These deaths in NYSC camps

tHE 43-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme is currently in the eye of the storm and perhaps deservedly so. Its batch B, first stream of 2016/2017 service year which began the orientation exercise on November 24, 2016 has recorded three deaths of participants. Deaths were reported in Bayelsa, Kano and Zamfara state orientation camps where Chinyerum Nwenenda Elechi, Ifedolapo Oladepo and Monday Asuquo, respectively, lost their lives. The pervasive outrage that attended these unfortunate incidents was informed by the belief in many quarters that the deaths could have been averted if the organisers of the camps had been adequately prepared for the exercise and more alert to their responsibilities.

Sadly, negligence and inadequate capacity were believed to have occasioned the loss of these young and promising compatriots in their prime. The NYSC’s structures have virtually collapsed. Most of the orientation camps are in a sorry state, hardly fit for human habitation. Worst still, many of the officials would seem to have attitude issues bordering on their lack lustre passion and dedication to duty. Little wonder, then, that there has been strident calls for the repositioning of the scheme. But no casual observer would have reckoned that the organisation had become so hollow and decadent. It is rather unsettling and shameful that a scheme that used to be a symbol of national unity and pride has virtually slid into the abyss, so much so that some people are recommending it for scrapping.

And as if the floundering scheme has rubbed off on the participants who are graduates of tertiary institutions, they have become so docile that they cannot protest against indignity. They tolerate sub-human conditions in the orientation camps without raising a flag. Even when one of them got killed in a controversial circumstance in Kano, others simply continued their orientation programme without any fellow feeling. These somewhat detached and withdrawn educated youngsters are not the type of future leaders Nigeria needs to make the much needed difference  in the country’s  challenged socio-political space. It is not  being suggested that  ‘corpers’  should take the law into their own hands. But as  critical agents in the process of nation building, it is expected that they will constructively but firmly disapprove of misconduct by camp officials and their exposure to harsh and deleterious conditions in the camps.

Given the myriad of challenges besetting the NYSC scheme, it is quite tempting to vote for its scrapping, but we see this as a defeatist approach and clearly not the way to go. Perhaps it should be noted that the decadence in the NYSC is a reflection of the damning rot in many public institutions in the country. But because the organisation interfaces with the youth segment of the society regularly, its underbelly tends to be exposed quite often. Therefore, cancelling the scheme is not the solution. Rather, the country’s regrettable inability to nurture, sustain and improve upon lofty ideas after their translation to reality should be vigorously interrogated.

We do not accept that the system cannot be made to work. Indeed, the NYSC scheme must be made to work through improved budgetary allocation, more efficient management of resources, improved conditions in the orientation camps and re-orientation of its work force. If the scheme was allowed to take off in 1973 when employment was virtually guaranteed for graduates of tertiary institutions, there is no basis for its cancellation now that it offers temporary underemployment to an army of educated youths who would have been otherwise jobless. Arguably, the NYSC may not have fully achieved its major objective of integrating the different components of the country because the ethno-religious cleavages and fault lines that informed its establishment are still  in existence. But the scheme has undoubtedly helped to foster some measure of unity in diversity in the country even if the need has arisen for its comprehensive overhaul in order for it to regain its lost glory and prestige.

We urge a comprehensive appraisal of all the orientation camps in the country to ascertain the living conditions, the state of infrastructure and facilities, the health care system and the actual level of utilisation of resources deployed for the care and welfare of the youth corps members.  Proven cases of official negligence should be punished while those found to be diverting the scheme’s resources to personal use should be made to face the full weight of the law. This audit is without prejudice to the inquiry into the tragic deaths of the three corps members which President Muhammadu Buhari has directed. The investigation should be thorough and appropriate sanctions should be meted out to those who are guilty of official misconduct, negligence and deliberate apathy that resulted in these avoidable deaths.