The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, should review its orientation camp activities to save female corps members who may not be willing to wear shorts based on their creed.
The Islamic organisation, Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC made the call on Wednesday in a statement issued by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
The call was in reaction to the plan by NYSC to send a female corps member out of camp following her refusal to wear the conventional shorts in Lagos.
MURIC said it was unfortunate that NYSC had placed militarisation above morality in its camp activities.
The statement reads: “NYSC has placed military options above moral issues. It is affecting young ones in both Christianity and Islam. This is capable of destroying the moral fabrics of our society. What kind of leadership is NYSC trying to produce for the nation? Is it a God-fearing leadership that will give the nation good governance or one that has no fear of Allah that will embezzle the people’s funds, abuse power while in office and deprive the citizens of basic infrastructural facilities?
“NYSC should go into retrospection. What has it achieved in more than three decades of its existence? What has been the impact of its training on the youth? Our streets have been taken over by an army of jobless graduates. Yahoo Yahoo is the order of the day. Our graduates are heavily militarized. Cultism, kidnapping and ritual killing are their hobbies. Materialism is their religion. They are in a hurry to get rich. Meanwhile Nigeria holds its breath and trembles.
“But NYSC can do better if it pays attention to morality and vocational training instead of concentrating on physical fitness, climbing obstacles, crawling under barbed wires and other military exercises like marching, military parade, etc. Of what use have these activities been to the graduates? Of what use have those activities been to national development?
“What is the purpose of teaching graduates how to march on parade when they are not expected to continue military drills after camp? Why are we training them to cross obstacles and crawl under sharp objects when the training does not include the use of arms? Corpers finish up the one-year ritual without knowing how to cock a rifle or how to halt an advancing target for identification. It is sheer window-dressing.
“NYSC camp modus operandi is as irrelevant as it is distractive. As far as we are concerned, physical training for graduates in present day Nigeria is peripheral. It is their moral training that is tangential. It is a misplacement of priorities. A nation that has been dragged behind by corruption, a nation whose growth has been retarded by immorality cannot afford to ignore warnings coming from the altar and the minbar.”
The group suggested the way forward: “The way forward is to de-emphasise physical and pseudo-military exercises. NYSC handlers should turn attention to the reorientation of our young graduates during camping. Many of them are cynical about Nigeria. NYSC can partner with the National Orientation Agency, NOA, in this regard. Lectures and interactive sessions on patriotism will go a long way to give corpers a new mindset. Motivational speakers should be on call.”
