News
House of Representatives & Lagos State House of Assembly Reject Posting of Graduates to Volatile Northern States
The House of Representatives yesterday waded into the controversy over the mobilization of prospective Youth Corps members to volatile states in Northen Nigeria.
The House ordered the National Youth Service Corps to stop posting graduates who have been mobilized for the compulsory national service to such states.
The lawmakers gave this directive following protests by corps members posted to such states that their lives would be in danger due to the Boko Haram crisis.
The House, however, said that those corps members who wish to serve in such states should be allowed to do so, including their indigenes.
Similarly, the Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday rejected the posting of graduates from the state to the northern part of the country for their compulsory one-year national service.
The Chairman, Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, made this known while receiving National Youth Service Corps members from the Lagos State University, who staged a demonstration to the Assembly on Tuesday.
The lawmaker said, “The House at its plenary yesterday (Monday) passed a resolution to the Director-General of the NYSC, urging him not to post students from Lagos State to unsafe northern states, where security of lives and properties cannot be guaranteed.”
He said the state was determined to protect people of the state, especially its youths, from danger.
He added that the government would resist any attempt by the NYSC to post any student from the state to troubled states for the service year.
The students had besieged the Assembly with placards with inscriptions such as ‘LASU says no to posting to the North, and ‘No service in Boko Haram States’, among others.
Spokesperson for the students, who is also the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of the University, Mrs. Sessi Funmi, lamented the rate of killings and bombings in the northern part of the country, describing it as unbearable.
She said, “Our lawmakers should help to stop our graduates from being posted to these volatile states. The security of our youths cannot be guaranteed.”
It’s a welcome development that our lawmakers have stepped into the controversy.
News Source: Channels TV | Punch
