NYSC Assures Corps Members Of Redeployment On Security Grounds

[Shola Sholaz]

The spate of insecurity in the north is negatively affecting participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. The north is gradually becoming a zone where few corps members are willing to serve. Many of them have found a perfect excuse to seek redeployment from the north in the wanton killings embarked on by members of the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram.
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For example, out of the 2,413 corps members posted to Kano State, where the terrorists have sustained their attacks on Kano, the state capital, 900 have applied to be redeployed.
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The situation in the north has forced the NYSC management to rethink its policy on redeployment.
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Unlike before when the onus was on the corps members to prove beyond reasonable doubt that their reasons for seeking redeployment is genuine, they need not do that anymore, especially for those posted to the north.
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The NYSC management confirmed yesterday that it would not reject any application for redeployment on security grounds.
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The confirmation came in the wake of rumours that some of its offices in states in the north had been denying corps members seeking redeployment on security grounds.
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The NYSC management in Adamawa State, one of the terror-stricken states in the north, was alleged to have insisted that redeployment would only be on the grounds of marriage and ill health.
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This was said to be based on the improved security situation in the state. However, gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram members, last week attacked Ganye in Ganye Local Government Area of the state during which they killed some people in an attack on the police station in the town.
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The Director of Public Relations at the NYSC National Headquarters, Mrs. Bose Aderibigbe, in a telephone conversation with THISDAY yesterday, described as untrue claims that the organisation has been rejecting redeployment applications from corps members posted to terror-stricken states.
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She said: "That is not true. Adamawa was the last place we visited and everybody that applied for redeployment was released."
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Another official of the NYSC who spoke off the record corroborated Aderibigbe's statement.
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"It is not possible for the NYSC or any of its state offices to issue such a directive that we would only redeploy on grounds of marriage or for medical reasons. With the security situation in the north, every application for redeployment is entertained.
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The corps members do not even need to lie and get false health certificates," the official said.
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There has been an increase in applications for redeployment from the north following the activities of Boko Haram and the attack on NYSC members in Bauchi serving as ad hoc election officials during the 2011 general election, which claimed the lives of 10 corps members. Many of the corps members posted to states such as Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Adamawa, among others, barely wait for the orientation to end before seeking redeployment from the states.

[Folami David]

Insecurity in the North is getting unbearable. Bokoharam is really troubling those living over there. May God help us