Over 10,000 Nigerian youths have been told to proceed to “Boko Haram States” to take part in the mandatory orientation activities of the National Youth Service, despite the ongoing campaign of terror in such states.
A breakdown shows that 1,050 corps members were posted to Borno State, the same number were posted to Yobe State.Gombe, Kano and Kaduna states had2,500 each; Bauchi had 1,500, while 2,300 were posted to Plateau State.
Members of the Batch B National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), deployed to these crises-prone states in the northern part of the country, on Monday, converged at the headquarters of the NYSC in Maitama, Abuja to register their displeasure.
The protesting youths barricaded the entrance of the secretariat and barred visitors from entering the premises. Security personnel deployed to the scene had a hard time calming the youths.
A statement signed by the Director (Corps Mobilisation), Mrs Mary Kolajo, and pasted at the NYSC Headquarters in Abuja, urged corps members to report to the state where they are deployed and whosoever wanted a re-posting to do so while in camp.
The statement adds that the cases will expeditiously be treated by state coordinators.
Another NYSC official, Mrs Bose Aderibegbe, urged the affected youth corps members to resume, report in camp first, and added that state governors of the affected states had been mandated by the President to ensure the security of all corps members in their states.
A graduate of the University of Ibadan who gave his name as Dr. Isiaah, said his posting to Yobe State was unacceptable.
According to him, none of his colleagues was averse to serving Nigeria as a corps member but that they were not in a hurry to die “a senseless, needless and avoidable death.”
He said,” I graduated from U.I. I studied Medicine. I, and most of my colleagues you see here today, am here to seek alternative posting to other states because of the security situation in the north.
“Our families made sacrifices to get us where we are today. I, for one, cannot go to Yobe State if the President who is the Commander- In-Chief of the Armed Forces does not feel safe to go there; who am I, an ordinary citizen, to go there?
“The President told the whole nation during the Presidential Media Chat last week that he could not use a helicopter to go to Borno or Yobe states because of security concerns, why do they want to send us there?”
He also argued that since the extremist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which is active in these areas don’t want anything to do with western education “why should Nigeria waste the lives of those who spent the greater part of their lives to acquire it.”
“Those who get posted to schools will become potential targets because they say they don’t want schools, why should we be made the sacrificial lambs? he asked.
Another prospective corps member, Mr. Chiedu Okoye, a graduate of Agric-Economics from the University of Maiduguri, said although he was born and bred in the north, he had had too many close shaves with death to accept his posting to Jos (Plateau State).
He said, “I have spent a greater part of my life in the north but I cannot serve anywhere in the north. Just this January I escaped from Maiduguri with a gunshot wound.
“It was God that saved me from the Jos crisis in 2001 when I was passing through on my way back from the East. Must I die prematurely before somebody takes me seriously?”
Albert Francis who also graduated from University of Ibadan and was posted to Sokoto State said, “I know that Sokoto is free from the crisis but you can not predict what will happen later.”
Femi Adegbite, a fresh gradutated posted to Maiduguri said, “Last year, many youth corps members were killed in these troubled states including Borno and nothing happened. How do you expect me to go to Maiduguri?”