In concert with the Nigeriavillagesquare, ContraCultureMag is proud to support this petition to withdraw youth corpers from states where they are being murdered in Nigeria.

Here is what we are demanding:

In the short term, we ask that:

a) All youth corpers serving in these volatile states be withdrawn immediately.

b) All youth corpers serving in these volatile states be redeployed to other states of their choosing, or be excused for the rest of the service year.

c) All youth corpers be excused from serving as electoral officers in the upcoming governorship elections as we are not convinced that adequate and confirmed security can be provided for them.

d) The identities of all youth corpers who lost their lives in this violence be made public.

In the longer term, we ask that:

a) Youth corpers be given the choice of the regions in which they should serve. Nobody should be mandated to serve in an area where security of lives and property is not guaranteed.

b) Any community where a corper is posted and harmed in any mob action – specific already pre-identified individuals, groups and/ or institutions be held liable and culpable (for example the local religious and community leaders) for any harm that befalls them both in terms of jail time and financial recompense.

c) In Line with the above, the National Youth Corps system should be revamped to also include a situation where corpers reporting for duty in their various locations are received by law, into their host communities by not only the state governments, but also by traditional and religious leaders who understand and recognize their value to the development of their host communities and hence sign on to ensure that the wellbeing of the corper is guaranteed. This action will go a long way to preempt the possibilities of random and senseless violence during the service year.

d) We also ask that all National Youth Corps Members who have died in this violence and in the future killed in the line of duty should be immortalized in a national memorial in Abuja. The memorial should have a provision to add new victims in the future.

If you support this call, please head over here to sign the petition.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/petition-for-the-withdrawal-of-youth-corps-members-from-trouble-prone-northern-states.html

signed

Thanks and please spread through all social networks.

I join sign.

So what about the corpers who are assigned to the Northern states and also reside in those Northern states? Should we sign another petition to have them removed from their residence up north and possibly relocated to residents down south at the expense of the NYSC?

NYSC should be scrapped

signed and linked to fb

Is NYSC the reason for the riots up north? Is NYSC to blame for the lapse in security? Why scrap a problem the whole country just benefited immensely from in the last 4 months alone? What in the world is this yammering against a program that benefits a nation simply because the Government failed at it's job?

@Poster,

Is NYSC the reason for the riots up north? Is NYSC to blame for the lapse in security? Why scrap a problem the whole country just benefited immensely from in the last 4 months alone? What in the world is this yammering against a program that benefits a nation simply because the Government failed at it's job?

Signed.

Kobojunkie:

@Poster,

Is NYSC the reason for the riots up north? Is NYSC to blame for the lapse in security? Why scrap a problem the whole country just benefited immensely from in the last 4 months alone? What in the world is this yammering against a program that benefits a nation simply because the Government failed at it's job?

This is not the first time Youth Corpers would be targeted and killed in the north. If the Federal Government cannot protect them, at least they should stop sending them there.

Kobojunkie:

@Poster,

Is NYSC the reason for the riots up north? Is NYSC to blame for the lapse in security? Why scrap a problem the whole country just benefited immensely from in the last 4 months alone? What in the world is this yammering against a program that benefits a nation simply because the Government failed at it's job?

Since the NYSC is a government program and the government cannot secure the lives of the citizens involved in the program, then the program should be scrapped or modified to ensure that lives of innocent citizens would not be wasted as evidenced recently.

The concept of the NYSC is a noble and good one but at the same time, the safety of the corpers need to be adequately taken care of. I enjoyed my time serving in Yobe State and if I could do it all over again, I will but at the same time its saddening to see the vast majority of lives that have been lost. This is not good at all. Yeah it may seem biased that we are advocating only for the corpers when there are other non NYSC members who have lost their lives. Either make the NYSC a voluntary program, or figure out a way to enhance the security of members or totally abolish the program.

Kobojunkie:

Why scrap a problem the whole country just benefited immensely from in the last 4 months alone? What in the world is this yammering against a program that benefits a nation simply because the Government failed at it's job?

Sometimes U just need to slow down, check the facts before actually posting. I dont think that there is a fine imposed for NOT making a post.

This is not the first time that corper's lives have been lost in the North. The one that comes to my mind is Borno state where a comrade of mine , amongst others, lost his life due to some religious issue.

Elpieda:

The concept of the NYSC is a noble and good one but at the same time, the safety of the corpers need to be adequately taken care of. I enjoyed my time serving in Yobe State and if I could do it all over again, I will but at the same time its saddening to see the vast majority of lives that have been lost. This is not good at all. Yeah it may seem biased that we are advocating only for the corpers when there are other non NYSC members who have lost their lives. Either make the NYSC a voluntary program, or figure out a way to enhance the security of members or totally abolish the program.

