By Bukola Olasanmi

It is no myth that for long have ethnic, political and religious differences been too frequently weaponized by those seeking to obtain or retain political power. Given this history, expecting a program to bring national unity is a tall order, one that NYSC has proven to fill and also brought to realization, its many benefits and importance as a developmental factor in our beloved country.

The basic fact that a young graduate who has spent most of his or her life in the south-west graduates and is posted to the North Western part of the country, courtesy of the NYSC to explore and contribute to the community is indeed very important. It launches such an individual to his next stage in life and equips such individual with the necessary experiences needed to excel in his career path.

Nigeria is a great country which inspite of the many challenges it has faced, managed to overcome those challenges and become known as the giant of Africa. The country didn’t just get to the point it is now without the sagacious decisions that were made by our past leaders.

In 1973, three years after the civil war, the then head of state, General Yakubu Gowon was wise enough to have foresaw the challenges ahead and decided to establish the NYSC in order to foster and promote national unity and integration, reconcile and rebuilding the nation. Many Nigerians who were alive to witness the establishment of the scheme that year could testify to the many benefits and impacts the scheme added to the country.

It is therefore appalling and intolerably witless when calls are made to scrap the scheme by several individuals who lack the capacity to comprehend the importance of the NYSC scheme in Nigeria. In my opinion, the aim of the author of this article is entirely political and is aimed at propagating false and unnecessary propaganda. In the article, the first thing the author did was to compare PDP to APC. This is laughable as it is not in coherence with the topic of the article.

One cannot involve political parties in a matter that has to do with a scheme that is entirely non-political. The NYSC is pro-unity and should not be used as a tool for political war in the hands of simple-minded individuals. NYSC has had its own share of challenges even under past administrations led by the PDP. We have lost a good number of corp members under past administrations.

I observed that reference was made to the five prospective NYSC members who lost their lives in a ghastly motor accident while travelling along the Abaji/Kwali expressway in Abuja. The incidence is indeed a sorrowful one and a big blow to not only the families of the deceased, but also to the nation in general. My sincerest condolences go to the families and all those who are heartbroken due to their demise. I pray that their souls rest in perfect peace and may their families and loved ones find peace and happiness again.

It is truly a sorrowful incidence but let’s not deny the fact that the NYSC has also been a blessing to other families. Blaming the death of those corps members entirely on the NYSC scheme and using it as an excuse to scrap the scheme is a ludicrous poor judgment.

It is true that the disaster that occurred on that fateful day isn’t the first of such to befall NYSC members travelling to and fro orientation camps, but we shouldn’t forget that people die everyday too due to many circumstances surrounding such occurrences. But this got me perplexed as to why emphasis were made on their demise, and concluding that the solution is to scrap the NYSC without giving it a consideration that the scheme can be revamped and several measures put in place in order to minimize such unfortunate occurrences in the future.

The author blindly stated that in today’s Nigeria, students go through a lot of hassles such as incessant strike actions by lecturers amongst others which have negative effects on the students. In my opinion, these challenges Nigerian students faces today didn’t just start recently. The challenges and hassles are as a result of accumulated failures of past administrations over the years. The present administration is faced with the challenge of correcting the mistakes of the past. These, the present administration has been doing. But for how long?
If the Foundation is destroyed, What would the Righteous do? What would this administration do?
Then we should think of how we can support this administration to reconstruct the broken Foundation.
The best we can all do is provide our best support towards ensuring the growth and development of our nation.

The long journey that the author claimed that, it is wrong of the NYSC to subject corps members to, for the sake of doing NYSC, is actually part of what makes the scheme fun filled and interesting, because at some points in our lives, every Nigerian would have to travel from one state to another, NYSC or not. In my opinion, I think it is a wise decision to expose corps members to other parts of the country.

Exploring cultures and traditions of other parts of the country is a great tool for fostering love and unity amongst Nigerian youths.

