The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has advocated that comprehensive social protection measures must be put in place to remove unemployed youths from the streets.
Tinubu gave the advice when he paid a solidarity visit on Monday to Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum over the massacre of rice farmers by Boko Haram insurgents late last month.
Zulum also played host on Tuesday to a high-powered delegation of the nation’s traditional rulers led by the Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar.
The former Lagos State governor argued that social protection measures would help make unemployed youths unavailable to evildoers for recruitment.
His words: “We have to remove these unemployed youths from the streets, from being available for evildoers for recruitment. Don’t tell me they are illiterates, anybody that can operate Keke NAPEP and do little repairs, anybody that can hold guns, dismantle guns and service it is no more an illiterate.”
Noting that the insurgence in the Northeast had festered for too long, he admonished the military to fashion out fresh strategies to end the killings in the zone, especially in Borno State.
He said: “We have been on this (Boko Haram) issue for some time, We have seen the reaction of the Federal Government and we have seen the reaction of the Armed Forces. This is no longer a conventional warfare; this is more tactical and more reason.
“In such a situation, what we do is to re-plan our strategy. We have seen the governor has been attacked on more than one occasion in an effort to eliminate him but Allah is mighty. He has protected and will continue to protect him.”
The APC leader also stressed that the killings by insurgents were neither a doctrine of Islam nor of Christianity.
He said: “We saw people who have endured so much agony, denial and brutality decided to run to their farms to develop means of livelihood not only for themselves but for all of us, in the end, they were slaughtered.
“That’s not a religion, it is not in our religion (Islam), it is not in Christianity either, it is an act of wickedness. I want His Excellency and members of the state executive to see this visit, not as a condolence only, not a sympathy only, but as solidarity and commitment that we must defeat all evildoers.”
Tinubu pointed out that under insurgency, governance would hardly excel because no leader would be able to concentrate and innovate
“You can’t concentrate or become innovative and excel if you have to make educational development in fear,” he said, describing Zulum as a man who “combines talent and character.”
”Prof. Zulum… is a man of courage, brilliance, talent plus great character. Is a different thing for one to be talented, and another to have character. Zulum is a man who is talented combined with great character and courageously takes the responsibility of governance without looking back,” he added.
Zulum, in his response, appreciated what he indicated was to him, a special visit by Tinubu.
During their visit, the traditional rulers asked the military to chase out the insurgents from the Lake Chad Basin and Sambisa Forest.
The monarchs, under the umbrella of the National Council of Traditional Rulers in Nigeria told Zulum that their presence in Maiduguri was more than a condolence visit but to make a statement that they were tired of the bloodshed in the country.
Their leader, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, said: “So many lives have been lost in the past, we can’t even compute how many lives we have lost.
“We have written papers, sent our governors, discussed with all our leaders on the way forward. The killings have taken new dimensions and we really don’t know what are the causes of these mass killings of innocent people.
“We decided to come together as a council of traditional rulers to make this statement to all and sundry, not only to the governor of Borno State, but to all our governors. Let’s rise up to the occasion and see how we can come together to fight this menace of shedding innocent people’s blood.”
The monarchs included Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemaka Alfred Ugochukwu; Oba Adekunle Adebayo, Ore of Otin; the Emir of Hadeja, Dr. Adamu Abubakar Maje; the Emir of Fika, Mohammed Abale Ibn Mohammed Idrissa and Amanyanabo of Opobo Kingdom, King Dandasen Douglas Jaja.

By Duku Joel