The Federal Government has been urged to recruit at least 50 million youths into the Nigerian Army in order to end the country’s fight against terrorism, banditry and all forms of internal and external security threats.
National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, gave this charge on Monday, While speaking at the 12th colloquium to celebrate his 69th birthday in Kano State.
“We are under-policed and we are competing with armed robbers and bandits to recruit from the youths who are unemployed —33 per cent unemployed?”
“Recruit 50 million youths into the army,” he stated, adding that “what they will eat —cassava, corn, yam, will grow here,” he said.
Reacting to recent statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics that over 23 million Nigerians are jobless, Tinubu also urged the government to create jobs for youths in the agricultural value chains.
“Don’t talk about illiteracy, anybody who can hold a gun, who can handle a gun, who can cock and shoot is technically competent to repair a tractor in the farm.
The former Lagos State governor, however, saluted “very creative” youths in the country, saying, “They are angry, they are showing their anger but we will appeal to them,” Tinubu said.