Insurgency in North-east Could Have Been Avoided

The Chief of Air Staff (CoAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has said the Boko Haram insurgency that has torn the North-east part of the country apart could have been averted if people were given what they required in terms of education, saying it is not likely to mobilise educated minds for violence.

The CoAS made this known in Abuja during his investiture as the Grand Patron of the Ex-Junior Airmen/Air women Association- Air Force Military School, Jos Alumni, where he said he was happy that members of the alumni were doing excellently well in their various fields.

According to him, “that is what education is all about, it is about adding value to the society. I am so excited that what the NAF has out in place so many years back is bringing out men and women of integrity, people who are contributing to the society.”

The Air Chief‎ explained: “Why we are doing so much in education is because we understand the relationship between illiteracy and insecurity. If you are able to give people what they require in terms of education, chances are that they are not likely to be mobilised for violence.

“That is why the focus is in as much as we are developing the capacity, but it is also impacting positively in our constitutional role, because we believe if you have an educated society some of the things that are happening in the North-east I don’t think will happen at all. The best thing is to give the children the opportunity to live their dreams and become good citizens.”

Abubakar noted that the Air Force was trying as much as possible to improve the facilities in its secondary schools, as well as infrastructure, stressing that efforts are in place to ensure that the senior classes would not have more than four people in a room.

“We are looking at bringing back the Air Force Girls military school. We want to see how we can give the opportunity to our girls who are interested from most likely September next year,” he revealed.
Reacting, the President General of the Alumni, Mr. Joshua Gana said the visit was aimed at interfacing with the NAF to avoid duplication of projects, and to also seek approval as they plan to give back to the school that has given much to them by embarking on some projects in the school.

He added that alumni were also planning to establish a Flying School in Jos, and also establish an ex-Jam Micro-Finance bank project. This, he said, would help Air Force graduating students qualify for micro credit financing from the bank after school.

Gana stated that the alumni would be relocating its headquarters to Abuja, where it would also be embarking on Ex-Jam plaza project to support the funding model of all the projects that it would embark on in the near future.