Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, said the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme should be a two-year programme so that corps members can undergo military training.
Ishaku declared this on Wednesday when he featured in Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme.
The Governor said at the end of the military training, ex-corps members would be able to handle guns for self-defence.
Ishaku added that since the government cannot provide sufficient security, citizens should be engaged to protect themselves.
He said,
“If you leave me, the NYSC, I will say it should be two years; one year for compulsory military training and the other year for the social works that they are doing now.
“This is so that anybody who graduates as an NYSC person can know how to handle a gun, can know how to defend himself, just like it is done in other countries like in Israel, Lebanon and other places.
“You must engage your citizens to be proactive when you cannot provide the security. You must allow them to protect themselves. Constitution or no constitution, you must first be alive.”
Ishaku also requested the Federal Government to train those residing in border communities on how to use guns so that they can protect themselves against banditry and kidnapping.
The Governor further said that such communities should not be left to the caprices and whims of gunmen if the government cannot protect them.
He said,
“I will still request the Federal Government that those who are at the border regions and those villages that are hard to reach, they must teach them how to use guns to protect themselves.
“You can’t leave human beings like that; at the whims and caprices of somebody who moves with an AK-47. This is wrong. They should train 10 or 20 people in each village along the axis of the boundaries.”
