The hope of many Nigerian families that their children and loved ones will be saved the trauma of going to any of the flash point states in the North for the mandatory one year National Youths Service Corps has been dashed by the Presidency.
Newsmen observed that the Senate, the House of Reps and many senior Nigerian citizens had in the last one week urged the management of the scheme not to send people's children to certain states due to obvious security and other challenges.
But the Federal Government has overruled all that, saying corpers posted to such places should be ready to sacrifice their lives for the unity of Nigeria.
Minister of Youth Development, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, made the government position known at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday. He insisted that corps members would be posted to Borno, Yobe and other troubled states.
The Presidency's latest decision thus supersedes an earlier concession granted to the affected corps members by the Director-General of the NYSC, Brig.-General Nnamdi Okore-Affia.
Newsmen observed that the DG had, in a statement on July 5, directed corps members posted to Yobe to proceed to Nasarawa State, while those scheduled to have their orientation in Borno were directed to Benue State.
Giving the new directive, the minister argued that the issue of posting of corps members to states other than their states of origin is enshrined in the constitution and must be respected.
Hear him: “Talking about the National Assembly’s resolution vis-a vis our position here.
My position is that of the law. The fundamental thing is that the NYSC is a constitutional issue; the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which is supreme.
“Of course, the NYSC initially was established through a military decree in 1973 because of its potential to the existence of Nigeria as a nation.
And in pursuance of a deliberate policy to set up something that will always and continue to integrate Nigerians and bring about harmony amongst Nigerians, among other things, the framers of the 1979 Constitution deemed it fit to make the NYSC law part of the constitution.
”So if you are going to make any amendment to the NYSC or alter anything, you have to alter the constitution. That is the position. “In that regard, posting of corps members to states, apart from their own, except in some special circumstances, is governed by the law and must be adhered to.”
