’Recruit Your Children, Grandchildren Into Army’ – Nigerians Tackle Tinubu For Asking FG To Recruit 50m Youths Into Army

Nigerians have reacted angrily to a statement credited to the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which called for the recruitment of 50 million youths of the country into the army.

Tinubu made the call during the Bola Tinubu colloquium which holds annually to celebrate the APC leader’s birthday.

The 12th edition of the event tagged ‘Our Commonwealth: The Imperative of National Cohesion for Growth and Prosperity’ held on Monday in Kano State. The event marked the 69th birthday celebration of the two-time Lagos governor.

Tinubu believes that recruiting 50 million Nigerian youths into the army would address insecurity and help to roll back statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics that over 23 million Nigerians had been sent into the labour market.

The NBS report had shown that the number of unemployed citizens in the country rose by over 17 million from about 6 million in the second quarter of 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari took power to over 23 million in the 4th quarter of 2020.

But Tinubu advised that the high unemployment rate and insecurity bedeviling the country could be addressed through massive recruitment of youths into the military.

“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,” Tinubu said, adding that “what they will eat —cassava, corn, yam, will grow here.”

He added that, “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.”

But Nigerians who reacted on social media criticized the APC leader and asked him to take the lead by offering his children and grandchildren for recruitment into the army. Below are some of the twitter reactions:

@KencrownK: “Tinubu should recruit his own children and grandchildren to join Nigeria army so that they can defend their fatherland too, wicked leaders

@fk149: “We already seeing the kind of ideas Asiwaju has. 50 million youth in the army, how do you want to pay them. How does that help the economy?”

@Samcleave_GZLA: “Every time Tinubu opens his mouth on economic issues he fumbles. He said naira should be printed to solve recession. Now I just learnt he’s asking that 50m youths be employed to the Army to solve unemployment. Hopefully Seyi Tinubu will be employed too. What’s this daftness?”

@olori_lfc: “Don’t worry, you will be among the 50 million to be recruited into the Nigerian army as said by your Tinubu Face with rolling eyes.”

@steveosaz: “I don’t blame Tinubu at all. It’s the gullible idiots who still follow and believe him I blame. Because he knows joining army is the fastest road to death. If the army was good, he would have sent his son Seyi there.”

@crispy_vick: “Tinubu recruit your family members into the Army. Foolish old men that have nothing good for the youths in Nigeria.”

@Samcleave_GZLA: “Tinubu looked at the teeming youth population of this country and the only solution he proffered to unemployment was joining the army, no productive, just join the army like we were in Afghanistan. Anyone touting this man as president is just foolish.”

@dadeelvis: “Olori buruku ni man yi oooo. Recruit 50 million youths into the Army, under equip them, but equip bandits and BH with sophisticated weapons so they can wipe the youths out. Another strategy to kill all youths who voiced out about #EndSarsNow Tinubu = Evil.”