Endangered species: Over 50 corps members killed in 7 months

National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Director-General, Brig.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, at a recent workshop in Abuja organised for all protocol officers of the Corps, disclosed that measures have been put in place to guarantee corps members’ safety in line with the NYSC Act(2004).However, are corps members an endangered species? KEHINDE OSASONA seeks an answer in this piece.
The NYSC programme was established under Decree No.24 of May 22, 1973, via the NYSC Act, which came into being after the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, to properly integrate the country and heal the wounds of the war.
Meanwhile, statistics from the NYSC headquarters in Abuja show that at least 2.8 million corps members have so far passed through the NYSC scheme since inception over 40 years ago.
Among its goals, according to the Decree, is to promote ties among Nigerian youths and to further enhance national unity, tolerance and understanding.
The Scheme, as it were, was designed in such a way that upon graduation from higher institutions of learning in Nigeria, the graduates, including Nigerian students graduating from foreign institutions globally are sent to states in Nigeria to serve a mandatory Youth Service Corps programme for one year.
However, today, spate of killings occasioned by insecurity, extra-judicial killings, sectarian riots and kidnapping pervading the country’s landscape with Corp members at the receiving ends may have seemingly forced concerned Nigerians to assume that the ‘Once upon a lofty youth scheme Killing spree Blueprint Weekend recalls that in 2011, post-election violence that erupted in some parts of the northern part of the country after the Presidential election left in its wake many casualties who were mostly serving corps members posted to Bauchi state and other parts of the North like, Kaduna, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kano, Adamawa and Yobe states for their mandatory oneyear national service.
Some of the Corps members killed were: Teidi Tosin Olawale (from Osun state, B.Sc Computer Science); Nkwazema Anslem Chukwunonyerem (Imo state, HND Electrical Electronic Engineering), Okpokiri Obinna Michael (Abia state, B.Sc Environmental Management), Adowei Elliot (Bayelsa state, B.Sc Computer Science) and Adewunmi Seun Paul (Ekiti state, B.Sc, Social Sciences).
Others were Adeniji Kehinde Jehleel (Osun state, B.Sc Banking & Finance), Gbenjo Ebenezer Ayotunde (Osun state, B.Sc Education Economics), Ukeoma Ikechukwu Chibuzor (Imo state, B.Sc Medical Microbiology and Akonyi Ibrahim Sule (Kogi state, HND Business Administration).
The then P r e s i d e n t Goodluck Jonathan’s administration tried to placate the families of the victims with an immediate disbursement of token monetary compensation of N5 million, coupled with approval of an automatic employment in the Federal Civil Service for one graduate from each of the immediate families of the slain NYSC members.
The gesture, it would be recalled, was not enough to appease the bereaved families who have continued to cry for justice.
Consequently, as terror attacks continue to rip through northern Nigeria, and in order to forestall further killings of corps members in the affected states, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had announced the redeployment of corps members from seven northern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe.
One death, too many Penultimate months, the killing of a female corps member, Linda Angela Igwetu, in Abuja, threw up round of fresh questions on pervading insecurity and mindless killings of corps members that has plagued the country over the years.
The out-poured of emotion and reaction generated by the ghastly killing of 23-year-old Igwetu, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, gunned down by a triggerhappy policeman in company of her friends, a day to her passing out parade is yet to simmer.
According to report, the 23-yearold Igwetu “finished at work late at about 11pm and joined a few friends to a hang out before their Passing Out Parade (PoP) scheduled for the next day.
“She left for home at about 3am and was shot at shortly after the check point immediately after Ceddi Plaza by a Police Officer identified as Benjamin Peters.
The bullet hits Angela on her side, by the midriff and she began losing blood in the open roof vehicle.” Gale of rhetoric However, in allaying the fears of parents and guardians of corps members, the federal government has repeatedly assured the youth corps members of adequate safety during national assignment.
While eulogising corps members’ selfless roles and impact across the country; which has affected every sector positively, Osinbajo, had assured corps members deployed for the mandatory national service of adequate security and good welfare irrespective of their places of assignments.
In a message read at the closing ceremony of the orientation course for Batch ‘A’ Stream II of the National Youth Service Corps, in Osun state, in 2017.
Represented by the Osun state Commissioner for Empowerment and Youth Engagement, Mrs.
Folake Adegboyega, Osinbajo was quoted as saying that security agencies, traditional rulers, and respective state governments had been put on notice to ensure that the corps members were safe irrespective of any area they were posted to.
Continuing, he said: “I want to assure you of the federal government’s commitment to your safety and welfare wherever you may be posted.
“Security agents, traditional rulers, local government leaders have all been informed of your coming and are, therefore, prepared to receive you upon your arrival at various local government areas across the country.” Minister reassures In the same vein, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, recently re-assured corps members of their safety.
The minister, who made the appeal in Abuja at the Swearing in Ceremony of the 2017 Batch ‘B’ Stream II set of corps members at the Permanent Orientation Camp, Kubwa, said the federal government had deployed and assigned several security agencies to ensure the safety of corps members, but urging them to remain security conscious.
Represented by the chairman, NYSC FCT Governing Board, Alhaji Oladimeji Hassan, the minister advised corps members to always study their environments and report odd activities to security operatives.
