Former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu has recanted his statement recommending enlistment of 50 million Nigerian youths into the army, saying it was a slip of tongue.

Tinubu made the statement at his 12th colloquium in celebration of his 69th birthday in Kano on Monday afternoon.

The All Progressives Congress Chieftain has now clarified that he meant to say five million Nigerians should be recruited into the Nigerian Army to combat raging insecurity.

A statement released by his spokesman, Tunde Rahman, on Tuesday said the politician canvassed the urgent need to combine employment and national security policy by the recruitment of 5 million youths in all aspects of nation-building, ranging from infrastructural development to agricultural modernization.

“Asiwaju seeks the expansion of security personnel by 50,000 for the armed forces not the N50 million that was mentioned in error.

“The 50 million was an accidental verbal mistake of which we all commit from time to time especially when reciting a series of large numerical figures.

“Asiwaju Tinubu did not mean N50 million, which is almost a quarter of our total population but 50,000 into the security agencies”, the statement read.