The Human Rights and Justice Group International, a civil society organization (CSO), has urged Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu to temporarily halt the National Youth Service due to the escalating incidents of killings and kidnappings in the country.
The organization made this plea in light of the increasing number of violent acts, including kidnappings, terrorist attacks, and other criminal activities occurring nationwide.
In February 2023, for instance, gunmen abducted 15 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at a motor park in Iseke, Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, as they were en route to Lagos. Fortunately, they were later rescued by the state police Command.
In another incident in August 2023, eight graduates from tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State, en route to Sokoto State for their mandatory national service, were kidnapped by gunmen along a highway in Zamfara.
More recently, on January 7, kidnappers targeted the Sagwari community in Abuja, seizing 11 residents, including a mother, her four children, and a hotel receptionist, at approximately 7:30 pm.
Tragically, during an earlier incident, Talatu Salihu, a final year student at Bayero University, Kano, was among the victims. She was killed by terrorists after her family could not meet the ransom demands. The terrorists also threatened to harm her two siblings if the ransom was not paid.
Expressing concern, Prince Nze, the Executive Director of the Human Rights and Justice Group International, emphasized that the country’s security situation was increasingly precarious. He asserted that the ongoing deployment of youths for the National Youth Service posed a significant risk to their lives.
“Today, some youths who went to the North from Akwa Ibom State have not been accounted for over eight months. Their parents are worried and nobody could account for them.
“For you to ask me to send my children to the NYSC for a nation that has values for cows than human beings, I cannot subject my children to such situation because if anything happens to them, the country does not care.
Speaking further, he said, “The level of insecurity is worsened even before Tinubu came on board. We have spent billions of dollars acquiring military equipment and weapons, yet we live in a country were terrorists determine things.
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“As I speak today, there are parts of the country where Boko Haram collect taxes from the people. Farmers cannot go to farms until they pay taxes to Boko Haram in some parts of the North.
“All we are saying is that the current President should be decisive about terrorism and the military and the apparatus of state securities should justify the budgetary allocation on security given to them. We cannot be living in a nation where terrorists determine what we do or how we live our lives.”
Nonetheless, Professor Nnamdi Aduba, an expert in International law at the University of Jos, disapproved of Nze’s perspective on the issue. According to Professor Aduba, it is incorrect to shield the youth from the challenges facing the nation.
He said, “You cannot shield the youth from the problems of society. They have to be part of it. There is insecurity everywhere. What are you suspending it for? What is the alternative? How would you teach your youths about their country? NYSC is a beautiful idea. In a multi-ethnic society like ours, any programme that will create opportunities for young people to know their nation should be adopted.
“Do you know that even now that is no job anywhere, most of these young graduates depend on the NYSC as a startup to their lives, if it is suspended what will happen? There is no country without one level of insecurity or another.”
Nonetheless, Professor Nnamdi Aduba, an expert in international law at the University of Jos, disapproved of Nze’s perspective on the issue. According to Professor Aduba, it is incorrect to shield the youth from the challenges facing the nation.