2023: Tinubu Begins on Shaky Note, as Nigerians Mock His ‘Unrealistic’ Proposals
Former governor of Lagos State and aspirant to the Nigerian presidency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Monday proposed to the federal government to recruit at least 50 million youths into the Nigerian Army to boost Nigeria’s fight against terrorism, banditry and all forms of internal and external security threats confronting the nation.
Even though his remarks was directed at the federal government, many Nigerians have said that he was making sweeping campaign promises that were similar to the ones he and other of his political cohorts made prior to the 2015 presidential elections, which brought in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Many of such promises have proved impossible for the government to fulfill.
Tinubu’s proposal, which he made at the 12th colloquium to celebrate his 69th birthday in Kano State, has been widely dismissed as “highly improbable, hugely unrealistic, very uninformed and surely a joke.”
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.
A number of readers who sent e-mail messages to Nigerian Sketch said Tinubu’s suggestions were deceptive and “Nigerians need to be wary of the same sort of promises that President Muhammadu Buhari made before he came on board.”
Samuel Nnamdi wrote that Tinubu was actually “taking Nigerians for granted. He thinks Nigerians are stupid. Where does he want the government to get the money to fund his funny suggestion?”
Lekan Omoba from Osun State asked rhetorically “who has ever heard of any country with 50 million army personnel?”
Sa’idu Wada from Kebbi State said “our politicians need to be taken up, challenged and subjected to some level of intellectual assessment when they utter some of these reckless pronouncements.”
Ali Saleh Darma from Kano State said he believed Tinubu knew what he was saying “even though I can’t think of how it could be realized. My take is that he should be asked to explain how he intends to achieve it.”
