By Gideon Njoku
The speech delivered by Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State, and APC National Leader, at a colloquim to mark his 69th birthday in Kano was beautiful and cerebral. But it was overshadowed by three things:
The controversy in the Social Media over his age, his near fall when he stumbled as he entered the venue, and the stir he caused when he asked the Federal Government to recruit 50 million youths into the Military to fight insurgency.
Tinubu had said that the Government was competing with insurgents for the recruitment of youths. Without employment from Government, he said, the youths are easily lured and recruited by the insurgents.
Not a few media houses fed on that, casting headlines which suggested and gave the impression that Tinubu was challenging and/or criticising President Muhammadu Buhari.
That must have worried him, because the last thing the birthday boy wanted was to confront the President who had paid him.a beautiful tribute to congratulate him on his birthday.
But worse was to come for Tinubu. He came under severe criticism for asking for the recruitment of 50million youths into the Military. They said he spoke ignorantly. They said he did not speak like one who had any knowledge of Government, administration, economics, or the implications of such a large recruitment of youths into the Military.
Human rights activist and former Senator, Shehu Sani, was the first to chide Tinubu, asking how possible it is for the Government to sustain that.
Femi Fani-Kayode, in a series of tweets, criticised Tinubu’s 50 million youth- recruitment. Where is the wherewithal?, FFK asked. He wondered if Tinubu considered the implications of his suggestion.
He asked: Where will the funding for salaries, allowances, cars guns come from?
It took Tinubu 24 hours to realise what a terrible mistake he had made. It took him that long to realise that he had badly mis-spoke. He realized the implications of what he said. So, he recanted; said it was an honest mistake. And, asked for forgiveness.
He said he meant to say five million. Not 50 million.
Some people said it was late for him to do so.
Others agreed it was a slip of the tongue.
But in a statement which sought to clarify what Tinubu meant to say, his Spokesman, Tunde Rahman, said of Tinubu :”He believes that the more job opportunities are presented to our youths, the less some of them will be tempted into illegal and dangerous activities.
“As part of this overall approach, he believes that eligible youths 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 five million for the armed forces, not the 50 million that was mentioned in error. It was an accidental verbal mistake of which we all commit from time to time…
“Please forgive any confusion due to this innocent error.”
Even with the clarification, the question remains: Which country recruits five million youths into the military and the police and other security agencies in one fell swoop?
Not China. Not America. Not Russia.
