The governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has suggested that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) should be deployed temporarily to support other security agents as Nigeria grapples with the problem of insecurity.
Fayemi made this suggestion on Tuesday while delivering a lecture titled ‘Security and National Unity in Difficult Times’ as part of the Babatunde Oduyoye Annual birthday, the seventh lecture series in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State.
The erudite governor of Ekiti State submitted further “Nigeria has less than 500,000 policemen and almost half are engaged in escort duties. We have never been able to meet the United Nations’ standards.
“Look, in Israel, when you finish your university programme, you must serve in the security forces of the country for at least two years after which you may decide to opt out. So, nothing should stop us in Nigeria from deploying corps members to serve as temporary security agents.”
Fayemi also used the opportunity to admonish fellow politicians to learn from the experience of last year’s devastating #EndSARS agitation.
“Those folks are already talking about the anniversary of #EndSARS. Those of us in positions of authority should not just assume that all is well. We must pay attention to what those youths are saying. We must listen beyond what the music is playing. We are already being overwhelmed with what I can call ‘youth explosion’.
The governor also touched the issue of the girl-child saying “we must take the issue of the girl-child serious. We must come up with a law that will make it compulsory for the girl-child to be educated up to Senior School Three (SS3). If this can happen, we will reduce the rate at which underaged girls are made to become parents. We are sure that any girl that completes SS3 will be between the ages of 17 and 18 and a little bit matured to manage child bearing processes. We really must make a move along this line to control our population”.
Fayemi then went on to pronounce that “Nigeria is in dire need of patriotic statesmen who are not tribalists or rumour mongers. We need statesmen who will not hide under religion to make bad decisions.”
While speaking about the celebrant, Honourable Babatunde Oduyoye, Fayemi said “Babs, as we call him is my friend. Some of you may be wondering why an APC governor is here to deliver a lecture to mark the birthday of the Special Adviser of Engineer Seyi Makinde, a PDP governor – I will say it here that Babs is my friend of several years. This is the way we should practice our democracy. Anyway, I will say here also that Babs is a good man with a good mind though he can be troublesome but his own kind of trouble is good trouble and we need it,” submitted Fayemi.
The event which was held at the International Conference Center, the University of Ibadan was attended also by the governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, former Senate President, Dr Adolphus Wabara, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Engineer Dotun Sanusi of Ilaji Farms, Princess Bola Doherty, Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon Adebo Ogundoyin, Dr Saka Balogun, Barrister Sarafadeen Ali, Dr Gbola Adetunji, Hon Sikiru Sando of Oyo ALGON, members of the Oyo State Executive Council and several others.
Packaged by Olayinka Agboola
