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It is very unfortunate that the soul of the National Youths Service Corp (NYSC) has come under severe fire in recent times just because of a callous statement and insensitivity by someone who was supposed to be a leader and calmer of tense nerves in the domain he rules. Real and ordinary Nigerians across the country on their own do not have any relationship problem with one another except the artificial divisions created by opportunists that keep imposing themselves on us as leaders in authority. To this insignificant group, the more divided the masses are, the better for their evil missions in government. How could anybody have expected the Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda to have been so insensitive and off- guarded in his statement in the public equating the horrific butchering of ten NYSC members serving in his state to the alleged “attack” on him in 1979, when undergoing his one year national youth service in Ibadan, Oyo State? “The corps members were destined to experience what they experienced. Nobody can run away from destiny. When they were serving me, they were the happiest in Nigeria. Immediately I handed them over to INEC, it was the responsibility of INEC to protect them. However, they were not the only ones affected. My own house was burnt. They almost lynched my first son. It is part of their destiny. I was also attacked as a corps member in Ibadan in 1979,” this was a supposedly popularly-elected governor talking. Maybe discretion is not in his dictionary. It is pathetic that nobody has ever asked why the mobs went after innocent and apolitical youth corpers who were neither members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor opposed in whatever form, to the disgruntled Congress for Change (CPC) whose supporters alleged carried out the dastardly act. In this matter, we should confront the problem with the desired courage and boldness and be ready to tell ourselves the truth no matter who is hurt. Any genuine attempt to get to the root cause of the post-election violence in Bauchi without mentioning Yuguda, PDP chairman amongst others in Bauchi state as chief culprits in the dastard act, will not achieve any tangible result towards ensuring justice is done in the case. So the call on the federal government to fish out the perpetrators of the violence against the slain youth corp members should be extended and this is where the likes of Yuguda should also be fished out and dealt with appropriately. This should actually be the slant of the fleet of want-to-be-known lawyers and rights advocates that are rushing to the courts to ask for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme. If these people up there are not taught the lesson they should learn, we will simply continue along this line where a group of people will just wake up to slaughter innocent and very productive and law abiding citizens of this country. These callous politicians don’t even allow their own children to do their national service any other place except Lagos or Abuja or at worst in their own state capitals, just check to confirm this. It unimaginable that a state governor who is statutorily mandated to provide adequate security to lives and property of all citizens resident in his domain, irrespective of state of origin, should make such insensitive statement when families whose children were senselessly murdered were groaning and grieving for the irreparable loss. It was a clear manifestation of the stuff the man is made of. As was rightly said, “The view of the governor patently reflects the criminal indifference of Isa Yuguda to the obligations of his government and the rights of Nigerians to reside in any part of the country without let or hindrance.” And as if Yuguda’s gaffe was not enough insult on the souls of the slain corpers, the on running advertorial “Ten slain corps members: Enough Is Enough, Leave Yuguda Alone,” seems to be worsening his case by asserting that the governor as a devout Muslim was not wrong in his statement. “The governor is a devout Muslim who believes that death no matter how it comes and forms it takes is from God Almighty. This argument is myopic and self-serving. If Yuguda’s theory of destiny is something to go by, one wonders why murderers should be taken to court and convicted if violent death is the destiny of the victims? Even in Saudi Arabia which practices strict Sharia, such as beheading and amputation, victims of crimes are not denied justice based on the fact that it was their destiny to lose their life or property. If, God forbid, someone attempts the life of the governor, would he advise his security men not arrest the attacker because it was his destiny to be attacked? Again, if a thief breaks into Yuguda’s house and makes away with his property and was eventually arrested, would Yuguda say he should be released because it is his destiny to lose his property to the thief? In fact, if anybody is arrested for attempting the life of the governor’s son, would he let the suspect go free just because it is the son’s destiny to be so threatened? Many Nigeria saw the advert as a needless effort that complicated Yuguda’s public relation (PR) disaster in his handling of the corpers’ death. The advert even quoted the Holy Bible out of contest: “Even the Biblical John the Baptist was beheaded by a wicked king who wanted to please his daughter; Apostle Stephen was stoned to death by a mob who did not like what he was preaching to them in spite of the fact that all these people were saints of the Living God and yet God allowed these to happen to them. Can we then say that God hated them or abandoned them?” The above quotation shows that whosoever lifted it was completely ignorant of the tenets of the Holy Scripture (Bible). Yuguda and his spin doctors should know that according to the Bible, no man has any right to take another person’s life and God who gave that law cannot take a man’s life by pushing a mob to kill him. Also in the Bible, there are forgivable sins and “sins unto death.” Yuguda should learn how to talk when addressing sensitive issues that affect Nigerians from other sections of the country because of our emotional, religious and even cultural diversities and he should stop the ongoing image –laundering campaign in the media because it is adding more salts to injury. Already, the incident in Bauchi has opened the floodgate of national debate about the necessity or otherwise of retaining the NYSC programme. Indeed, a failure to appreciate this contribution of the NYSC to the political development of the country detracts from the sacrifice of those youth who lost their lives or sustained injuries during the violence that attended the presidential elections in northern Nigeria. As has been rightly pointed out, the involvement of the NYSC members in the administration of elections deviates from the original purpose of the scheme. The corps members merely responded to the national call to help salvage the country from its persistent failure to achieve free, fair and credible elections. So scrapping of the NYSC programme is not the issue at all. The real matter is the state of insecurity across the country. Scrapping the programme will not end insecurity and unemployment which is the nation’s problem. The unfortunate and regrettable death of the ten innocent and vibrant corps members in the Bauchi post-election violence notwithstanding, the benefits of the NYSC in its unification programme are still by far greater than its perceived shortcomings. And this is where the campaigns for the scrapping of the programme comes as ill-informed. Since the introduction of the NYSC programme in 1973, the scheme has enabled the nation’s young men and women to appreciate the ethnic and cultural diversity of the country, thereby significantly helping them re-think their prejudices and promoting their understanding. So no right-thinking Nigerian should push for its abolition because of the misguided actions of some of the terribly deprived and uneducated Nigerian children, who are used by evil-minded politicians and religious bigots who sustain them by handing out daily rations. The federal government must go back to the drawing board to address the main issues at stake which is insecurity not only to the corps members but to the generality of Nigerians. IFEANYI IZEZE, ABUJA (iizeze@yahoo.com) |