Tomorrow, the 16th of June, is the passing out parade for the Batch B Corps Members, and more than one week since Olumide Yusuf and 4 other female corp members were kidnapped from Community Secondary School in Omademe village Ikwerre LGA of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
“The matter of kidnapping is one of general national concern and is not specifically an NYSC issue, and as such we had hoped, as with all Nigerians, the government would decisively tackle this development, but we are alarmed that about ten days later, these young helpless people serving their nation are yet to be found!” said Chude Jideonwo, of The Future Project.
The coalition described as “unconscionable”, the fact that expatriates and prominent Nigerians happen to find freedom based on the negotiation and activities of various government functionaries, but in this case there has
been a surprising national silence.
“This comes as we should be gladded by news that the Federal Government has not acceded to the first of its seven demands for short-term measures to guarantee the safety and security of young Nigerians under the National Youth Service Scheme,” said Yemi Adamolekun of the EnoughisEnough movement. “The number one demand was for the government to “Identify violence-prone “hot-spots” states and/or districts and ensure that corps member posting to these areas is voluntary. This voluntary posting must also come with an institutionalised incentive. In news reports last Friday, Gabriel Ibe, the Oyo State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), announced that the NYSC management will no longer post corps members to crisis prone areas in the country; revealing that each state coordinator has been so directed and the directive will take effect with the next deployment of corps members on July 7.”
This sad development follows the conclusion of the coalition’s petition drive. It will be recalled that the call for signatures for the formal petition to be forwarded to the Presidency and the Ministry for Youth Development was brought to a successful close after the petition was brought to the attention of the President at his pre-inauguration meeting with young Nigerian leaders and groups. The coalition extracted a commitment from the President to speed up the process of reforming the youth corps scheme amid a directive to his Minister for Youth Development who was also present at the meeting.
“Unfortunately,” said Samuel Joseph, who is project manager of this campaign, “This is now two steps backwards. The continued kidnap is a national disgrace. Reform of the NYSC is a long term project that involves thought, strategy perspective true – but in the meantime, we demand that President Goodluck Jonathan as the Chief Security Officer of the nation be seen as doing everything in its power immediately, to free these young people. At this point, nothing matters more.”
The coalition behind #ProtectTheCorpers is led by The Future Project, and includes SleevesUp Nigeria, the National Youth Council, AIESEC, EnoughisEnoughNigeria, NigeriaVillageSquare.com, Friends of Aik and
Paradigm Initiative Nigeria.
More information is on www.thefuturenigeria.com/
6 comments:
Dis is really sad.its so unfortunate dat de president n rotimi ameachi who are supposed to be de chief security officers of the nation n state respectively are keepin mum over dis. I hope dey find dem soon, well alive and healthy. Linda I was recently wonderin wen u were gonna post abt dis issue, abi na only northern crisis victims u dey post fr ur blog? Abeg don't be bias o!!
Na wa o. I don't know why the FG won't just scrap the damn NYSC or put it on hold until the security situation of this country gets better. To make matters worse the FG and SG have kept quiet about these kids.
Too sad!
It is bad enough that the authorities are doing nothing about the situation, but what have the corpers done concerning the situation? They can protest by asking all corpers nation wide to go home, no one turns up at camp and those that have been posted , or are serving should go home until the missing corpers are found, at least that is a peacefull and quiet protest that would gain attention. The president and the governor will be quick to look into the matter, and then we can now talk of protection for corpers after all they are the responsibility of the government while in service.
this is so sad. with this being said, all graduates and families should protest and refuse to be stationed up north. that is the only way to make them hear our cries. everyone should refuse to go and maybe then, JUST THEN, they will think of reforming or scrapping that pointless thing called NYSC.
Thank God my cousin is finishing his NYSC today. Today is his passing out parade in Jigawa (core North).
yes, he is coming home safely :)
Whats is this country turning into? A wAr zone? Where
are these young Nigerians? If the Federal Government cannot even look for it's missing Citizens in the country how shall it be able to do anything about those missing outside? This NYSC scheme should be scrapped. Don't we have a government? Cant the Government make meaningful statements and take good steps to get these poor individuals?The way this kidnapping is going on it will surely reach those who have refused to take action about it.
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