National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has advised the Federal Government to recruit at least 50 million youths into the Army to aid the fight against insecurity.
Tinubu spoke at the 12th colloquium to celebrate his 69th birthday in Kano State. He said:
“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 the recruitment process should not emphasise education or literacy but willingness to fight criminals. He said: “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.”
Tinubu also said the choice of Kano for his 12th colloquium and 69th birthday was to prove that Nigerians are one, to douse ethnic tension and promote peaceful co-existence.
He said Nigerians were better off together, faulting secessionists groups’ agitations.
“Why are we in Kano? It is to demonstrate to Nigerians at this critical time. It is because there is a Fulani man, a herder man who gave his daughter to a farmer, Yoruba man. And that Fulani, that Yoruba (sic), and some people are agitating wrongly.
“If we can encourage support to go and spend a couple of days with my brother an in-law in Kano and demonstrate that he has not quarreled with me, he has not seceded from Nigeria, I didn’t need a passport or visa to get to Kano, maybe others will have peace of conscience, live in peace and harmony and be loving to one another. That is what Ganduje and I are showing to Nigerians and that is the purpose of this colloquium end of story.”
He added: “All of you here should thank Ganduje for what we have been able to show Nigerians together. That a Fulani man and a Yoruba man can show the entire nation that in harmony, we can show Nigerians that perseverance creates understanding. It is a common blood that flows through our veins.”