I agree. It is just sad that lives of young men and women ready to serve the nation will be lost cos some parts of the country dont know the meaning of tolerance.

If there is any section of the country that REALLY needs and benefits from the program, it is the North. What an irony!!!

accepted!!! abeg how do i spread this to facebook from here?

Oh, btw

@ topic

SIGNED!!!!!!

Nigerian students from the south should protest and call for an end to the posting policy: NO SERVING IN THE NORTH. We do not need assurance that their lives would be protected because it never is. EVERY year, corps members of southern extraction are killed! Do you want to YOU, or your friend or family member to be part of the statistics of the blood thirsty illiterate Aboki's? Sadly, this fine young man below is. Read his story:



I did not know Obinna directly but we had mutual friends here in London. Until recently Obinna was here in the UK, at his family expense, to pick up a post graduate qualification. Obi, as I will call him for the rest of this write up, like every young man had dreams and hopes and one of such was to go back and complete the mandatory NYSC. As a result he packed his bags, paid his way back to Nigeria to serve his fatherland in Bauchi where he was posted to do his National Youth Service.


As you might have guessed by now Obi is one of the Youth Corpers, reported glibly by the media, killed in Bauchi in the last few days. I don’t know if it is because it has happened so many times or what, but the media in Nigeria have become very blasé about such killings and no longer view such as worthy of further coverage. Obi was a person, he had a life, he had a family that loved and sacrificed for him. Obi as you can see from his picture was a good looking young man full of life. According to friends, Obi had run to the corpers lodge to seek refuge and was worried enough to contemplate running to the barracks. But before he or any of the other corpers in the lodge could actualize this; death arrived in the form of a CPC murder squad.

The terror Obi and the rest must have felt can only be best imagined. They were forced out and beaten up and not quite done, the baying crowd of CPC fanatics slaughtered them and set their bodies alight. It is not the kind of death you will wish on your enemy. Let no one try and palm this off on the usual suspects; the Almajiris. Yes there must have been street urchins amongst the killer squad but these were CPC and Buhari loyalists who were out to sort out “the opponents” of their leader. It did not matter to them that these young people were on a National service, as far as they were concerned, if they were not one of them, then they must be the enemy.

There are parallels between the killing of Obi et al and what happened in Kenya at the tail end of 2007 when Kenyans went to the polls in a bitterly fought election. The incumbent Mwai Kibaki’s reelection was disputed by the main opposition leader Raila Odinga. In no time Kalenjin militias in the Rift Valley fanned out in a murderous search of Kibaki’s supporters and kinsmen. They burnt down their houses, looted and killed Kikuyus who were seen as Kibaki’s supporters. Kibaki’s Kikuyus soon retaliated and at the end of the sin assembly of violence, over 1,100 Kenyans had been killed.

Just like we have seen in Nigeria before, the Kenyan government sacrificed justice at the altar of political expediency. The Kenyan Government made feeble attempts bring to trail the perpetuators without much success and the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague was forced to step in. Charges have now been filed against 6 politicians, ex head of Police, a radio DJ and Government ministers for inciting the violence

The killing of Obi in Bauchi won’t be the first time people have run amok in the North. Far more people have been killed in Plateau state alone than in Kenya. People are killed at the drop of a hat in the North and Middle Belt and the Government appears helpless. We must now call on the ICC to intervene and try and break this cycle of the mindless slaughter of the innocent people in the North. The facts are all there, just as in Kenya; people were incited and primed to wreak maximum havoc in the event of results not favoring them. Even after the elections we had the likes of Alhaji Buba Galadima of the CPC still going on BBC Hausa service to spew hate.  I have previously written about the climate of hate that surrounded CPC rallies prior to the elections and frankly it is no surprise that violence broke out. What is surprising is that yet again, the security forces were caught flat footed. How could they not have known that CPC supporters were going to embark on an sin assembly of violence?

It is doubtful if President Jonathan has the political spine to bring the murders to book. I suspect the killing of Obi and that of many others in this latest sin assembly of violence will be swept under the carpet by the Government for the sake of political expediency or “national unity”. We need to tell the government that there is no more room under the carpet. The blood of Obi (and others) is calling for justice. It would be most disappointing if appeasement rather that justice is pursued by the government, killers must be brought to book and not rewarded. If the Government feels this is beyond them, they should then allow for the ICC to step in.

This thread should be sticky and put on the front page.

signed. . .just yesterday, the police station in my place of place of primary assignment in nasarawa was attacked one police man was killed and two others were injured. all the weapons in the police station were carted away probably to resurface on tuesday God forbid.  Now, if something like that can happen to people assigned to guard us, wat would then happen to we the corpers that are unarmed?? The federal govt in conjunction with the DG of nysc has failed us. am with you guys on this petition!!!!!!