During the time I served in the NYSC, the scheme gave me the privilege to meet several young people like myself from all over the country. Today, most of those friends I made were the same people who helped me get to the point where I am now. Some contributed to being the bedrock of my many achievements today. The scheme has helped many young individuals build beneficial networks which have served as stepping stones in their various careers. What then is the point of serving in places close to their states of origin or places of residence? The purpose of the scheme would be defeated if this happens.

Imagine a scenario in which I hail from Ogun State and was born and brought up in Lagos, then I am deployed to another southwestern state. How could I ever truly appreciate the cultural diversity the nation offers? How could I ever enjoy traditionally made Burabisco, which is made by locals in Maiduguri or learn the basics of Ijaw language from the Kolokuma people in Bayelsa State?

These are the experiences that foster peace and unity amongst Nigerian youths. These were the benefits that our past leaders foresaw before the establishment of the NYSC scheme.

It is a known fact that corps members have been able to successfully bring development to areas the author described being in a poor state, having poor medical facilities and pervading insecurity. They have been able to achieve this through the community development service (CDS) instituted by the NYSC.
In my time, the CDS has helped to inculcate a custom of contributing to the development of the community around us. It has helped individuals develop a sense of patriotism and nationalism.

The author accused the NYSC as being insensitive and callous enough to send corps members to places he termed as _‘theatres of insurgency’._ This I tell you, is a short-sighted accusation aimed only at painting the NYSC pitch-black. He also claimed that children of presidency officials were posted to ‘juicy places’ while more deserving children of the poor where shunted aside.

I would like to ask what he meant by more deserving. I thought that the selection of areas for deployment should be entirely random and no one should be termed as more deserving. I have seen children of senators being sent to rural areas with poor amenities. The experience helped equip them with skill sets which has helped them make headway in their various careers. In the NYSC, there is nothing like children of the poor and children of the rich. We were taught that we are all one Nigerian because of the cord of patriotism that has always bonded us together. Stating that there is poor and rich in the scheme goes a long way to show that the author is basically clueless about the truth of the matter.

The author claims that Nigeria of today is more divided, more disunited, more divisive, more distorted and more stunted. These are really strong words to sue for a country that in spite of the many challenges such as insecurity, global economic crisis and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has managed to remain the giant of Africa by bringing every insanity to normalcy.

Scrapping the NYSC isn’t the solution. Reforms of the scheme should be advocated. Areas considered as red zones should be critically examined and avoided for the deployment of youth corpers. The management of the NYSC can also put in place, safe means of transportation such as buses that would be driven by professionals and disciplined drivers as most of these accidents are caused by careless driving. Corps members should also be posted to where their services are essentially needed such as schools and health centres.

But the truth is that, there is a lot, a million NYSC schemes can do, would do, and has been doing to reverse, upturn, and even ameliorate the cruel blows Tribalism, Nepotism, bigotry, and religion intolerance has dealt the peace, unity, and progress of this country.

No doubt about this, Buhari‘s administration is not the first to be accused of corruption and incompetent governance by many anti-political and disgruntled unpatriotic elements using different opportunity of bad occurrences as exhibitionism against His administration in order to conceal their shadiness.

My heartfelt condolences once again goes out to the family and loved ones of the deceased corp members. It is never easy to lose a loved one. I pray that God consoles them and bring peace to their hearts. I also pray that the souls of the deceased corps members rest in peace.

Nigeria can never die, as against what was proposed by Bolanle. This is our home, Nigeria is our own. Our support is needed to sustain this great Nation. President Muhammadu Buhari can not walk this road of development alone. Let’s give him every strength needed. God bless Nigeria.

Olasanmi wrote this piece from Abuja.

By Philip Agbese

I will court some decorousness and pretend to be excited, though it’s far from my mood now. As someone always mindful of my beloved country, and a slave to conventions of decency in intellectual engagements, I dare say, I am unscathed and undazzled by the dangerous hurricane wind which blew past me last week.

