The reported death of a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Chioma Eunice Igweike, who was allegedly abducted and later found dead with vital parts of her body missing, has added to the long list of innocent and promising youths who have lost their lives on account of being called to serve their fatherland under the now lackluster NYSC scheme. There is no doubt that under the alarming and frightening insecurity situation, the NYSC scheme is an aberration, which ought not to be because it exposes youths to danger that pervades the entire country. No place is safe in Nigeria.
Government ought to have reviewed the scheme with a view to scraping it, given the highly volatile situation in the country. Besides, the conditions that warranted the establishment of the NYSC no longer exist. It is only for selfish reasons that the scheme is allowed to run because some top government officials are reaping huge benefits from it on the grave of those being killed. This is insensitive and unpatriotic, to say the least.
Reports say Chioma Eunice Igweike left her house on Wednesday, July, 20, 2022, for the three weeks orientation course at the Ogun State NYSC camp. Her friends and former course mates said the Federal Polytechnic Oko graduate was kidnapped and killed by suspected ritualists and dumped somewhere.
Consequently, the national youth service, which used to be fun in the past, is now a nightmare. This frightening development has made parents and guardians reconsider allowing their wards to accept the national danger call. Many youths are no longer eager to go for the service for fear of dying.
Having suffered to train up to tertiary education, one cannot just embark on a mission that may end in death. The spate of deaths has made corps members to become endangered species. There are families that have lost their only child they invested all their life. Such families are perpetually devastated and ruined.
Across the country, death is lurking everywhere – on the highways, orientation camps, corps member’ quarters, on the streets, etc. Sometimes, corps members are made target of political thuggery. There are kidnappers, ritual killers, rapists, among other violent groups that target corps members.
Whereas Nigerians live with insecurity daily, the case of corps members is worsened by the fact that they are in unfamiliar environment where they are easily identified and targeted. It is very serious. This lamentation is based on the hundreds of corps members that have lost their lives.
The question is how many more innocent NYSC members would have to die before something is done to stop this morbid turn of events? In all of the deaths, the NYSC is economical with the truth of what happened or how the corps member died. Parents are left in the dark.
Not long ago, I attended the funeral of a corps member, Fortune Ihechukwu Ihe, who died at the NYSC orientation camp in Sokoto state. Fortune, 21, a graduate of economics, reportedly, died on 14 April, 2019 while engaged in camp strenuous activities.
