How many of our students need to be abducted or killed while trying to fulfill the one-year compulsory National Youth Services programme before the Federal Government that sends them on the journey of uncertainty scraps the service, or find ways of guaranteeing the safety of the youths while they are rendering the so-called national service?  

Who among us would remain sane, after passing through the valley of the shadows of death, to train a beloved child in the university, only to see the child die unnecessarily at the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, camp or abducted by terrorists on his or her way to the camp? 

Abduction of NYSC members, their avoidable deaths in their camps, or their shooting by trigger-happy security agents while going to or returning from their places of primary assignments, have become recurring incidents in our national life. 

The most recent were eight young graduates from Akwa Ibom State who were kidnapped on August 17, 2023 while travelling to an orientation camp in Sokoto State where they were deployed for their National Youth Service programme. 

Parents of these abducted young graduates have reportedly been contacted recently by the kidnappers and asked to pay N10 million each as ransom for the release of the victims. According to some of the parents, so far, they have been able to cough out a total of N30.8m and sent to the abductors. Yet, their children have not been released. The kidnappers are demanding that the parents pay another N70 million! 

As usual, the Federal Government which compelled those youths to go and serve in parts of the country where there is little or no security, has abandoned them to their fates in the hands of the terrorists. The poor parents are now running from pillar to post selling their lands and other property to pay the ransom money. 

The list of other NYSC members who lost their lives in the service is long: Miss Joel Grace Chalya was murdered in Kaduna on October 18, 2023; Maryjane Onoriode was kidnapped in September 2023 by gunmen who demanded N5 million ransom. Twenty-five-year-old Gideon Bitrus Gijuwa, serving in Abuja, was on June 8, 2023 stabbed to death at Mararaba, a border town between the FCT and Nasarawa State, by unknown persons. 

In June 2023, five corps members, on their way to their place of primary assignment in Calabar, died in a motor accident. In July 2022, Eunice Igweike was killed while travelling to the NYSC orientation camp in Sagamu, Ogun State.