By Emma Ujah & Caleb Ayansina

Perhaps, had Labaran Maku, Information and Communication Minister, been one of the bereaved parents of youth corps members who lost their lives in the wake of the violence that erupted after the April, 2011, general elections, he would not have spoken so gleefully about an assurance by the federal government to parents whose children are now being posted to troubled areas in Nigeria’s North East geo-political zone.

Maku said parents should not fret that their children are being posted to places like Borno or Yobe or Bauchi or, lately, Kaduna and Kano, to serve the nation as corps members – he said this shortly after the Executive Council of the Federation, EXCOF, meeting of last Wednesday.  Already, most parents have caused their children to reject postings to these troubled areas.

The wanton destruction of lives and property in many states of Northern Nigeria, by Islamic fundamentalists has created fresh problems for the management of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, led by Brig. Gen Nnamdi Okore-Affia.

There was palpable apprehension among  prospective 2012 Batch ‘B’ corps members until last week, when the call-up letters were released.  The heartless killing of corps members in Bauchi and Borno states were all too fresh on the minds of Nigerians and coupled with the escalating attacks by Islamic extremists, the concern for the personal safety of corps members can be appreciated.

Brig. Gen. Okore-Affia is now battling to save the principle of equitable distribution of corps members among the states of the federation on the one hand and ensuring the personal safety of each corps member, on the other.  The one-year National Service which was established, by former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, in 1973, shortly after the Nigerian Civil War to foster national integration. The programme is now threatened by insecurity.

The NYSC helmsman recognizes the challenges the scheme now faces and had in February promised not to send corps members to volatile states, unless governors of such states take responsibility for their personal safety.

“Any of the volatile states that want corps members to be posted to there must write with firm assurance of adequate security and would bear the consequences of any threat to the security of the corps members,” Gen. Affia said at the unveiling of a new posting policy of the NYSC.

The D-G had also said earlier, while assuming office “young Nigerian graduates are trained by their parents, 4/ 5/6 years in the university, in pursuance of this educational obligation are set out irrespective of where they come from, lining them up and killing them is not part of agenda of integration.

“We will not in any way expose these young men and women to death; we will not waste them because of the obligation”, he said.

Okore-Affia added that corps members are not armed to defend themselves; therefore, any crisis-prone state will not receive any corps member.

He stressed, “Any of the volatile states that want corps members to be posted to their states must write with firm assurance of adequate security and would bear the consequences of any threat to the security of the corps members”.

In that spirit, then Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, as a result of outbreak of crisis in Yobe and Borno States directed the immediate redeployment of 2011 Batch ‘C’  who were posted to the states, to other parts of the country after they completed their mandatory induction exercise in Nasarawa and Benue States.

He said, “No corps members under the current batch ‘C’ should be posted back to the two states after their camp activities in Nasarawa and Benue States.

“I observed the on-going controversy and confusion over the fate of would-be corps members originally posted to the two States. I wish to state clearly that no new corps member would be posted to these states under the current ‘Batch C’ mobilization of corps members”.

Although governors of various states in the North have been giving assurances that they would ensure the safety of corps members, these assurances no longer carry weight, considering the fact that even those governors are themselves targets of attacks.

It was therefore not a surprise that a large number of corps members who were posted to the North stormed the Yakubu Gowon House headquarters of the NYSC, last week.  Their message was very clear.  They won’t accept their posting to the North.  To them, being posted to the North was a death sentence.  Even those posted to some states in the North West and North Central were scared to report to camp because according to them North is North.

“We prefer to die here instead of being killed by Boko Haram in the North”, some of them told journalists.

The peaceful protest which started Friday June 29 marked the climax of agitation by parents and the corps members to avert the recurrence of killing of NYSC members.

The plea by some NYSC staff, for them to report to their camp and commence redeployment process fell on deaf ears.

“I have started by camping here since Friday last week, when I complete my 3 week orientation exercise, I will go back home if they don’t do any thing”, a protester told Vanguard. “Let them give exemption letter, that is better than serving in Borno State”, another concluded.

Most of the protesters were mainly from south-south, south-east and south-west, who said “even routes to the camps are more deadly than camp; we don’t know any short-cuts”.

Investigations have shown that many parents have refused to release their children for the service, saying that they would rather miss the service than go to a state where there is bombing and killing every day.

File photo: The NYSC Batch ‘B’ Corps Members At Their Passing -Out Parade At Murtala Muhammed Square, Kaduna on Thursday.photo by Olu Ajayi

Some of those posted to the perceived troubled states are frantically visiting hospitals, looking for health certificates to present as reason why they must be redeployed to other states.

Meanwhile, the Director of Mobilisation, Mrs Mercy Kolajo, while addressing the protesters, explained that corps members have to report to camp first before they could talk of relocation, insisting that they could not do redeployment in the headquarters, except the state coordinators after they might have filled the redeployment form.

“The 2012 batch ‘B’ prospective corps members who have collected their call-up letters from their institutions should immediately proceed to their respective orientation camps for registration and camping exercise. Whoever is interested in seeking relocation should make a request for relocation while in camp”.

Also, the Director of Press and Public Relation Unit, Mrs Abosede Aderibigbe, confirmed that any corps member who feels threatened has right to apply for redeployment, maintaining that loitering around the headquarters will not assist corps members.

She said: “We cannot force parents to release their children. If they are not releasing them, their children can wait for the next batch, but we can assure that there is not going to be a problem in our camps.

“And it is the right of those wanting to be redeployed, but they must first resume at the orientation camps for registration because we cannot redeploy unregistered corps members”.

Reps directs cancelling of NYSC posting to N/E
The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, directed Corps headquarters to cancel all posting of corps members to states in the North East which are facing security challenges.

Also in its resolution on a motion moved by a member, Mr Peter Edeh, under matters of urgent public importance, the House has further directed the NYSC to maintain such stance until the security threats in the affected states have been satisfactorily addressed.

The Reps however asked corps members who opted to serve in the troubled states to be   allowed to do so.
Hon Edeh explained that the call for cancellation of all corps members’ posting to the troubled states was further necessitated by the fact that corps members were “ill-equipped and ill-trained to defend themselves” in the face of unprovoked attacks.

His submissions were corroborated by Minority Leader of the House, Hon Femi Gabjabiamila, who argued that the notion that corps members must serve outside their states of origin was wrong, as according to him, framers of the NYSC Act did not envisage such threats to lives of innocent Nigerian youths.

He said where there are obvious security threats there was nothing wrong to temporarily leave out crisis-prone areas in the posting of corps members.

Similarly, Hon. Bitrus Kaze said the call was in order. Recalling the experiences of the post-election violence in which corps members were specifically targeted and killed, the lawmaker said the move was to protect the lives of innocent Nigerian youths.

However, Ahmed Kaita and Kyari Gujbawu who opposed the motion argued that it was not in tandem with the philosophy of the NYSC scheme.

While according to Kaita, the action would defeat the purpose of the scheme, Bujubawa cautioned that if complied with, it would set a dangerous precedence, adding that the security agencies should rather be urged to step-up their operations to guarantee the security of the corps members when posted.

When the question was put to vote by Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha who presided over the session, members unanimously voted for the motion.