The Ekiti State governor recently called for the drafting of National Youth Corp members into the army in order for the teeming numbers to be used in the fight against insurgency. He is not the first to suggest this. In June, Taraba State governor, Mr Darius Ishaku, suggested that the one-year scheme should be morphed into two years while members undergo military training. This week on WhatsApp conversation, we examine the poser.
Ajibola Mojeed
The idea that NYSC members should be drafted into the army is totally barbaric. It is like those years when Yoruba hefty men were captured to fight during the war due to the shortage of hands to conquer the enemies.
Nowadays we have those who are capable in the army, what they need is sophisticated weapons and ammunition. The Government should do the needful and not subject the lives of the bright minds of Nigeria to dangers. No one wins the war by being forced to the battlefield. Leaders, know this and know peace.
Ernest David
The mere fact that we keep having this back and forth, one governor mentioning it and then the Director-General of the scheme having to clarify it says a lot about the quality of leaders that we have. There is no problem with mobilizing Corps members to fight wars, after all, the terror attacks have been affecting all of us in one area or the other.
The problem lies in factors surrounding the scheme; it is just for a year, it is also to train graduates in their area of core competence before they go on into the industry. While that might be shaky ground at the moment since a lot of youth Corps members simply serve as teachers, the former still remains firm. Barring all obstruction, NYSC remains a scheme that lasts only for a year. So, how do you train a civilian and deploy the same to fight within a calendar year? That’s the question.
Gafar Abdul
When you have leaders who do not evaluate the consequences of their words before saying them, this is what you get. He comes out to say Corps members should be mobilized for war and those who don’t want to be mobilized should be unpaid. There is a problem with that statement; people should not be coerced into military service. Immersing yourself in community service should be a result of wanting to pay the ultimate sacrifice for one’s own country.
Although I am aware that line has now been incorporated into the NYSC creed, it is not just the same thing. It isn’t. Going into military service is a thoughtful process, we must not go back to the days of forced conscriptions.
Tokunboh Aderopo
A country needs all hands on deck. If one of our prominent leaders thinks we have to herd all of those who recently graduated from our tertiary institutions into the military because ‘those who don’t join won’t be paid for their services’ then we will have a problem.
Wars represent a complete, hands-on process. There are the taxpayers who fund the war, there are the engineers and their teams who translate technological advancements into equipments for war, there are policy makers and strategists, then there are the soldiers – the tip of the spear.
We cannot have everyone become soldiers or everyone being a policy maker or everyone being an engineer. There has to be balanced and that should be the point through which the governor should see things.
Mary Ogochukwu
The idea of warfare being a game of numbers has changed. It’s now a game of technological advancements, our leaders see these things. It is just sad that they are looking for cannon fodders to ignite for their own warfare. First World countries are building nuclear capabilities, bombs that can take the better part of a country launched remotely and with stealth logistics, we want to conscript our best brains and send them to the war front. It’s as though we are having cognitive dissonance at times.
Tomisin Salami
Our youth Corps members are the leaders of tomorrow, by default so they should be drafted everywhere. In the Army, in policy making. However, it should not be compulsory and they cannot be drafted into the infantry; they must be drafted into the appropriate rank.
They must be trained rigorously, they must volunteer. However, the first step will be to train a ‘standing army’ of Corps members who have basic survival skills. We cannot go from very playful man o war drills to wanting to draft Corps members into the Army. That is a recipe for disaster.
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