Growing insecurity across several parts of the country is forcing some prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members to shun orientation camps, reports.
Fear of kidnapping is stopping NYSC members from attending camps across Nigeria.
Rising highway insecurity keeps young graduates from joining NYSC orientation.
Young graduates posted to volatile regions say they are increasingly afraid of kidnapping, bandit attacks, and highway ambushes while travelling to their designated states of service.
Some of them spoke to stressing that the mandatory one-year service scheme has become risky and outdated in its current form.
Members question NYSC relevance
One of the affected graduates, Mr. Adebowale Saheed, an indigene of Osun State posted to Abia for the 2025 Batch A service year, said he refused to leave home because of the fear of abduction.
Speaking with Saheed stated:
“The road from the Southwest to the Southeast is no longer safe. I cannot risk my life just because of NYSC. Too many people are being kidnapped along highways. I told my parents I am not going.”
He emphasised that while he believes in national unity, it should not come at the cost of risking lives when security agencies cannot guarantee safe passage.
Another prospective corps member, Sodiq, expressed deep frustration about what he described as the “declining relevance’’ of the NYSC scheme. According to him, the risks young graduates are forced to take far outweigh the benefits of the program.
He said: “If not for the fact that some people are already benefiting from NYSC, what is the contribution of this mandatory programme to national development today?”
“Every time NYSC opens camp, there is an automobile accident that claims the lives of fresh graduates who are the glory of their families, communities, and even Nigeria.”
Sodiq, who believes the scheme has failed to adapt to modern realities, argued that the one-year service could instead be converted into a technology or agriculture-focused capacity-building programme.
“Graduates can use that one year to learn tech or agricultural courses that will boost self-employment and contribute to national development. Instead, we are risking lives for a system that has not evolved,” he added.
Rising highway insecurity keeps young graduates from joining NYSC orientation.
Corps members question NYSC relevance as bandit attacks and kidnappings increase.
Military rescues 74 NYSC members from terrorists
Earlier this month, troops of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) rescued 74 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) from a possible abduction by terrorists along the Buratai–Kamuya road in Borno.
This was contained in a statement by the Media Information Officer, OPHK, Lt.-Col. Sani Uba, on Thursday, November 27.
Uba said the rescued corps members, comprising 36 males and 38 females, were travelling in three buses when the vehicles broke down near a known kidnapping hotspot around 9:05 p.m. on Tuesday.
He said the troops were deployed to the scene after a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system monitored by the military detected suspicious movement of the stranded buses in the area.
“On arrival, the troops discovered that the passengers were NYSC members who had been stranded after their vehicles developed mechanical faults.”
“The troops immediately secured the area and rescued them from a likely abduction attempt by Boko Haram or ISWAP terrorists operating in that axis,” he said.
Uba added that the rescued corps members were taken to the Buratai military base for safety, pending arrangements for their onward movement to their various destinations.
NYSC leaves ex‑corper much thinner
Earlier reported that a man who went for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) looking plump appeared considerably thinner after completing his service year.
In a TikTok post showing “before and after” photos, he wrote: “How I looked before NYSC, and me after NYSC. NYSC really drained me,” causing widespread reactions from former and current corps members.
Many online commenters echoed his sentiment, describing NYSC as harsh, stressful and physically taxing, using phrases like “National Youth Service Corps ❌ national youth suffering corps.”
