Serving fatherland with tears

OLALEKAN ADETAYO captures the pains of some National Youth Service Corps members who sustained permanent deformities while serving the country

Third from left, Vice President Namadi Sambo; President Goodluck Jonathan; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim; and some of the beneficiaries.

    The regime of a former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.) inaugurated the National Youth Service Corps in 1973. The one-year programme is mandatory for Nigerians who graduated from universities and polytechnics. The idea is to ensure that the participants serve in areas other than where they hail from or where they had their post-secondary education.

Many young Nigerians always look forward to the period when they will wear the khaki and white shirt that have become the trademark of corpers. Over 2.5 million Nigerians have so far participated in the scheme.

Stories abound of people who met their spouses during their service year. They started their courtship either while they were still undergoing orientation in the camps or while they were carrying out their primary assignments. Apart from marriages, many others had other life-changing encounters during their service.

Like different stroke for different people, however, the service year had also left some others with sorrows and pains. It has also thrown many households into mourning, as they have lost their sons and daughters to death while carrying out this national assignment. Whereas some were victims of insurgency or other forms of violence, others died of accidents or natural causes during the period.

There are also some unfortunate corpers, who during the service sustained various deformities either through accidents, attacks or through other circumstances. Those who fall under this category are those who had their arms or legs amputated or those whose faces become disfigured in the process. Rather than serving their fatherland, these youths end up becoming liabilities to their parents and the society.

Concerned by their plights, the management of the NYSC came up with an idea of what they called NYSC-Hope Alive Programme. The goal of the programme is to identify with the challenges of these corps members and create a support base to ensure that they have livelihood after the service year.

President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the programme penultimate Monday in Abuja. The NYSC management used the opportunity to present nine former corps members who sustained permanent deformities to the President.

One of those in that category was Susan Uwouku who was mobilised for national service in the 2013 Batch ‘C’. The Political Science graduate of the Benue State University was posted to Enugu State for her service. She was later sent to Opi Girls Secondary School, Nsukka for her primary assignment.

During one of the school’s holidays, Uwouku was said to have travelled to Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The unexpected happened while she was returning to her station. The car in which she was travelling was involved in a crash, which altered the direction of her life. Her right hand was said to have been badly affected in the crash that left medical doctors with no other option but to amputate the hand at the armpit level. This ugly development forced her to start learning how to write with her left hand. She was one of those presented to the President on the day of the NYSC-Hope Alive initiative.

The same fate befell Oluwaseun Alade, a Business Management graduate of the Ebonyi State University while she was serving in Oyo State in 2013. She had her primary assignment at the Ministry of Finance in Ibadan. While returning to the state capital after travelling to Akure, Ondo State where she had gone to see her parents, she was also involved in a road crash. Following the accident, she had her right hand amputated above the elbow. She is still in need of prosthetics for the amputated hand.

Another pathetic case was that of Ijeoma Igheghe, a Mass Communication graduate of the University of Benin, Edo State. She was serving at the Holy Rosary Girls Secondary School, Orlu, Imo State when she was involved in a domestic accident. She was reportedly cooking in her apartment when her gas cooker exploded and caught fire. The inferno left her with second-degree burns on her face and two hands. Both hands are still with sores, stiff and painful. She needs to do skin graft.

Folarin Akinrujomi, a native of Ondo State also had an experience he will not forget in a hurry while serving in Ajaka, Kogi State. He was carrying out his primary assignment joyfully until March 2014 when an incident turned the hand of clock for him. He had gone to charge his phone somewhere in the community when he was attacked by some unknown persons, leaving him with injuries on his two legs. The scars caused by the injuries have been affecting his movement up until now.

Others who had accidents during their service years and became permanently deformed include Emmanuel Hunsu, Eberechi Nwagbara, Funke Kayode, Samuel Nggada and Abigail Samuel.

The president received all these injured ex-corps members as he inaugurated the NYSC-HAP. Tears flowed freely from their eyes as they mounted the podium to take photograph with the president.

Their plight however attracted sympathy from those present. Those who could not resist quickly made some donations to help them while Jonathan appealed to other individuals and corporate organisations to take a cue from them. The donors included the Heritage Bank, which presented N1.5m each for the nine of the victims; Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who presented N5m to them and the Ibeto Group that gave N5m to one of them who was said to have been bedridden and could not attend the event.

Uwouku, who hailed the initiative, said she had taken the accident, which left her with one hand in good faith.

She added, “The fact that I am still alive is enough for me to thank God for.”

Jonathan, in his remarks, said the NYSC-HAP was dear to him because the nation must take care of the needs of those who sustained deformity while serving their fatherland. He urged other individuals and corporate organisations to join in bringing succour to the affected persons