Dr Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State and the Chairman, Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF), has said the security situation in the country requires concerted effort to address it.
Fayemi spoke at an event in Ibadan said the present situation in the country didn’t warrant politics of blame and opportunistic opposition, but “it is time to build a nation and not to fritter it away.”
According to him, one way to bring the current wave of insecurity to a halt is to recruit a large number of people to join the police and the military, on a short service or otherwise.
He pointed out that that one of the cheapest and fastest ways to handle this was to amend the law setting up the Nation Youths Service Corps (NYSC).
The Governor explained that the existing orientation camps can be used to train willing and able graduates to reflate the security personnel under a special arrangement that will be worked out.
He said corps members who cannot join the military services can serve in their community without pay.
“By available statistics, we need 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.
“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.
“To incentivize those who may volunteer to serve, they will have a separate certificate and medal of honor in addition to having priority for military, paramilitary and civil or public service recruitment after service.