by Olutayo Irantiola

Death, we know, is inevitable, but to humans it comes at the wrong time. Before our creator, it just might be the perfect time, we are left with no choice but to accept the inevitable, and after much mourning, we can only move on with our daily routines, as our hearts are laden with burdens borne from sorrow, saying that same phrase, “ Till we meet again”.

Like the Yoruba sayings, “Nnkan buruku ni, ki majesi toju obi e rorun”. It’s disheartening when parents lose their wards. Everyone knows how painful it is to lose a loved one, and it is more disheartening when the deceased is a youth or classified as young and full of promises with a brighter future shining ahead.

Over the years, some Nigerians have been calling for the cancellation of the NYSC scheme, due to the the pain the lives of promising Nigerian youths have been subjected to, many connote that the scheme already outlived its usefulness, while many say, it is still as useful as onset, but, who am I to generalize the effectiveness of the scheme as good or bad, as I’m left with no choice other than to refer to it as a two sided coin.

Nothing they say is farther from the truth, and to sincerely set the record straight, from inception, many families have lost the lives of their loved ones to the cold hands of death through the NYSC scheme and this has possibly made people call on the federal government to abolish NYSC, based on the conclusion that it already outlived its usefulness.

As stated by the former Director General of NYSC, Suleiman Kazaure, in Kastina, he stated: “Several serving corps members have been embarking on unnecessary journeys that led to their death”. With this conclusion, does this mean that corp members who already lost their lives embarked on an unnecessary journey? Absolutely no! What can be said of those who lost their lives during the electioneering process across the federation, what of those who lost their lives on their way to their state of deployment? Or those going back to their various home after the completion of the service year, and those who met death at the place of their primary assignment, likewise those who lost their lives during the orientation exercise. But as Sulieman Kazaure stated, “95% deaths of corps members are due to bad roads”, and the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, contradicted his conclusion by stating that “Nigerian roads are not as bad as portrayed” . Then, how do we capitalise on the loss of promising youths through the NYSC scheme to the conditions of our roads?

Without mincing words, the rising mortality rate of youth corps members across the federation has become a matter of serious concern. Times without number, news of corps members dying or being killed have always been major headlines. Consequently, the national youth service, which has always been fun at the beginning, is now a nightmare, which has made parents and guardians think twice as they now see the scheme as a call to danger. Several parents are afraid of letting children they have already laboured on to be a graduate to embark on this journey that may possibly be of no return, then of what essence are the sufferings on their wards? Because the fate of deaths has already made corps members an endangered species, as hundreds of them have lost their lives.

Many lives have indeed been lost during this scheme and many are handicapped, ranging from one Samuel Makene who lost his life in Nassarawa state in December 2018, also those that lost their lives in August 2019 in Kastina through a ghastly motor accident can not be easily forgotten, how do we forget so soon, the death of Precious Owolabi a corps member who served as a reporter for ChannelsTV who lost his promising life to the cold hands of death during the Shiite and police clash July this year, in their course of rendering a selfless service to his father’s land. Most recently, the tragic occurrence that happened on November 28, 2019, along Kano road, where 16 fresh graduates of Federal Polytechnic Offa, who were on their way to the NYSC orientation exercise, lost their lives in a horrific motor clash.

As is known, the enlisted ones are just the tip of an iceberg as the number of corps members who were killed, strangled, kidnapped and rapped to death is unending.

Although, the scheme which was introduced in 1973 has contributed in one way or the other towards the unity and development of our dear nation, but whichever way, the scheme has also faced several criticism from numerous citizens as outliving it effectiveness, many cited that the scheme has failed to achieve any of it’s set objectives, and many refered to it as a waste of time and waste of our nation’s resources, but how long do we have to cry for the dying souls? How long do we have to console families who lost their promising wards through this scheme? How long do we have to carry the burden of our lost ones in our hearts? As long as the rhetoric may be, we are left with no choice but to pray for a fruitful life, as we do not have control over death, one can die prepared, unprepared, in school, at home and possibly with or without an apparent cause.

As per the lives lost, we pray to God to grant them eternal rest and give the families left behind the grace to bear the irreplaceable loss.