Straightforwardly, the initiates know, it is not easy to devout time and energies into a published research work. And on the strength of this reality, I will acknowledge the academic exercise coupled by a non-resident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, (CEIP), Mr. Matthew T. Page for his published paper, “Fake Civil Society: The Rise of Pro-Government NGOs in Nigeria,” dated July 28, 2021.

However, let me also quickly add that whatever findings postulated by Mr. Page in the published work has only ingrained on the tiniest part of my psyche. It only pricks as an excellent census of Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NGOs) operational in Nigeria.

Nevertheless, I have to contest some tenders and disagree with Mr. Page, who is also, an Associate Fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, and doubles as a non-resident Fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja. The author of the work has too generously assumed a number of presumptions and conclusions in the paper on the status, modus operandi, the significance and personalities of NGOs in Nigeria, with specific emphasis on where the searchlight beamed interminably on my personage.

Page attempted to drag my reputation into public disrepute, by aligning a retinue of what he called “briefcase” NGOs to me with the badge of “fakeness,” even though there was no established prima facie case or evidence of my criminal indulgence or misdemeanor. It is a negative profiling of my person, no doubt. But I am sure, Matthew T. Page never intended such outcomes, but only undertook a research to understand how NGOs operate in Nigeria. It is understandable.

Nonetheless, I have every problem with the salient judgement tone and insinuations propagated by the researcher. I felt more compelled to raise a voice and make a few clarifications, against the loud denunciations’, judgements, interpretations’, justifications and condemnations of NGOs as categorized by Mr. Page’s analysis as “credible” and single-person groups.

But famously, let me make this declaration. I am a bona fide citizen of Nigeria, with an unfading passion for my beloved country. I am also a staunch democrat and an avid believer in the cardinal doctrines of democratic governance, especially its guaranteed liberties.

And most significantly, years back, I observed my country as a nation thrown into deliberate quagmire, distress, trauma and torments by demonic forces. It’s a game gleefully exercised by the power drunk or power-hungry elites, who are in connivance with feudal lords and the affluent desperadoes who have held the rest of the downtrodden captive on a vicious podium of power tussle for supremacy.

In a number of years, we endured massive killings, sorrows, agonies, conflagrations of varying dimensions, the reign of gun-stars and gangsters, ethnic warlords, and the supremacy of armed militias against the Nigerian state. And for similar number of years, succeeding leaders of Nigeria helplessly watched the evolution, embryony, progression and entrenchments of these multidimensional lethal crises developed near impenetrable foothold in the country, until the Buhari Presidency.

When President Muhammadu Buhari became the democratic leader of Nigeria in 2015, his early actions from day one, conveyed a clear message of his willingness and commitment to regenerate and redeem Nigeria from the barrage of these subsisting afflictions, listed earlier. In President Buhari, I saw the portrait of a leader with a strong will, honesty, strength of character and a staunch commitment to the liberation of Nigerians.

Before proceeding, let me be blunt to Mr. Page! In all democracies around the world, there is always a conflict of partisan interests from the citizens. Leaders are loved and hated, supported or frustrated. There is no country where a serving President is loved or hated by all; there is no single nation with such complacent citizenry.

And I have never concealed my love for President Buhari, which is effervescent till tomorrow. I do not also hate those who hate him. We only interface on the strength of superior arguments either in support or in opposition to Mr. President depending on one’s camp or standpoint. Therefore, Mr. Page cannot determine for me, whether to love or hate my President or query my working in his favour.

My assertions are not peculiar to Nigeria. Even in great world democracies like Britain and America, love or hatred for a particular reader is unevenly spread amongst the people. In yesterday’s American political history, we saw Americans who perceived ex-President Donald J. Trump as a narcissist, white supremacist, braggard, a psycho and a poor leader, who deserved to be booted out of office after his first tenure.

