Who will Free The Corpers? #NYSC
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By Adeyemi Feyisayo
Truth be told; we always wait for things to get to a critical point before we act in this country (Nigeria). The menace of the NYSC is not a new thing. Every time one comes close to overlooking the scheme another story comes to rile you.
After my experience of serving our father land, I have been following issues and excruciating experiences of Corp members.
Reading the story of five Corpers kidnapped in Rivers state, the deafening silence of the federal government, the non-disclosure of the Corpers identity by the NYSC makes me wonder if our government would rather compensate families than protect the lives of the youths (citizens). Youths they say are said to be the leaders of tomorrow but is it the dead that would lead?
Olumide Yusuf, one of the NYSC corpers kidnapped in Rivers State
Campaigns to Free the Corpers have been organised; asking all Batch B 2011 Corp members to boycott the passing out parade on the 16th of June, 2011. Since NYSC and the Federal government have decided to go deaf and dumb on this issue, maybe this will get their attention. At every point we have had to act for ourselves. There are so many questions that plague the mind here.
We are a people who live on the principle of “All man for himself”. Each citizen have in one way or the other learnt to be the government; providing the necessities that are supposed to be the government’s function. Expecting electricity for just 20 minutes in a week is seen as an insane wish in some parts of the country.
For many of us, our parents have been the government we have known all our life. They slave to provide things the government have denied us. And certainly after service year, they would be the government we turn to for salaries/jobs. Mulling over this, will youths all over the country agree to boycott the passing out parade? The only reason most youths endure the service year is for the certificate. Would anyone trade that to get the attention of a government that had never been there for them? Won’t that everyman for himself attitude come to play here? A case of ‘eni ori yo’dile’.
The Rivers State government recently said that they won’t be paying any ransom. I wonder if they were inspired by an American movie. They had better wake to reality.
To some, a simple shrug of “God dey” seems to fit perfectly for the missing coppers. But no! God didn’t kidnap them, some people did. It is our responsibility to take action; poke, push, question, petition, compel the various arms of government, NYSC and any other group or individual(s) involved to #freetheCorpers
FREE THE CORPERS, JOIN THE CAMPAIGN, PLEASE PASS THIS STORY TO SOMEONE ELSE
