The Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, has said that the compulsory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme should be extended to two years.
Ishaku made this assertion on Wednesday, July 7 when he featured on Channels Tv program, ‘Politics Today’ .
According to the governor, the corps members should undergo one year military training and another year for social work.
He said the Youth Corps members should undergo military training in order to know how to handle guns for self-defence as insecurity has continued to spike in the country.
“When the security can’t protect you, then something in the alternative must come in, we must be practical. Train people, give them practical induction, let them know what to do.
“The NYSC I will say should be two years. One year for compulsory military training and the other year for the social works that they are doing now so that anybody who graduates as an NYSC person can know how to handle the gun and defend himself just as it is done in Israel, Lebanon and other places, you must engage your citizens to be proactive. When you cannot provide security, you must allow the people to protect themselves” the governor said.
Ishaku further questioned how an ordinary man could afford expensive weapons , noting that bandits and terrorists were sponsored as they make use of brand new AK 47 rifles.
“There are sponsors, these are brand new AK-47s. How would a local man buy such an expensive weapon? It is in a video and all over the place where someone confessed that the guns were being given to them and they were being trained on how to use them. It is the work of the security agents to get to the roots of this.
“If they can go out of this country and capture somebody who is declaring independence, why is it impossible for them to defend our people who are being killed in the farms?” Ishaku queried on the re-arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He added that insecurity in the region and in all parts of the country can be defeated when the political class and the security agents stamp their feet on the ground and are ready to end the menace.