NYSC, perennial abductions, and the need for a reset

To reduce the risk of exposing prospective corps members to the rigours of long-distance road trips and the country’s deepening security crisis, the federal government approved a new National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) deployment arrangement in June. The main goal of the reform is to deploy and post corps members closer to their places of residence or within their states, hence reducing the risks associated with travelling long distances amid insecurity

However, months after the Federal Executive Council approved the new deployment arrangement, there is no indication that the NYSC has begun implementing it, as graduates are still forced to grapple with the issues and challenges that necessitated the review of the existing posting arrangements in the first place.

The release of the prospective corps members abducted in Imo State on October first came as a reprieve for a troubled citizenry amid a mélangé of socio-economic woes and misfortune. While the corps members have regained their freedom, the challenges that created the conditions for the abduction of the victims are yet to be resolved. The rescue is laudable, but it is not enough to engender national apathy. It ends one ordeal. It does not end the problem.

A Troubling Pattern

This Imo abduction came 36 days after 15 prospective corps members were abducted on the Aloma-Egane Expressway in Ofu, Kogi State, on August 26. They were also rescued later. Earlier this year, corps member Musa Abba was kidnapped by bandits while travelling to Sokoto in January. That same month, Lateefah Binuyo was held for 10 days in Kogi on her way to orientation camp in Taraba. In May, lawyer and corps member Eunice Ameh was taken in Maitama, Abuja, and freed after a ransom was reportedly paid.

The victims of the Imo abduction came home alive. Other corps members who had similar unpleasant and jarring experiences in the past were not lucky.

What The Figures Say

The wave of corps members’ abduction, particularly in the last three years, is disconcerting. The numbers are unsettling. A report by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism found that at least 80 corps members were abducted between 2013 and 2023, with Rivers State accounting for half of the cases. So, it is not a problem that started with the current administration.

Another finding by Saturday PUNCH showed that more than 20 corps members were killed in attacks between 2015 and 2026.

For the first data, eighty abductions in ten years is an average of eight a year. In reality, the timeline of the incidents is different, as with the 20 in Imo, the 15 in Kogi and the 15 in Anambra in February 2023. One ambush and abduction can take a whole busload of young people at once. “At least” also means the real number could be higher, since not every case is reported.

For the second figure, More than 20 deaths in about eleven years means these were not only kidnappings for ransom. Young graduates paid the supreme price by being shot on the road, as in the 2022 gun battle on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway, where a corps member died.

Security analyst Chidi Omeje believes criminals are studying the calendar.

“Everyone has information about the mobilisation of corps members,” he told Punch, and criminals can use it to coordinate and plan attacks. Corps members travel on known dates, along known routes, often in groups. That makes them sitting ducks for men of ugly intentions.

Service is mandatory for many young graduates, and they don’t really have control over where they are posted. A scheme that sends people into harm’s way has a duty to protect them.

Safety Must Be Prioritised

Nigeria is steeped in a deepening security crisis. The NYSC was created to foster unity, social cohesion and national integration, and that objective and vision are lofty and remarkable. But it cannot trump or take precedence over the lives of the people the scheme is designed for. A dead or traumatised corps defeats the very essence of the programme.

Experts believe change is imperative. Security expert Olalekan Jackson-Ojo said the scheme’s integration goal is being undermined by the failure to guarantee safety.

He suggested that corps members serve within their own states or regions instead of being sent to far-flung enclaves and insecurity-ravaged areas, and warned that failing to review the policy could threaten the scheme’s survival.

Educationist Dele Olapeju said parents are losing confidence, and more of them are asking for their children to be redeployed. He urged the government to avoid posting corps members to risky areas, rather than scrapping the scheme.

Their points are logical, reasonable and sound. There is no need to scrap the NYSC. But the Federal Government and the NYSC should implement the new posting and deployment arrangement approved by FEC in June.

To put it, and to the harrowing experience graduates go through to obey the clarion call and serve their fatherland, corps members are being sent out to areas with active kidnapping threats. Areas prone to kidnapping must be rid of criminal elements, especially during mobilisation and deployment periods. It is also important to transport prospective corpers to where they are posted in more conducive and safer travel arrangements instead of leaving them at the mercy of commercial buses.

The rescue in Imo is a welcome development, but the country can not afford to dilly-dally and wait for the next abduction to act or just hope that things will change without taking conscious and decisive measures to address and put an end to the nefarious and despicable acts of criminal elements. If this pattern is allowed to become our new normal, graduates will boycott the scheme, parents will keep their children away, and the scheme will continue to lose national appeal and public trust. There is no better time to reset the NYSC than now.

The post NYSC, perennial abductions, and the need for a reset appeared first on WITHIN NIGERIA.