Nigeria: Just Pay NYSC Allowances on-time

The corps

The weekend had me a bit incensed when an apparent injustice borne of rank incompetence appeared to be addressed with platitudes, excuses, inaction and sophistry bordering on indifference.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) established in 1973 was a way to promote integration in Nigeria just soon after the civil war where graduates of tertiary institutions are called to serve the country for the period of a year.

Recently, there have been discussions about the relevance of the NYSC and rightly so for reasons of the adequate provision of protection and security of deployed people usually known are corpers as quite a few have lost their lives to mobs and rioters especially after the elections of 2011.

Other issues have questioned whether it does promote integration, whether it prepares the youth for the job market and with all the reforms and restructuring whether it is anymore fit for purpose – these are pertinent questions that need asking and should fare in intelligent debate about what it means to be called to serve Nigeria at the height of your potential.

The NYSC is managed by the Ministry of Youth Development and it commands probably the highest percentage of expenditure of the ministry such that one would expect that due attention is given to its effective management and priority is given to matters that pertain to the corpers.

The situation started off on Twitter as news filtered through that allowances for April had not yet been paid and this was as at the 12^th of May 2012. The allowances are just at subsistence level and there is very little reason why the system should break at the point where it is most critical to the affected.

God rest you hungry people

The current SA (Advocacy) to the Minister of Youth Development who goes by the Twitter handle @MrFixNigeria started off with the following two tweets.

#DearNigerianYouthCorper I have brought the issue of your unpaid April 2012 allowance to the attention of the Honorable Minister. 11:45 AM - 12 May 12 via Twitter for BlackBerry® [Detail]

#DearNigerianYouthCorper Please be rest assured to get some positive feedback soon. Watch this space. And God be with you all. 11:46 AM - 12 May 12 via Twitter for BlackBerry® [Detail]

If the matter were not so serious this statement demanded that the person be laughed to scorn, but it was too important to let go just like that.

Unhelpful words

These are the series of tweets I posted in response.

I like the "God be with you." prayer given by @MrFixNigeria for corpers but really, what they want is a system that just works.

Yes, we need God but human-beings are sometimes in the way of letting God do something because they are not doing their jobs.

It is not enough succour to pat the hungry on the head saying God be with you, feed them, clothe them, shelter them - That's God with them.

@MrFixNigeria The positive feedback they want is the allowances paid pronto not some new assurances and much talk.

I cannot understand how people in charge of the NYSC scheme cannot see that it is unconscionable that allowances haven't yet been paid.

Meanwhile, @MrFixNigeria launched into a series of patronising and unrelated tweets that did nothing to help the situation distracting us from the issue with examples of other countries running a youth service scheme whilst the elephant in the room was the apparent obliviousness of himself to the plight of the corpers until that time and the possibility that the minister in charge had only just been made aware of rank incompetence under his watch.

It gets more annoying

And so I added the following viewpoints.

@MrFixNigeria The reasons why the relevance of the NYSC crops up are obvious to you and I sort those issues out and no debate.

@MrFixNigeria The non-payment of allowances on time is NOT a challenge, it's rank incompetence celebrated from Minister downwards.

@MrFixNigeria The NYSC scheme is the most visible aspect of your ministry because it deals with core youth potential of Nigeria.

@MrFixNigeria That the management of allowances has descended in something approaching a farce is atrocious in the extreme.

@MrFixNigeria And for all the countries that have youth service schemes, after 40 years of ours, it should be exemplary not incompetent.

@MrFixNigeria Please, I think the NYSC people have been patronised enough, all these your tweets are adding insult to injury.

This @MrFixNigeria should work on fixing things, the tweets I am reading are like sophistry of the most hated apparatchik. Not Good!

@ikeamadi I'm really politely telling him to "Shut Up" and only return when he has useful news for the NYSC guys. @MrFixNigeria

The duty of care

The government owes people called into its service a duty of responsibility to ensure they are paid on time and treated with dignity.

The tweets have in and of themselves made the case I am trying to make, which is it is sad to see such a situation develop that the youth in government find themselves unable to be properly representative of their peers but get caught up on patronising talk that is just entirely unhelpful.

Other responses attracted well-deserved opprobrium and whilst I am not keen on the abuse of people on twitter, it so happens that excoriation in the Nigeria is mostly delivered through insults - @MrFixNigeria was in fix, tampering with what he could not fix and pretending to be in the centre of fixing what the ministry he works for should never have allowed to break in the first place.

Nothing can piss you off more than to have vacuous official-speak thrown at your dire circumstances. It is not too much to ask that allowances be paid on time.

Editorial: Eleventh of May 2011

No jumping to conclusions with closed doors

One may never understand what informs irrational behaviour by some that their actions endanger themselves and the lives of others.

It goes without saying that the complexity of the mind whilst allowing for moderation of behaviour by societal mores still has some just appearing to go off tangentially and it is only providence that prevents a catastrophic mishap.

We can be irked and piqued by circumstances beyond our control that make us lose patience and or even cause lateness that the people responsible do not do enough to placate the situation.

Air travel is generally safe but it has lost most of its allure of pleasure, there are others that do not fly well, they take to the bottle and other agents to help them through the journey.

The case of a man caught between different episodic issues trying to open the door to an airplane which was halfway between Orlando and Boston implies the airplane did not have steps set to the door for disembarkation.

Whilst the man would see a face of the law scowling and breathing fire, it is incumbent on us to keep an open mind and since the door was still closed there should be no danger of us jumping to conclusions either.

No invective enough to lambast this cretin

The sad death of 11 National Youth Service Corps members during the recently concluded Nigerian elections tugs at the heartstrings with sorrow and anger. This situation was in every way avoidable if all those responsible for their safety had not shirked their responsibilities.

