5th July, 2011
Prospective members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, posted to states in the North where the Boko Haram members have made their haven, have started to boycott the mandatory one year national service.
The stronghold of the Jama’atu Ahl-Sunati Lil Da’awati wal Jihad sect popularly known as the Boko Haram include Borno, Jigawa, Bauchi and Kaduna states where the terrorists have killed over 180 persons since this year.
In view of this development, Brig-Gen. Maharazu Tsiga, the Director General of NYSC has personally taken over the redeployment of corps members who rejected their posting to the volatile states.
Tsiga, who called the corps members to the conference room at Gowon House in Abuja on Monday, said that anybody who came for redeployment would be attended to.
The batch ‘B’ NYSC members, who were to resume orientation camp nationwide today had besieged the headquarters of the scheme for possible redeployment to other states.
Most of the NYSC members who were seeking for redeployment were either posted to Borno, Jigawa, Bauchi, Imo and Kaduna, among others.
Tsiga, however, asked the corps members to submit their posting letters along with their state of preference for redeployment.
“Those of you who gave me your call up earlier will have to come back at 3 pm and 4 pm respectively while those who had submitted earlier will have to wait for their new posting,“ he said.
NAN recalls that members of the University of Lagos Parents Forum had called on President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly to prevail on the NYSC not to post their children to areas they described as death zones.
Tinuke Jaiyeola, a corps member, who was posted to Borno State, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN that she came for redeployment to any other state because of the fear of ‘Boko Haram‘.
Charles Opurul, also a youth corps member, said that he was posted to Taraba but came for redeployment, pointing out that he was too young to die because of the volatile nature of the place.
Joy Lawrence from Edo, who was posted to Imo, equally came to seek redeployment to either Abuja or Nasarawa, saying that the security report she got from Imo was scary.
NAN also reports that 95,000 NYSC members were mobilised for the 2011/2012 batch ‘B’ with the orientation taking place today across the nation.
Several NYSC members were killed during the last general elections. Nine NYSC members were murdered in Bauchi State alone. The attackers accused the youth of supporting a particular political party against the people’s wish.
The gruesome murder of the NYSC members during the April national elections generated a lot of heated arguments. Many parents suggested that the scheme had outlived its usefulness and should be scrapped. Others expressed the opinion that corps members should serve in their geo-political zones while some parents suggested that NYSC members should serve in their states.
The N5 million compensation which the Federal Government paid as compensation with scholarship to a sibbling of each of the slain corps members was not acceptable to many Nigerians.
But the NYSC headquarters in Abuja accepted the fact that the scheme has lost its glory and candour when it announced that it will not post youth to Bauchi State.
The NYSC said only youth who are indigenes of the state or are married to indigenes of the state or for any other reasons wanted to serve in the state will be posted there.
According to the NYSC, the Bauchi State government had not given enough assurance to the NYSC leadership that the security of corps members posted to the state will be guaranteed.
In 2009 the Boko Haram uprisiting erupted in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. And like a wild harmattan fire, the violence of spread within five days in these states and others like Katsina, Kano and Gombe.
However, the 2009 Boko Haram mayhem was halted by a combined team of security when soldiers were drafted to the affected states.
Many members of the sect were arrested. Soldiers captured their leader, the Yusuf Mohammed and handed him over to the police. But less than 24 hours, Yusuf Mohammed was executed by the police.
Established in 1973 by the military government of General Yakubu Gowon, the NYSC was then embraced by Nigerians especially youth who applaud the objectives of setting up the scheme especially national unity and reintegration after the end of Nigeria’s 30-month civil war.
—Moyo Fabiyi with NAN report