Nigerians are blowsy and fatigued by austerity measures and therefore require urgent stimulus package to jumpstart the economy, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has said.
“It is time to put stimulus in place. This is no time for austerity. I hope you listen carefully. This is not the time to constrain the economy. This is the time to create the opportunity.
“We have been fasting for many years. I hope the National Assembly; I hope the President himself will not pay attention to austerity.
“If you hear America spending $1.9tn and they are not looking back and they are still asking for $3tn for infrastructure and renewal and creating jobs and your own unemployment rate is 33 per cent and you ask us to keep on fasting. We are not fasting any more,” the All Progressives Congress (APC) leader said.
He spoke at the 12th Bola Tinubu Colloquium held in Kano on Monday to mark his 69th birthday.
The theme of the colloquium is, “Our Common Bond, Our Common Wealth: The Imperative of National Cohesion for Growth and Prosperity.”
Tinubu, governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, said the United States example was the way to go.
According to him, the high rate of youth unemployment was fueling banditry and terrorism and other criminalities in the country.
To arrest the ugly and dangerous trend, Tinubu suggested that the Buhari administration should recruit at least 50 million youths into the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“This will boost Nigeria’s fight against terrorism, banditry and all forms of internal and external security threats confronting the nation.
“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 said.
On the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that more than 23 million Nigerians are jobless, Tinubu advised the federal government to create jobs for youths particularly in the agricultural value-chain.
“Don’t talk about illiteracy; anybody who can handle a gun, who can cock and shoot is technically competent to repair a tractor in the farm.
“I salute very creative youths in the country ….they are angry, they are showing their anger, but we will appeal to them.”
Commenting for the first time since secessionist agitations mount especially in the Southwest, Tinubu explained that he decided to his birthday colloquium to Kano to prove to Nigerians that the Yoruba and Fulani were united.
“Why are we in Kano? It is to demonstrate to Nigerians at this critical time. It is because there is a Fulani man, a herder (man) who gave his daughter to a farmer, (a) Yoruba man… and some people are agitating wrongly,” the 2023 presidential aspirant pointed out.
The marriage of the daughter of Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje and the son of the late Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, which took place in Kano in 2018 is a case in point.
According to Tinubu, this demonstrates the unity between people of different ethnic groups.
Persecondnews reports that bad weather had prevented dignitaries including the President of Liberia, Mr George Weah and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as well as governors to attend the occasion.
Also stranded at Abuja airport were
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha and Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) and Dapo Abiodun (Ogun).
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and his Interior Ministry counterpart, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, could not make it to Kano because of the weather as they all
joined the event virtually.
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