All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwabu Bola Tinubu has clarified his proposal on the country’s need to combine its employment and national security policy.
He said his call on the government to recruit 50 million youths into the military was inadvertently made.
The former Lagos governor’s clarification was contained in a statement by Mr. Tunde Rahman of The Tinubu Media Office.
According to the statement, what the APC stalwart meant was an urge to the Federal Government to recruit 50,000 youths into the various national security agencies, including the Police and the Nigerian Army.
It said Tinubu, while calling for more youths to be drafted into the Army in a bid to adequately tackle the nation’s security challenges, made an innocent error.
In his remarks in Kano during the 12th Bola Ahmed Tinubu Colloquium organized to mark his 69th birthday, Tinubu urged the Federal Government to recruit 50 million youths into the Army.
Asiwaju said the recruitment would help restore peace in troubled regions and stop miscreants from recruiting young people to do their bidding.
But the statement by Mr. Rahman clarified that the 50 million figure was a mistake and that Tinubu intended to recommend the recruitment of 50,000 youths into various national security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army.
It 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 modernization.
“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.