Why NYSC Cannot Be Scrapped – DG

The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, has said that current insecurity in the nation is not enough reason for the NYSC to be scrapped.

The DG said with regards to the security of corps members, the NYSC leadership was on top of the situation.

He said this on Wednesday during an interview on Channels TV which was monitored by THE WHISTLER.

Ibrahim spoke against the backdrop of a bill at the House of Representatives seeking to scrap the scheme on the grounds of worsening insecurity across the country.

But Ibrahim said, “Insecurity does not affect the NYSC alone, that you will now say the NYSC should be scrapped on account of insecurity.

“If we are talking about insecurity, we have had attacks on our schools. Do we have to shut down our schools nationwide? Are you saying that because there has been an attack on one area, we should shut down the scheme completely?” he queried.

The bill seeking to scrap the NYSC was sponsored by rep Awaji-Inombek Abiante.

Abiante gave a number of reasons, including incessant alleged killing and kidnapping of innocent corps members, posting of corps members to their own geopolitical zones and public/private agencies relying on the availability of corps members instead of employing qualified Nigerians among others.

The DG however said it was “grossly insignificant” that the insecurity in the nation be seen as a basis to scrap the entire NYSC.

He said he was not at liberty to discuss the issue of security on live television.

“On the area of security, it’s not something I can address right now on the television, but I can assure you that NYSC has partnered effectively with the security agencies”, he said.

When asked if prospective corps members have requested to be posted to their own geopolitical zones as a result of the security concerns, Ibrahim said they were not.

“It is not so. You see if we are talking on insecurity, we have had attacks on our schools, do we have to shut down our schools nationwide? …Are you saying that because there has been an attack in one place we should shut down completely?” he said.

Ibrahim further said all parties involved have roles to play with regards to the security of the corps members.

“Everybody has to take his own responsibility on the issue of security. The Federal government has its own role to play, the NYSC has its own role to play and the corps members have their own role to play as well as parents”, he said.

Speaking further on the issue of posting corps members to their own geopolitical zones due to the security concerns, the DG said he sees no reason for that.

“There are situations where we do such postings. We do such postings when there are challenges but it’s not that it is a priority to post corps members to their geopolitical zones”, he said.

Addressing the reasons stated by the sponsor of the bill, he said in order to bring up issues like these against an organization, adequate research should have been conducted first.

“When you want to discuss issues about an organization, you should make a very serious research, you have to also provide empirical evidence to justify your argument”, he said.

Concerning the issue of “incessant killing of innocent corps members” as was stated in the bill, the NYSC DG said the only major corps members deaths were those who were killed while carrying out election activities.

“As far as we are concerned, the only challenge we had where we lost some of our corps members, was during the 2011 election in Bauchi where corps members that were involved in the election activities lost their lives, that is the main documented on that we had.

“And apart from that you know we lost Owolabi, he was on the line of duty. The Vice President, on behalf of the President, was with me in the family house in Zaria and also the governor of Kaduna. That is to show the government’s concern for the welfare of the corps members”, he said.

When he was reminded of some corps members who died in the line of election duty in 2015, he said such could happen due to the number of corps members mobilized each year.

“We mobilize as much as over 350,000 corps members every year and the ones assigned to election duty are close to 30 to 35,000 so things like this are bound to happen.

“Like we had a challenge in Ekiti, during one of the assembly elections where hoodlums attacked the polling stations, one of our CMs was hit and I went there, the governor was there also and he has recovered now,” he said.