By Elohor Igbru
Former Lagos governor and a leader in the All Progressive Congress APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has called for a massive recruitment into the Nigerian Army amounting to at least 50 million youths.
This measure, in Tinubu’s view would help to mitigate the high rate of unemployment in the country and also cut off the recruitment avenue for Boko Haram and other insurgents.
Tinubu said this in Kano at the Colloquium to mark his 69th birthday celebration.
The former governor who has been consulting over his rumoured presidential ambition in 2023 has been silent for most of the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari only to become very vocal as he begins his consultations.
It remains to be seen the viability of Mr. Tinubu’s suggestion as neither the government nor the military authorities have deemed it fit to respond to him.
“They are angry, they are showing their anger but we will appeal to them to listen to our sisters and brothers here teaching us how to get them engaged. Maybe some of us are old-fashioned but if you don’t mix it too, the agitations can be dangerous,” Tinubu told his audience.
He said: “You have to mix it so that Nigeria is handled carefully. We can promote unity and common destiny in a better, more creative way; something we’ve done very well in Lagos state can be brought to bear in the entire country one of these days.
“Recruit 50 million youths into the army, take away from their (the bandits’) recruitment source.
“What they will eat? Cassava, corn, yam in the afternoon… it is grown here. You create demand and consumption for over five million army of boot camps.”