But then, there were other Americans, who loved President Trump in spite of his personal shortcomings as outlined by his opposing camp. We are witnesses to the resentful actions of the die-hard supporters of former President Trump when they assailed the Capitol Hill and violently broke into the building and disrupted congress proceedings. So, my love for President Buhari is not a restraining weapon for anyone who chooses to hate him. My working for him was an expression of him because he pricked my psyche as a better leader more than others.

So, Buhari’s early manifestations as Nigeria’s leader endeared and tethered me to his personality/administration. I decided straightaway, without any modicum of hesitation to also conscript myself into the clan of patriots like my President and loyalists of my country, as exhibited by Mr. President. At all times, I elevated and defended national interest first in support of Buhari.

Unfortunately, down the lane, sprouted forces that were arrayed to sabotage Buhari and the country emerged and are at work to see the administration’s end . The sabs launched massive attacks especially on sectors and areas President Buhari’s imprints started registering early remarkable impacts and the radical reversal of the nation’s assailing misfortunes.

Consequently, in just a few months, the Nigerian Military made tremendous impacts in the counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast. The then leader of the counter-insurgency operations in Nigeria, Lt. Gen. TY Buratai (rtd) (now Nigerian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Benin Republic) ensured he never disappointed Nigerians and Mr. President, his Commander-In-Chief. He led troops to miraculously recover Nigerian territories captured by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, freed thousands of Nigerians abducted and held hostage by insurgents in the Northeast in the shortest time.

The Military descended on armed bandits and cattle rustlers in the Northwest and a lot more, even unsparing of violent militants and secessionists down southern Nigeria. Normalcy begun to return to hitherto troubled areas. This respite lasted all through to end of 2017, but was brutally terminated.

And the saboteurs’ and detractors with unimaginable nest and angles of attacks unleashed co-ordinated or diversified atrocities on the Nigerian state to reverse the gains. And deliberate misinformation, fake news and de-marketing of the President and the Nigerian Military’s efforts in containing insecurities became the official antiphonies of the conspiratorial gangs.

As a patriot and someone loyal to my country Nigeria, I could not stand on the fence and idle as some devious Nigerians plotted further destruction of my country and future. I had to conscript myself in this war in my smallest way. It was about the time the United States of America identified cyberspace terrorism globally as a portent weapon used by terrorists, their agents and sympathizers’ in trumpeting the triumph of terrorism against state forces. Therefore, I joined the Nigerian military in these war times to battle cyberspace terrorism.

We all know, wars are emergencies. And every energy and strategy are invested into it insofar as it can railroad a victorious cause. That was exactly how I functioned in these crucial and precarious times to fight terrorists and bandits for my country. Mr. Page and his partners must know in wartimes insistence on legality and illegitimacy of actions geared towards entrenching peace and security or ending the holocaust do not occupy the center stage.

In fact, questioning the registration status of NGOs which birthed to support the Military match the propaganda prowess of terrorists, appears more like an ass in the face of this emergency and insulated from strict interpretations within the precincts of law. These actions or dramatis personae cannot be invalidated by Mr. Page’s skewed definition of “credible” and pro-government NGOs.

Let me put Mr. Page on notice that after this piece, I will respond finally to Mr. Page on why his categorization of NGOs in Nigeria as credible and discredited merely on the bases of their outings or output in Nigeria is disingenuous and faulty.

So, I like to conclude this piece by reiterating to Mr. Page and his admirers that his submissions on my person in the paper titled, “Fake Civil Society: The Rise of Pro-Government NGOs in Nigeria,” only conveyed his repulsion of me, my vehicles of battles against terrorists and for standing up for country at its most difficult and challenging times. I perceive Mr. Page’s elucidations only within the prism of his desire, together with his sponsors to resort to the pen to persecute me for the exhibited patriotism and loyalty to my country. But I am unfazed by his poisonous arrows.

Agbese is a human rights activist and scholar based in the United Kingdom.