Youth Paramilitary Organizations and the Security Initiatives of ECWA, Gombe District Church Council, Nigeria

Abstract

Christian youth paramilitary organizations are youth movements which train boys and Girls to become socially, physically, educationally and spiritually fit for service in areas such as security and social services tagged as “Four Square Programme for Youths†derived from Luke 2:25, which read: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and statue, and in favor with God and man.†This paper therefore, examines the contributions of these organizations with emphasis on the security initiatives amidst the growing threats of insecurity in North-Eastern part of Nigeria. Five ECWA churches were selected within Gombe metropolis; these include ECWA Federal Low-cost, ECWA Gospel off Ashaka Road, ECWA 3, Tudun Wada, ECWA Tunfure and ECWA Zion. Data was collected over the period of twelve months (October 2019 to October 2020). A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from 100 purposively selected respondents. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 selected respondents. Findings revealed that members of the youth paramilitary organizations are deeply committed in ensuring the effectiveness of security initiatives for the safety of the church and its members. However, findings shows that more efforts is needed, especially through other means like adopting the usage of modern security gadgets, i.e. surveillance cameras, setting of night patrol vigilante groups and forming intelligence units for first-hand information. Also, majority of the respondents (66.0%) expressed their satisfaction on the security initiatives of the church, while others (34.0%) believes more is needed to be done.

Keywords: Youth Paramilitary Organizations, Boys/Girls Brigade, ECWA, Insecurity, Security Initiatives.