NYSC has outlived its usefulness (if it ever had any). Nigeria cannot affrod the waste and needless drain of resources hence it is now always underfunded and corpers cannot be adequately cared for. It constitutesis a disruption in the natural life and evolution of the graduates and their families. The host communities suffer as well from the disruptive and the distracting effect that deter them from pursing long term stable solutions for the services provide by corp members.

This program was conceived in the heady days of the oil boom. Policy makers had limited vision on how to deploy the new found 'wealth' for the nation's progress. Gowon famously said Nigeria's problem was how to spend the revenue it had. All sorts of white elephants showed up. FESTAC, All African Games and of course a scheme to "unify' Nigeria. Then there were only 4 universities and so the impact was limited. With today's number of graduates it now amounts to a major disruption. NYSC is an expensive and un affordable indulgence. SCRAP IT NOW.

Time to start coming to the south Brother, dont lose your head in this fucking election oooo

calabaman:

signed. . .just yesterday, the police station in my place of place of primary assignment in nasarawa was attacked one police man was killed and two others were injured. all the weapons in the police station were carted away probably to resurface on tuesday God forbid.  Now, if something like that can happen to people assigned to guard us, wat would then happen to we the corpers that are unarmed?? The federal govt in conjunction with the DG of nysc has failed us. am with you guys on this petition!!!!!!

It's not difficult to get the govt to take this matter of promising lives being taken away by wicked individuals seriously! Those posted to the North should not turn up! The government does not care about what happens to those whose lives have been wasted!

I sign this petition o!  

Aigbofa:

This is not the first time Youth Corpers would be targeted and killed in the north. If the Federal Government cannot protect them, at least they should stop sending them there.

Again, you are playing with the same reasoning the @poster is playing with. Why should we withdraw the NYSC when you admit above that the Federal Government remains the incomptent factor in all this? Why didn't you folks make a change at that level when you had a chance to? What next will you advocate for? Companies in the North move their plants and employees as well?

Crude Oil:

Since the NYSC is a government program and the government cannot secure the lives of the citizens involved in the program, then the program should be scrapped or modified to ensure that lives of innocent citizens would not be wasted as evidenced recently.

We could also say that since EDUCATION is a Government run program, and given that the same government has not been able to secure the lives of our pupils in the north, we may as well scrap or modify it to ensure that lives of our innocent children would not be wasted as evidenced recently. COME ON!!!

Signed. Infact, srap it off.

_{Mainly so I wont to have to do mines. I'm too sensitive for Nigerian NYSC.}

Elpieda:

The concept of the NYSC is a noble and good one but at the same time, the safety of the corpers need to be adequately taken care of. I enjoyed my time serving in Yobe State and if I could do it all over again, I will but at the same time its saddening to see the vast majority of lives that have been lost. This is not good at all. Yeah it may seem biased that we are advocating only for the corpers when there are other non NYSC members who have lost their lives. Either make the NYSC a voluntary program, or figure out a way to enhance the security of members or totally abolish the program.

Again with the suggestions that are removed from the reality of the situation. What has scrapping or making NYSC a voluntary program to do with National security of citizens of this country, be they in NYSC, or simply individuals off the street? I mean how do you make such connections??

Over 500 people were killed in January 2010 in Northern riots .The vast majority of them not NYSC members, what program would you consider we should scrap or make voluntary on their behalf?? GOSH!!

Kobojunkie:

Over 500 people were killed in January 2010 in Northern riots .The vast majority of them not NYSC members, what program would you consider we should scrap or make voluntary on their behalf?? GOSH!!

Kobojunkie is a Northern apologist. The over 500 people killed in January voluntarily chose to live in Jos. NYSC members are forced into their predicament by an act of the government. There is no logic in this reasoning.

jerseyboy:

Kobojunkie is a Northern apologist. The over 500 people killed in January voluntarily chose to live in Jos. NYSC members are forced into their predicament by an act of the government. There is no logic in this reasoning.

um . . . . . Tweedle-dum, try coming up with some more rational rebuttal next time!! Jeez . . . at least TRY !!!

NYSC SHOULD BE SCRAPED. GIVE EACH GRADUATE 200K upon graduation. NIGERIA CAN AFFORD IT. It is better than their continues killing in the hands of the Northern cows. This will further increase the hatred of the already hated and wicked MALLAMS

This is why I insist that Nigerians are just sheep.
Of the hundreds of people killed in the North in different crises, only a handful are even NYSC members. Lots of innocent men, women and children have been hacked apart by raging mobs. Instead of you people to start a petition DEMANDING that your president take decisive action to curb these evil attacks, you're talking only about corps members.


We need a long term solution for these rampaging youths not all these attempts to paper over all cracks.