50,000 youth not 50 million needed to tackle insecurity in Nigeria – Tinubu

Asiwabu Bola Tinubu has explained his suggestion about the need for the country’s employment and national security policies to be merged.

He said that his offer to the government to enlist 50 million young people in the military was made mistakenly.

The former Lagos governor’s clarification was contained in a statement by Mr. Tunde Rahman of The Tinubu Media Office.

According to the release, the APC stalwart was urging the Federal Government to recruit 50,000 young people into various national security agencies, including the Nigerian Army and Police.

It said Tinubu made an innocent error when calling for more youths to be drafted into the Army in order to adequately resolve the country’s security challenges.

The release read: “Speaking at the event, Asiwaju Tinubu canvassed the urgent need to combine employment and national security policy by the recruitment of five million youths in all aspects of nation-building, ranging from infrastructural development to agricultural modernisation.

“He believes that the more job opportunities are presented to our youth the less some of them will be tempted into illegal and dangerous activities.

“As part of this overall approach, he believes that eligible youth should be recruited into the armed forces, police and other security agencies to augment the functional capacity of our security apparatus thus ensuring the better security and safety of our people.

“Asiwaju seeks the expansion of security personnel by 50,000 for the armed forces not the N50 million that was mentioned in error. It was an accidental verbal mistake of which we all commit from time to time especially when reciting a series of large numerical figures.

“He did not mean N50 million, which is almost a quarter of our total population.

The crucial matter is that Asiwaju rightly observed that such strong recruitment would serve the twin-purpose of helping to tackle unemployment while at the same time enhancing the security of every Nigerian.

“Please forgive any confusion due to this innocent error. The most vital thing is that he set forth a wise and timely approach that would help us face two of today’s stiffest challenges. It is in the spirit that we hope you view and assess his proposal for it seeks to provide a way for more youths to participate in building a greater, safer, and more prosperous country.”