AS the nation basks in the euphoria of the  inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan and  states governors, it is mix feeling for  the parents of “NYSC 10” – the ten National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, members who were butchered like animals by rioters in some Northern states of the country in the aftermath of the crisis which trailed the April 16, 2011 presidential election.

Theirs is the battle to suppress the sorrow occassioned by the death of their loved ones,  bringing to the fore the need to review the NYSC Act.

When the military government of General Yakubu Gowon promulgated the NYSC decree, it was never envisioned that the entire process will ever cause parents sorrow of any kind except overwhelming happiness that their children have graduated from institutions of higher learning and, are now serving their father land for a year before going into the world in search of jobs. Even as at that time, they were not searching for jobs, so to say, as the jobs were waiting for them after their service year.

These days, the jobs have disappeared, and when the young men and women complete their service year, they either go on with the ugly daily labourer work or go to apprentice workshops to start learning new trade to survive. Only an insignificant number, which mainly come from the North, get good jobs after their service.

From the outset, the procedure of the NYSC programme is by inter-regional posting. Usually, corps members who attended schools in the South would be posted to the North to serve, and those from the North come to the South for their service year. It is like a reshuffling exercise.

I think the framers of this procedure probably have in mind that the young men and women should have a taste and experience of their fellow country people in the different geopolitical zones, which is good. Today, the exercise has failed to guarantee the safety of lives of the young enthusiastic men and women from the South.

The scenario as it is now is that NYSC corps members who are posted from North to the South to serve are treated like kings and queens with majority of them being retained where they served after the expiry of their service year while their counterparts from the South, are treated with utmost disdain and, more atrociously butchered like animals whenever there is political or religious upheaval in the North. This trend must stop now.

The killing of Southern NYSC members in the North must not continue. Northern NYSC corps members are enjoying in the South as rightly confirmed during the last jumat service in Asaba by the Chief Iman of the Muslim community in Delta State, Alhaji Umaru Haruna. Southerners are peace and harmony lovers.

They see their fellow Northerners as their brothers and sisters. Why is it that the Northerners don’t see the Southerners as their brothers and sisters? Are the Southerners and the Northerners not serving the same Almighty God, Jehovah, Allah? Why are the Northerners always perpetrating socio-political and religious schism? There was no riot in the South and no killing of the Northerners when the late former President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was elected as president of this country. In fact, he got overwhelming support and votes from the South.

Why is it that a Southern man was elected in an election widely adjudged to be free and fair in Nigeria and the Northerners started killing Southerners? They even made up their minds to truncate the presidential inauguration but for the timely intervention of security personnel!

It will be better, I suggest, that as President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan begins the business of governance, he should make it a priority for the enabling act establishing and spelling the procedure of the NYSC programme be reviewed. Let the Southerners serve in the South and let the Northerners remain in the North. It will not stop the Northerners from benefiting from the Southern crud oil resource which is the main economic resources of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Are the Northerners not enjoying the wealth of oil resources from the South?

Why can’t the Northerners reciprocate the good brotherly gesture of the Southerners?  Southern NYSC corps members should serve in the South while Northern NYSC corps members should serve in the North. This is the only way to stop the killings of the Southerner NYSC corps members in the North. It will also ameliorate the religious intolerance prevalent in the North. Let us do it this way and urgently too, to avoid further massacre of Southern NYSC corps members in the North.

Mr. JOSEPH ATSEYINKU , a commentator  on national  issues, wrote from Sapele, Delta State.