The ex-governor of Lagos rendered this piece of advice to Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Muhammadu Buhari at the 12th Bola Tinubu Colloquium which held in Kano on Monday, March 29, 2021.

Nigeria's unemployment rate currently stands at 33.3% and 23.2 million Nigerians--most of them young people--are currently jobless.

“Recruit 50 million youths into the army, take away from their (the bandits’) recruitment source,” Tinubu said.

“What they will eat? Cassava, corn, yam in the afternoon… it is grown here. You create demand and consumption for over five million army of boot camps,” he added.

Tinubu who is rumoured to be eyeing the Nigerian presidency ahead of the 2023 general elections, also said he understands the rage from young Nigerians on social media.

“When you see social media these days, you find the very creative mind of Nigerians. I salute you; I salute our youths,” he said.

“They are angry, they are showing their anger but we will appeal to them to listen to our sisters and brothers here teaching us how to get them engaged. Maybe some of us are old-fashioned but if you don’t mix it too, the agitations can be dangerous.

“You have to mix it so that Nigeria is handled carefully. We can promote unity and common destiny in a better, more creative way; something we’ve done very well in Lagos state can be brought to bear in the entire country one of these days,” he added.

He also advised President Buhari to spend big to revive a flailing economy and not to listen to economists proffering austerity measures.

“This is not the time for austerity measures. Americans are spending $1.9 trillion and are not looking back and are still looking at spending $3 trillion for infrastructure... I hope the national assembly and the president himself will not pay attention to austerity," Tinubu rendered.

The colloquium had as its theme: “Our Common Bond, Our Common Wealth: the imperative of national cohesion for growth and prosperity," and was chaired by President Buhari.