September 24, (THEWILL) – On the golden jubilee of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, last May, prominent Nigerians made a passionate plea that the one-year programme for Nigerian graduates of universities and polytechnics be scrapped. Others argued in favour of trimming down the number of corps members and making it voluntary rather than mandatory.
One of those in favour of paring down the number of corps members is Prof Attahiru Jega, erstwhile Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. He had his reasons. First, serving corps members are grossly underpaid, according to the former head of an institution relying majorly on the services of serving corps members for carrying out most of its electoral duties and responsibilities.
Describing the allowance paid corps members as “very shameful,” Jega then went on to suggest that “government should substantially increase the funding provisions and ensure security of corps members in their areas of deployment.”
The former INEC boss should know that the security of corps members matters a lot, considering that some of them were consumed by electoral violence when he was the presiding officer of the electoral body.
To the dismay of Nigerians, violence against the young men and women of NYSC has not stopped. If anything, it has escalated and alarmingly so. Just last week, suspected bandits abducted eight NYSC members somewhere in Zamfara State.
The corps members were on their way to an NYSC orientation camp in Sokoto State. They never got to their base. The kidnappers ambushed the vehicle in which they were travelling and then took the hapless corps members away. Not long afterwards, they demanded the sum of N4 million to release them.
On March 9, 2020, terrorists abducted four youth corps members along Funtua/ Guasau Road. Like last week’s inhuman abduction, the corps members were on their way to orientation camp. Thankfully, security personnel rescued the kidnapped corps members, two days later, on March 11.
For as the spokesperson for Katsina Police Command, Isa Gambo, said at the time, the release of the corps members could not have been effected without the cooperation of repentant bandits who helped to smoke out their comrade-in-arms.
The recent abduction is proof that such spontaneous acts of violence against youth corps members is still a national security challenge. Bandits honing in on soft targets is as old as terrorism. Faced with the superior firepower of the military, bandits sometimes keep themselves in action by focusing their sightlines on innocent, non-combatant citizens. It is reprehensible and condemnable on the part of the bandits.
Although seeking maximum damage in their misguided ideological fight against Nigeria and Nigerians, bandits, terrorists, Boko Haram or whatever name they go by have perfected the art of surprising and raiding out-of-the-way schools in far-flung places. Chibok, Dapchi, Kankara are just a few examples.
Now, with security beefed up in such institutions across the country, the bandits have turned their attention elsewhere: youth corps members in transit. In an opinion article published soon after the abduction, Ejiofor Alike, writing in THISDAY blames NYSC’S insensitivity.
“The controversy trailing the recent abduction of eight members of the National Youth Service Corps by bandits on a highway in Zamfara State is a reflection of the insensitivity on the part of the leadership of the NYSC, which has sustained its old policy of deploying young graduates to far-flung locations when the country’s highways are no longer safe,” he stated.
So, what is to be done to prevent future abductions of corp members? The Federal Government must now consider, as a matter of top priority, the safety of corps members anywhere in the country – on the road to orientation camps and while serving in their places of primary assignment. Without that, guardians may not be too enthusiastic about sending their children for national service in other parts of the country only for hard-eyed bandits to pick them up for ransom . In other words, however much the scheme means to Nigeria, no sane parent will prefer the option of terrorists literarily holding a gun to their head, forcing them to pay up or else…
In addition, in Jega’s view when NYSC turned 50 in May, “the future prospects of the NYSC would depend on addressing the identified challenges and constraints and appropriately repositioning it, consistent with global best practices. We should learn from such best practices to reposition the NYSC for a more impactful contribution to Nigeria’s national development in the decades to come.”
Outside viable security measures in place for corps members provided by the relevant authorities, the scheme might just witness an unexpected end, thus defeating the purpose for which it was set up in May 1973.
