Even when I was not too sure it will be done, I gave her all necessary assurances, if only to put her mind at rest that “something” would be done before her three-week orientation camp exercise.
My cousin is not alone in this agony. Out of nearly 83,000 corps members mobilised for this batch, nearly half of them have in the last few days been telling those who care to listen that their lives are more precious than the national service. In fact, between Monday and yesterday, hundreds of corps members laid siege to the national headquarters of the NYSC in Maitama, Abuja, protesting their posting to what they called “different states of terrorists”. Some concerned parents and members of civil society groups have also reacted, calling on the federal government not to post corps members to crisis states or, in alternative, scrap the NYSC.
Except people who have no human feelings many people share the grief and fear of Faith and thousands of other corps members who, in the last few days have been protesting their posting to states like Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna, Yobe, Borno, Jigawa, Niger and Plateau. Why not? A country that does not care about them, a nation that does not care about their four or five years of suffering in their various higher institutions is not worth dying for. Come to think of it, how many Nigerians still remember Teidi Tosin Olawale, Nkwazema Anslem, Okpokiri Obinna Michael, Adowei Elliot, Adewumi Seun Paul, Adeniji Kehinde Jehled, Gbenjo Ebenezer Ayotunde, Ukeoma Ikechukwu Chibuzor and Akonyi Ibrahim Sule today? Does the NYSC still remember these people? Perhaps no. They were corps members posted to Bauchi State in 2011 for their national service and later got slaughtered by some evil men or devil incarnates masquerading as supporters of a political party protesting the alleged rigging of the 2011 presidential election in the north. To say that the affected states are not safe for corps members is to put it mildly. States that have sucked so much blood of innocent souls in the last one year or so can never be safe for people. The NYSC, the Ministry of Youth Development and, indeed, President Goodluck Jonathan must do something about it urgently.
My fear for my cousin and many others increased last night when my colleague drew my attention to a text message sent to her by the ravaging terrorist group in our country today. The text suggested that the group has evil intention to attack corps members posted to the north any moment from now. I am not ready to dismiss this threat of the gang, and the security agencies should not also. Because I know that anytime the gang sends that kind of text to my colleague, members of the sect always strike. Read the unedited text message from the terrorist gang: “It has been made clear that “Western Education Is Evil (BH)” yet de NYSC is bent on posting d Kafirs & Mushrikuns corpers to our state. Kill, Kill.”
Going by the content of the text, it is obvious that the deadly group is not happy with the posting of corps members to the north because of their western education and they are likely to be attacked. This is one issue the security agencies and the NYSC must not take lightly. Urgent steps must be taken to nip the evil plans of this blood-thirsty gang. We are tired of mourning; we are tired of hearing that the “federal government will investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to book”. Enough is now enough!
Like many Nigerians, I believe the NYSC was callous and insensitive to human kind when they decided to mobilise corps members to the crisis-ridden states. I can assure you that none of relations of senior staff members of the NYSC was sent to the affected states. And we must not give the wrong impression that those sent to the affected states have no right to life. They have.
Records have it that the NYSC is an organisation set up by law to involve the nation’s graduates in the development of the country. Even though there is no military conscription in Nigeria, since 1973 graduates of universities and later polytechnics have been required to take part in the NYSC programme for one year – in what has been known as national service year. In line with the set goals of the agency, corps members are posted to cities far from their city of origin. They are expected to mix with people of other tribes, social, religious and family backgrounds, to learn the culture of the indigenes of the place they are posted to. This action is aimed to bring about unity and social integration among different groups in the country and to help youths appreciate other ethnic groups. The three-week “orientation” period they are expected to spend in a camp away from their families and friends was to enable them mix freely. No doubt, the programme has helped in creating entry level jobs for a lot of Nigerian youth. An NYSC forum dedicated to the NYSC members was recently built to bridge the gap among members serving across Nigeria and also an avenue for corps members to share job information and career resources as well as getting loans from the National Directorate Of Employment for productive ventures. But events in the last few years are making the agency very useless. And it is high time the federal government reviewed the Act setting it up and, if necessary, scrap it.
SOURCE: 3 July 2012.
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