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Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman, Nigeria Governors Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has proposed immediate recruitment of 200,000 personnel into the various arms of the national security apparatus to beat down the intractable wave of insecurity in the country.
The exercise, the governor, an internationally renowned strategic issues expert, also suggested, could start with a modification of the National Youth Service Corps Scheme, towards selection, training and enlistment of willing corps members for deployment into the Armed Forces and other security agencies.
The novel idea, Fayemi, reasoned, would easily solve the twin problems of logistics and funding that could handicap its realisation, as only a little more funding would be required to bolster the scheme, while the existing orientation camps would serve as training grounds for the newly recruited officers.
The Ekiti governor spoke yesterday in Ibadan amid concerns at the current alarming insecurity siege across the country.
He said: “There are two things that we need to address quickly to bring the current wave of insecurity to a halt.
“We need to have a conversation on how we can recruit a large number of people to join the police and the military, even on a short service or otherwise.
“By available statistics, we need a minimum of 200,000 personnel to boost the fighting power of our men.
“This number is very large and a potential financial and logistic nightmare, yet we cannot delay any further.
“The ungoverned spaces need to be closed up quickly by motivated men with the singular objective to save the nation.
“That takes us to the number two issue of financing and arming large recruitment.”
“With this, we can use the existing orientation camps to train willing and able graduates to reflate the security personnel under a special arrangement that will be worked out.
“That way, the fund that is currently deployed to the NYSC can be used with just some additional funding, which could be sourced through a national emergency fund for the next five to 10 years.
“Those who cannot join the military services can serve in their community without pay if we must still retain the NYSC for everyone.
“To incentivise those who may volunteer to serve, they will have a separate certificate and medal of honour in addition to having priority for military, paramilitary and civil or public service recruitment after service.”
Speaking on divisive comments, the governor urged politicians to fashion out a new way of communicating their politics beyond the now obnoxious resort to ethnic jingoism, sectarian and divisive rhetoric, adding: “Nigeria needs patriots and not ethnic crisis entrepreneurs who see everything from the prism of ethnic and religious conspiracy.”