Protecting Corps Members From Terror

The recent release of 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members abducted along interstate highways on their way to orientation camps brought a profound sigh of relief to a traumatised nation. Yet, beneath the official announcements and celebratory briefings lies a grim, unbearable truth. Account after account from heart-broken parents reveals that these young graduates, the future of our nation, were released only after their impoverished families paid huge ransoms to violent criminal syndicates. While the police routine statement promises that “efforts are ongoing to arrest the perpetrators,” Nigerians are left asking a painful question: How long will our young patriots be used as financial bait along our national highways while state security offers little more than post-tragedy promises?

This recurring vulnerability along our interstate transit corridors poses a direct threat to the existence of the NYSC scheme. Established over five decades ago to heal the wounds of a brutal civil war and foster national unity, the scheme relies on the sacred promise that young men and women can travel safely across regional, cultural, and religious divides to serve their fatherland. When high-speed highways turn into lawless trap zones where young graduates are ambushed, stripped of their dignity, and held for ransom, that sacred promise is broken.

NYSC Abduction: Lack Of Rescue Evidence Responsible For Controversy Of Ransom Payment – Parent

The consequences for Northern Nigeria are particularly severe. Young corps members deployed to rural communities across Northern states now face immense anxiety before even stepping onto an orientation ground. This fear directly weakens inter-regional mobility and damages national integration. Worried parents are increasingly using every resource at their disposal to seek redeployments away from vulnerable regions. Consequently, the rural communities that rely most heavily on corps members – as primary school teachers, community health workers, and agricultural extension assistants, are left deprived of essential talent. When fear dictates where young Nigerians can serve, the noble vision of national unity crumbles into regional isolation.

The current practice of leaving corps members and their families to bear the physical, financial, and emotional risks of inter-state transit is unacceptable. It is a failure of state responsibility to ask young citizens to risk their lives for national service without providing basic security along the routes they travel.

The Federal Government, the Ministry of Youth Development, and the NYSC Directorate must immediately abandon reactive press statements and adopt proactive, structural measures to protect corps members in transit:

First, the Federal Government must establish dedicated, high-visibility Highway Security Corridors during NYSC mobilization and deployment periods. Major interstate transit routes connecting Southern and Northern states must be patrolled by joint security task forces equipped with aerial surveillance, drone monitoring, and rapid-response units stationed at vulnerable highway junctions.

Second, the NYSC Directorate must modernise its transport logistics through digitised transport tracking and organised transit hubs. Moving hundreds of thousands of young graduates across the country cannot remain an unregulated free-for-all dependent on commercial motor parks. The scheme must partner with accredited transport operators to institute centralized, tracked convoys for corps members, complete with GPS monitoring and direct communication links to military and police highway commands.

Finally, the security agencies must shift their focus from post-abduction negotiations to intelligence-led interdiction. The repeated cycle of paying ransoms to criminal groups, which directly funds the acquisition of more weapons and fuels further abductions, must be broken by dismantling these highway syndicates before they strike.

The NYSC scheme remains one of the few surviving bridges holding our diverse nation together. We cannot allow criminal networks operating along our highways to tear it down. The Federal Government must act decisively to secure our transit corridors, restore confidence in national service, and ensure that no Nigerian family ever again has to buy back the freedom of a child called to serve the nation.