The worsened insecurity across the length and breadth of Nigeria is a matter of serious concern. Â As a matter of fact, it has become a matter of emergency. Accordingly, President Bola Tinubu has declared a nationwide security emergency in response to the escalating security situation in the country, particularly the surge in mass kidnappings and attacks by armed gangs and Islamist militants.
Nowhere is safe as a matter of fact. Tinubu’s declaration authorizes the recruitment of additional personnel into the armed forces and the police with 20,000 new police officers to be recruited bringing the total to 50,000.
The President’s move is aimed at strengthening the country’s security and addressing the growing concerns about insecurity, especially in Northern Nigeria. Tinubu has also directed the DSS to deploy forest guards to flush out terrorists and bandits, and urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and cooperate with security agencies.
That being the case, is it still wise to deploy youngsters under the pretext of national service, to unfamiliar environment, which involves travelling on bandit and terrorists infested highways at the risk of their lives?
The insistence by the federal government and the the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), to send corps members to troubled states in the north despite the ceaseless killings going on there by marauding gunmen smacks of blatant show of impunity, highhandedness and insensitivity.
We’re in a democratic administration where government has the duty to protect the citizens. It amounts to callousness, indeed, a deliberate attempt to expose the youngsters to danger without regard to their lives. That is why the federal government and the NYSC should reconsider the frightening decision in the public interest.
Sending hapless young people to states where they are exposed to danger infringes on their fundamental right to life. Many have been killed in the recent past and it ended there. Nobody sees danger and runs into it except a fool.
Whereas thousands of the natives of the affected states are running away in droves to more secure areas, the authorities are sending the corps members to replace them! That is ridiculous. There would have been no objection if the corps members were trained and armed like the other military personnel. Nobody is asking that the police and soldiers should not be sent to the north.
It is ironic that most tragedies that bedevil this country are preventable if the right steps were taken on time. All the air disasters we have recorded in the recent past could have been prevented if the regulatory agencies had done their job properly by way of regulation. Instead, they will close their eyes and allow faulty unmaintained aircraft to ply the airspace until they crashed and killed innocent people. It is then that everyone would wake up and begin to run helter-skelter to ban the affected airline.
Our roads, bridges are allowed to dilapidate until horrendous accidents occur before the authorities begin to apportion blame and take fire-brigade actions. Why are things like this in this country? Why are preemptive measures not taken to forestall disasters before they occur? How many youth corps members do they want dead before the senseless postings are stopped?
It is nerve-rending, indeed, beats imagination, that despite the escalating orgy of bloodletting-killings, maiming, massacre and destruction of properties going on in the affected northern states almost on daily basis, the federal authorities and the NYSC still see nothing wrong with the situation.
Are they testing whether the Boko Haram insurgents have the capacity to commit more havoc? Who says that the young graduates being compelled to render national service at the risk of their lives would be spared by the insurgents?
Who wants to sacrifice more innocent blood on the altar of elusive national unity that is facing the worst challenge since the end of the civil war in 1970? Is the number of youth corps members already killed in the north not enough? I repeat, how many more corps members do they want dead before the senseless postings is stopped? How many government and NYSC officials insisting on the posting have their sons and daughters in those troubled states?
Government officials, that is, those who still have their children in this clime, use their position to secure juicy postings for their sons and daughters in the south, while children of the poor are herded to the killing fields in the north.
Why are the country’s leaders ever inclined to doing the wrong things that hurt the citizens? Where would this entire pretense on national unity lead us? Why can’t the authorities appreciate the situation on ground and adjust the service program accordingly?
As it were, parents and guardians are rejecting the postings. Even the corps members themselves are not happy to being exposed to danger in the north. These reactions, which could mar the entire program, wouldn’t have arisen if the authorities had applied some wisdom by taking into consideration the grave insecurity in the country.
Rather than doing that, the authorities are pretending as if all is well. When reactions began to mount against the insensitive postings, the NYSC was quick to insist that the corps members must first report to their respective orientation camps before complaining.
The question is how do you get to those orientation states in the first place? I served in Maiduguri and enjoyed going there in the 1983/84 batch. What is the guarantee that one would reach that destination safely? After the orientation, how do you live in a tensed environment where death is lurking around the corner?
Not long ago, when the House of Representatives, patriotically, hearkened to the public outcry and passed a resolution that the NYSC should stop posting corps members to the troubled states, everyone heaved a sigh of relief, except the troubled states’ authorities that want corps members at all cost.
That, notwithstanding, the NYSC issued a notice to redeploy the affected corps members to other states. Corps members posted to Borno and Yobe states were told to report to Benue and Nasarawa states’ orientation camps while those posted to Kano, Bauchi and Plateau states were directed to report to the Abuja headquarters of the NYSC for redeployment.
Unfortunately, in what came like a thunderbolt, revealing lack of cohesion or collaboration among the different arms of government, that directive was overruled on the ground that the scheme must abide by the law setting it up, which requires corps members to be posted anywhere in the country.
Since then, Nigerians, especially, families whose children have been sent to the killing fields are alarmed at this development. It is true that the law setting up the NYSC requires corps members to be deployed to all the states of the federation, but that law presumes a peaceful atmosphere for the postings to be made. The law did not say that youth corps members should be deployed to dangerous states where their lives are at risk. The law is made for man and not man made for the law. The right thing to do is to amend the law in view of the changing circumstances. Interpreting the letters of the NYSC Act blindly when the peaceful atmosphere intended by the law is not there is draconian.
Besides, It is pertinent to ask what the federal government has done for those who sacrificed their lives for the country. What plan is there for corps members that may be killed in the course of their service?
There should be wisdom in leadership that makes a leader take right decisions. If the right decisions are not made, the system is exposed to ridicule and failure. What would happen if any of the corps members posted to the troubled states is killed? Who will bear the burden? There is no life insurance for the corps members. Would the meager N5 million paid to families of those killed in Jos, Bauchi and Kano states be enough? Government should, in all circumstances, protect the citizens. That is a constitutional responsibility.
Onyekakeyah, a former member of The Guardian Editorial Board, is a public affairs comm