Passing the buck is bad enough but the governor of the host state whose remit it was to ensure security and peace plumbed the depths of calumny and issued utterances that made many think he lacked both a heart and a mind.

Having first averred that the deaths of the people were a course of destiny they could not avoid, he contemned their memory by comparing their loss of life to the loss of replaceable property.

The backlash that followed his insensitive, intemperate, irresponsible and atrociously stupid comments had him trying to redeem himself by saying he would, given the opportunity personally shoot the killers of those people.

It leaves reasonable people completely lost for words as it belies a cretinous crop of nonentities that Nigeria has been cursed to have elected for public office.

There will be life insurance pay-outs, compensation for loss of life, help for their families, the memorialisation of martyrdom and much more, none of which can attempt to make amends for these tragedies.

The greater worry is what the smell of money might do to others who scenting a largess would be more preoccupied with how they can deprive those families of that blood-money for their selfish ends.

It goes without saying, the deaths were avoidable, the mobs should have been corralled and no government official should have been caught unawares by the eruption of violence and how it developed into carnage.

Nigeria: Ukeoma Ikechukwu - A Nigerian Hero and Martyr

They serve unsung

Sadness and grief, horror and terror as a nation sheds the blood of her young on the altar of the selfish and criminal desires of others.

Young men and women called into the service of their nation immediately after graduation to faraway regions of their motherland to help and contribute whilst learning of the great diversity of a nation that strains at maintaining a semblance of unity.

Their faith in a brighter future and their altruistic goals soar over the privations of a year of penurious service where new friendships can be developed for life and new experiences can made the difference of a life well lived.

Usually, unsung, unheralded, disrespected and maligned, they bear this call to service as a cross, constantly belittled and berated by those who probably need their service most.

Our selfless NYSC

It was a masterstroke of project management to ask the National Youth Service Corps members to become ad-hoc staff for the Independent National Election Commission for both the voter registration exercise early in the year and the elections in April 2011.

We thought having them in this function will eliminate bias, impartiality and the suborning of the system to criminal ends. The NYSC took all the flak for the lack of preparedness of INEC which was derelict in its responsibility to protect their staff and pay them on time.

We read of too many instances of these young people sleeping rough, getting harassed, beaten up and sometimes getting killed for doing their service to the nation.

Either by compulsion or willingness, these are probably the only class of Nigerians we can truly say have put their country first; before self, before comfort, before welfare and before much else; the most they get is probably grudging praise and the scars, hopefully with fond memories that would make for amazing story-telling at some other time.

The terror in Nigeria

After the presidential elections on the 16^th of April, 2011, violence broke out in the North that left many NYSC members far away from home and safety at the risk of great harm. The stories were horrifyingly desperate as people tried all they could to get these amazing Nigerians to some safety. Some were lucky and many are still missing and others came to unimaginably harrowing deaths.

The numbers are rising and there is very little that could assuage and understand the grief of parents, siblings, colleagues, friends and other acquaintances at the loss of these wonderful examples of selflessness.

Ukeoma Ikechukwu

I am most touched by the example of Ukeoma Ikechukwu who according to his Facebook profile [1] attended National High School in Aba and then the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he hails from the South of Nigeria but was on national duty and INEC service in Bauchi State in Northern Nigeria for the elections.

He was declared missing soon afterwards and confirmed dead earlier today; that is the sad story of our nation, people who serve her risk being served to her in all sorts of circumstances.

Mr. Ukeoma Ikechukwu whilst I do not know him must however not go unsung and unappreciated even by those who remotely have a connection to him because he embodies the promise of a Nigeria we seek and yearn for exemplified in a number of postings on his Facebook page.

His favourite quote talks about the value of character, an inestimable virtue and many trade away for selfish gain - When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost something is lost but when character is lost all is lost.

Stand for God and my nation

What is most touching is the last post he made to Facebook [2] in the early hours of the 17^th April, 2011 and this should stand as a testament to the man for all posterity.

“Na wao! This CPC suporters would hv killed me yesterday, no see threat oooo. Even after forcing underaged voters on me they wanted me to give them the remaining ballot paper to thiumb print. Thank God for the police and am happy i could stand for God and my nation. To all corps members who stood despite these threats esp. In the north bravo! Nigeria! Our change has come.”

He was a man who under threat and possible loss of life, pressed into the electoral malpractice of allowing underaged persons to vote who still found the wherewithal and courage to engage the police to prevent the egregious criminality of thumb printing the unused ballot papers.

In a land far from his comfort zone he had faith in the police and what they could do, despite the terrifying experience he was happy to stand for God and his nation and then commend his colleagues in this exercise for keeping firm in the face of these serious threats.

Then he wrote what was in the minds and hearts of everyone including many of those who attempted to suborn the process - Nigeria! Our change has come.

We shall remember him

Hope undiminished, service so selfless, Ukeoma Ikechukwu represents to all Nigerians, young and old the promise of a future that this democratic season offered.

In his short life, he has become a martyr to the cause of a Nigeria still striving to reach its potential, he has in his own small way buttressed the reputation of institutions handling the electoral process and he has given Nigeria an enviable name to be proud of.

I offer my most heartfelt condolence to his kith and kin and pray that his pure and graceful soul rest in peace.

In the words of our national anthem, it is important that the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain. Let not the work of the many NYSC members like Ukeoma Ikechukwu be in vain, let not our quest for an accountable democracy be in vain, let not the quest for justice be in vain, let not the hope that he expressed come to naught.

Ukeoma Ikechukwu, I doff my hat to you, you will never be forgotten.

Sources

[1] Ukeoma Ikechucwu – Facebook Profile (membership required)

[2] Ukeoma Ikechukwu – Facebook (membership required)