A civil society organisation (CSO), Human Rights and Justice Group International, has urged Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu to temporarily suspend the National Youth Service in light of the rising number of homicides and kidnappings occurring in the nation.
The group made this appeal in response to the rising number of violent crimes, such as kidnappings, terrorist attacks, and other crimes, that are taking place around the country.
For example, in February 2023, while travelling to Lagos, gunmen kidnapped fifteen members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) from a motor park in Iseke, Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State. Thankfully, the state police Command eventually came to their aid.
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Eight tertiary institution graduates from Akwa Ibom State were abducted by gunmen in August 2023 while travelling to Sokoto State to do their mandated national service. The event occurred along a highway in Zamfara.
More recently, at around 7:30 p.m. on January 7, abductors targeted the Sagwari community in Abuja, taking 11 people hostage, including a woman, her four children, and a hotel receptionist.
Talatu Salihu, a final-year student at Bayero University in Kano, was sadly one of the victims of an earlier event. Terrorists killed her because her family was unable to pay the demanded ransom. In the event that the ransom is not paid, the terrorists also threatened to harm her two siblings.
The executive director of Human Rights and Justice Group International, Prince Nze, expressed alarm and underlined how unstable the security situation was in the nation. He claimed there was a serious risk to the lives of young people being sent for the National Youth Service.
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“Today, some youths who went to the North from Akwa Ibom State have not been accounted for over eight months. Their parents are worried and nobody could account for them.
“For you to ask me to send my children to the NYSC for a nation that has values for cows than human beings, I cannot subject my children to such situation because if anything happens to them, the country does not care.
Speaking further, he said, “The level of insecurity is worsened even before Tinubu came on board. We have spent billions of dollars acquiring military equipment and weapons, yet we live in a country were terrorists determine things.
“As I speak today, there are parts of the country where Boko Haram collect taxes from the people. Farmers cannot go to farms until they pay taxes to Boko Haram in some parts of the North.
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“All we are saying is that the current President should be decisive about terrorism and the military and the apparatus of state securities should justify the budgetary allocation on security given to them. We cannot be living in a nation where terrorists determine what we do or how we live our lives.”
However, Nze’s viewpoint on the matter was not shared by University of Jos international law specialist Professor Nnamdi Aduba. Professor Aduba contends that it is inappropriate to insulate the next generation from the problems facing the country.
He said, “You cannot shield the youth from the problems of society. They have to be part of it. There is insecurity everywhere. What are you suspending it for? What is the alternative? How would you teach your youths about their country? NYSC is a beautiful idea. In a multi-ethnic society like ours, any programme that will create opportunities for young people to know their nation should be adopted.
“Do you know that even now that is no job anywhere, most of these young graduates depend on the NYSC as a startup to their lives, if it is suspended what will happen? There is no country without one level of insecurity or another.”
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However, Nze’s viewpoint on the matter was not shared by University of Jos international law specialist Professor Nnamdi Aduba. Professor Aduba contends that it is inappropriate to insulate the next generation from the problems facing the country.
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