THE National Youth Service Corps, once a cherished instrument of national integration, is losing its lustre. For a scheme established to bring Nigerians together, it is a cruel irony that sending young graduates across the country increasingly exposes them to kidnapping, violent crime and death. The latest mass abduction of prospective corps members underscores a grim reality: national service must not become a gamble with young lives.
Indeed, the NYSC is facing an existential question. More than five decades after its establishment, can a scheme conceived for a different Nigeria continue in its present form when the country’s security landscape has deteriorated so drastically?
The government can no longer hide behind its noble founding ideals while ignoring the dangers confronting those compelled to participate.
On October 1, gunmen abducted 20 prospective corps members on the Owerri-Onitsha Road, near Umunoha community in Imo State. The victims were travelling in commercial buses from Ibadan, Oyo State, to their designated orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The police subsequently announced their rescue following a joint operation by security agencies on October 7 in the Amakohia Ubi forest area of Owerri West Local Government Area.
That the victims returned alive is welcome news. But rescue operations should not be mistaken for a security strategy. The real issue is whether the government can prevent such abductions in the first place.
There is also a troubling dispute over ransom payments. While the police claimed no ransom was paid, the victims’ families reportedly said they paid to secure their release. The discrepancy demands clarification. If families had to pay despite the involvement of security agencies, the government owes the public an explanation.
This is not an isolated incident. On August 17, 2023, eight corps members travelling from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to Sokoto for their orientation were abducted in Zamfara State. They endured nearly a year in captivity, with the last victim, Solomon Bassey, reportedly released on August 22, 2024.
On August 27, 2026, at least 15 corps members returning from an orientation camp in Bayelsa State were kidnapped along the Aloma-Egane Expressway in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State. They were later rescued by security agents.
Every fresh incident reinforces the fear that the NYSC’s call-up letter may be less a ticket to national integration than a summons into danger.
The scheme’s dangers extend beyond kidnapping. Five prospective corps members from Akwa Ibom State died in a road accident while travelling to their orientation camp in Katsina State in July 2021.
In January 2025, four prospective corps members reportedly died in an accident while travelling to an orientation camp in Ebonyi State. Corps members have also faced violence during elections, while female participants have been subjected to sexual assault and other forms of abuse.
These tragedies expose the human cost of a system that too often treats the safety of young people as an afterthought.
The government cannot compel graduates to travel across unfamiliar and sometimes volatile territories without making their security an overriding responsibility.
According to the Voice of Nigeria, between 400,000 and 450,000 graduates participate in the scheme annually across batches. The scale alone makes the safety challenge enormous. Yet the government has a duty to ensure that a programme involving hundreds of thousands of young people does not become a conveyor belt into avoidable danger.
The NYSC was established by the Yakubu Gowon regime through Decree No. 24 on May 22, 1973, three years after the Civil War. Its founding purpose was to promote national unity and integration by exposing young graduates to communities, cultures and traditions beyond their places of origin.
It supplied manpower to understaffed rural schools, health centres and government offices, while giving graduates valuable work experience.
There was a compelling logic to the scheme in post-war Nigeria. It helped young people encounter the country beyond the boundaries of their upbringing and, in some cases, fostered enduring friendships and inter-ethnic marriages.
These benefits should not be dismissed. But nostalgia is no substitute for policy, and the circumstances that justified compulsory service in 1973 cannot automatically justify its continuation in the same form today.
The scheme suffers from problems that insecurity has only magnified. Many corps members are posted to assignments unrelated to their academic training, weakening the programme’s value as a bridge between education and employment.
Others encounter rejection at their places of primary assignment. Allegations of preferential postings persist, with the children of influential Nigerians said to secure placements in prominent organisations in Lagos and Abuja while less-connected graduates face less attractive or more difficult assignments.
Such disparities undermine the very spirit of national service. A programme intended to foster equality and shared citizenship should not reproduce the privileges and exclusions that divide the country.
Welfare is another sore point. Although the Federal Government approved an increase in the monthly allowance from N33,000 to N77,000 in July 2024, the revised amount was not paid until March 2025.
Even N77,000 offers limited relief amid the rising cost of food, transport and accommodation. Many corps members struggle to meet basic needs, leaving them financially vulnerable in unfamiliar communities.
The government has announced reforms intended to modernise the programme. In June, it approved plans that, according to the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, include a technology-driven call-up process, risk-sensitive deployment, a redesigned six-week orientation programme, and greater emphasis on leadership, entrepreneurship, digital skills and specialised career pathways.
Other proposals include replacing the Passing Out Parade with a new graduation ceremony, redesigning the NYSC uniform and empowering 5,000 corps members with up to N10 million each for entrepreneurial ventures.
Some of these proposals could improve the scheme’s relevance and long-term value. But modernisation that fails to put safety first risks becoming cosmetic reform: an attractive redesign of a programme whose most urgent problems remain unresolved.
The proposed risk-sensitive deployment is particularly important, but it must go beyond administrative language. The NYSC should work with security agencies to conduct regular, credible risk assessments of proposed destinations and travel routes.
No corps member should be sent into an area where the threat to life is unacceptably high. Travel arrangements, emergency communication, rapid-response mechanisms and coordination with state authorities must be built into the programme rather than improvised after an abduction.
More fundamentally, the Federal Government should make national service optional. The argument is not that national unity has lost its value, but that it cannot be built by compelling young people to accept risks the state has proved unable to control.
A voluntary scheme, with clear benefits and credible safeguards, would preserve the opportunity for national integration without forcing every eligible graduate into the same arrangement.
Those who choose to serve must receive the highest practicable level of protection. They should not be posted to volatile areas simply to fill vacancies.
Graduates should have a greater say in choosing their destinations, with reasonable safeguards to ensure that the programme continues to promote service beyond their home regions.
The government must improve accommodation, healthcare, feeding and security at orientation camps, while reviewing the allowance to reflect present economic realities. It should strengthen the link between corps members’ qualifications and their assignments, enforce transparent posting rules and investigate allegations of preferential treatment.
Ultimately, the NYSC must justify its existence through the value it delivers, not merely the age of its institution or the nobility of its original mission.
National integration, rural development and youth empowerment remain worthy goals. But none can justify exposing young Nigerians to preventable danger.
Fifty-three years after its creation, the NYSC stands at a crossroads. The government must either undertake fundamental reforms that make participation safer, fairer and more useful, or accept that compulsory service may have outlived its justification.
The country cannot keep asking its young graduates to demonstrate patriotism while failing to protect them from those who prey on them.
National service should be an opportunity to build a country, not a sentence to risk one’s life for it.