NYSC angle Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the killing of over 200 persons in Plateau state by suspected armed herdsmen, the NYSC boss, Kazaure, revealed, at a recent workshop in Abuja for all protocol officers of the Corps, that arrangement was in place to guarantee corps members’ safety in line with the NYSC Act (2004).
According to him, NYSC staff have been tasked to make security an integral part of the planning process in all NYSC events by stepping up liaison with relevant agencies.
He also urged them to embrace new ideas in their approach to events management so as to conform to global trends and guarantee adequate security coverage.
Kazaure, who was represented by Mrs. Victoria Okakwu, the Corps’ Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, said: “NYSC is a human organisation.
We feel whatever happens in any part of the country.
Just the way we handled the insecurity of the Northeast, we will handle the situation in Plateau, Benue, and other volatile states.
“We are very responsive.
We will work in line with the NYSC Act to ensure that the lives of corps members are safe.
“We will not withdraw our corps members from Plateau but we have plans to guarantee their safety.
We cannot disclose the plans because security matters are not discussed in the open.” In another development, the NYSC declared recently that 95 per cent of deaths involving serving corps members were due to road accidents.
Kazaure, the Director General of NYSC, said this while addressing corps members observing their orientation camp course in Katsina state.
“Several serving corps members have been embarking on unnecessary journeys that led to their death.
“From the records before the Directorate, several corps members have lost their lives, while on fruitless journeys.
Need to amend NYSC Act? Against the backdrops of incessant killings of corps members across the country, stakeholders has continue to call for an amendment or review of the NYSC Act as way of proffering lasting solution to gruesome killings of corps members.
Speaking on the development, Emeka Umeagbalasi of International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, said that within the context of the recurring killings in the North, and in particular, the killings of corps members, there is need to examine the policy of posting of corps members.
According to him, since January 2011, over 50 corps members have been killed, yet none of their killers had been judicially held accountable.
He said: “Our firm position is that the federal government should drastically review the scheme of things within the NYSC Scheme, either by abolishing it or repositioning it to ensure equity and transparency.
“If the core Northern fresh graduates cannot go to the Southern part of the country to serve, and adequate security arrangements made to secure those in the core North, then let the Scheme be brought to end immediately.” Averting recurrence Ruing government’s position as far as the killings are concerned before the 2011 incident, one of the stakeholders in the country condemned the “apparent non-challant attitude of successive governments in bringing perpetrators of these dastard killings to justice.” According to Human Rights Watch, the past commissions of inquiry have failed to bring the culprits to book.
It said: “There have been commissions of inquiries set up in the past, but I don’t know what they did; that is why we are really skeptical.
I want to believe that if they had done justice, maybe a repeat of this wouldn’t have come.
This time justice should be done.
elections going by the experiences from Edo, Ondo and Ekiti elections.
But she was quick to add that massive advocacy is on to enlighten the electorate on the danger of selling their votes.
The female activist said: “In Ekiti, what we saw was ‘operation see and buy’.
In Edo, it was followed who knows road and make a pot of soup.
I pray and hope that in Osun and other places, it will not evolve.
Yes, one of the things that will shape the 2019 election is money.
“But there are other factors too.
For instance, IDPs camps have increased and now, we have more displaced persons than what we had in 2015.
But based on our rigour campaign and enlightenment, we foresee that this menace of vote buying will be at its lowest ebbs in 2019.
“As we are encouraging the electorate to vote, if they should come out in their numbers, they will overwhelm those who are trying to buy their votes.
If they are many, it will be practically impossible for anybody to pay for such huge amount of money to buy their votes’’.
Barrister Uzoma, who is also the National Coordinator, Proactive Gender Initiatives, also admitted that votebuying is currently a menace in Nigeria because there is hunger in the land.
The election decider As the 2019 elections gather momentum, Blueprint Weekend reliably gathered from a top ranked member of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) that the union would lay emphasis on salary payment, adding that any state governor who defaults in his salary obligation to the workers may be ‘consumed’.
The source, however, hinted that the union is yet to take a firm position on the fate of some of the governors that owe salaries.
This, the source alleged, is as a result of the political infiltration into the union.
elections going by the experiences from Edo, Ondo and Ekiti elections.
But she was quick to add that massive advocacy is on to enlighten the electorate on the danger of selling their votes.
The female activist said: “In Ekiti, what we saw was ‘operation see and buy’.
In Edo, it was followed who knows road and make a pot of soup. I pray and hope that in Osun and other places, it will not evolve.
Yes, one of the things that will shape the 2019 election is money. “But there are other factors too.
For instance, IDPs camps have increased and now, we have more displaced persons than what we had in 2015. But based on our rigour campaign and enlightenment, we foresee that this menace of vote buying will be at its lowest ebbs in 2019. “As we are encouraging the electorate to vote, if they should come out in their numbers, they will overwhelm those who are trying to buy their votes.
If they are many, it will be practically impossible for anybody to pay for such huge amount of money to buy their votes’’.
Barrister Uzoma, who is also the National Coordinator, Proactive Gender Initiatives, also admitted that votebuying is currently a menace in Nigeria because there is hunger in the land.
The election decider As the 2019 elections gather momentum, Blueprint Weekend reliably gathered from a top ranked member of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) that the union would lay emphasis on salary payment, adding that any state governor who defaults in his salary obligation to the workers may be ‘consumed’.
The source, however, hinted that the union is yet to take a firm position on the fate of some of the governors that owe salaries.
This, the source alleged, is as a result of the political infiltration into the union.