The NYSC, Security And Deaths Of Corps Members

YOUTH CORPERS.

The deaths of corps members in road traffic accidents, sectarian violence and other forms of disasters in recent times, particularly beginning from the aftermath of the November 2008 Jos crisis during which three corps members were killed, seem to have thrown up an anti-NYSC sentiments (or is it campaign?) sometimes in very unexpected circles.

It is understandable if the parent or relation of a corps member cut down in the prime of youth, particularly during selfless service to his fatherland, makes statement which are at valiance with logic or reality because no parent would derive joy from burying his child, particularly the one he had spent so much resources to bring up and hope with time to take care of him and other members of the family.

But when such views suggesting the scrapping of the scheme, based on some operational problems or natural occurrences come from those who should appreciate the numerous laudable achievement the scheme has made towards national growth and development the situation becomes worrisome. It is the prayer of staff and corps members that God should grant repose to the souls of all the gallant young men and women who have died in active service of their fatherland and give succor to the loved ones they left behind to bear the pains of their premature departures.

The decree (now on Act of Parliament) which established the NYSC gave various responsibilities to the operators, that is the managers of the scheme, as well as the three tiers of government-federal, state and local. One area that the scheme has received knocks is the orientation camp. The provision and development of camps is the sole responsibility of the state governments.

Though the scheme is now 36 years old, some state governors still claim ignorance of this provision in the NYSC Act. When problem arise in this area, instead of drawing the attention of the state governments to it, the NYSC is vilified for "camping people’s children in decrepit hostels and unsecured camps". The current Director-General of the NYSC Brigadier-General M.I Tsiga was a captain and Military Assistant to a former Director-General from 1992-1994. The same old story of state governors claiming ignorance of their statutory responsibilities to the scheme which he heard when he accompanied his boss on courtesy visits to government houses then is still being told to him several years after as a general and director general.

However, following series of dialogues in appreciation of the laudable contributions of corps members, some state governments have provided modern camps for the induction of corps members, some are in the process and others are about commencing the process, while a few others may not just be bothered. You and I know that the NYSC cannot force state government to provide conductive camping environment, the best it can do is to explore the dialogue option, which as I have said is yielding great results.

When hundreds of people died during the 2008 Jos crises, all the attention in the media was on the three corps members. Nobody seemed to care about the students, traders, lecturers, artisans and ordinary Nigerians who lost their lives while going about their predilection during that unfortunate incident. The President has directed that corps members should be given special protection wherever they are serving and live. The director-general, Brigadier General M.I Tsiga, followed this up with visits to state governors, security agencies, local government chairmen and other stakeholders to remind them to implement Mr. President’s directive. Yet corps members still get killed in crisis and questionable circumstances, the recent being the Maiduguri case. The public refrain is to scrap the NYSC as it can no longer guarantee security for its participants.

I think the debate arising from the innocent killing of any resident on the shores of Nigeria, whether a citizen or foreigner should be how to confront the general insecurity in the land, how to fortify the police and other security outfits to enable them to protect lives and property, how to find jobs for the army of unemployed youth whether in the North, South, East and West who easily and readily become tools in the hands of crises perpetrators rather than calling for the scrapping of the NYSC. Do we also scrap the police, scrap the army, scrap the intelligence agencies for their inability to detect and nip crises in the bud? The answer is obvious, no.

To demonstrate his intimacy with corps members General Tsiga’s hotline for them is open for 24 hours daily and they have been making maximum use of it. Before most security agencies got to know of the Boko Haram crises in Wudil (Kano) Bauchi and Maiduguri General Tsiga had already started directing corps members who phoned him to go to the nearest safe areas in police, army, customs and immigration barracks as well as palaces of traditional rulers. In addition he got in touch with commissioner of police, brigade and battalion commanders and comptrollers of immigration and customs to intimate them of the presence of corps members in their barracks. This of course is verifiable. How many undergraduates have access to their vice-chancellors, provosts and rectors telephone numbers not to talk of walking up from sleep to intimate them with their problems.

The NYSC has made landmark achievements that are worthy of celebration. A lot of schools, particularly in the rural areas in some parts of the country would close down without the regular supply of corps members in some core subjects. In very extreme cases corps members serve as principals, vice principals, heads of department, class teachers, games masters and mistresses. Except you live in Lagos, Abuja and some other big cities, you can easily verify this from the nearest secondary school around you. A lot of critics have wondered why the NYSC should post engineers, biochemists, lawyers, microbiologists and some other professionals to teach in schools.

First and foremost, the NYSC service year is not an internship where professionals acquire practical experience; it is for service in areas of critical national needs. Before qualifying as an engineer, for example, the participant would have sat for and passed the core science subjects of mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry and have pursued same at the university level. What is the use and importance of an engineer in a manufacturing concern when there are several junior and senior secondary schools in the rural areas with huge population of students but with one or no teacher at all in any of the core subjects above? There are several primary and secondary health centers in the rural arrears with just the corps health personnel in charge. And yet you want the NYSC scrapped?

The NYSC has problems, no doubt; but they are inflicted on it by those who aid and abet crises, private and government employers who use the services of corps members but refuse or fail to attend to their welfare needs, those who arm the youth in whatever guise-religion, ethnicity, politics to unleash violence on true or perceived opponents/enemies, those who have refused or failed to provide the facilities for the scheme to execute its mandate. We should begin to address the problems; some call it rot in education, health, politics, religion governance, security system, unemployment etc. We are wasting our precious time debating about the relevance or otherwise of the NYSC in isolation of the myriads of challenges facing the nation today.

Obomeile, former Chief Sub-Editor, Daily Times is the Director Public Relations at the NYSC Headquarters.