Serving our fatherland is mandatory in my country here in Nigeria, after tertiary education we all have the privilege to serve if our age is never above the standard age set for this service, we call it National Youth Service Corps which we abbreviate to NYSC.
This is compulsory for every student who has just concluded their program in any tertiary institution, it is a one-year service in which three weeks out of the one year is for training, things we are expected to do in our various states of deployment, teaching us how to greet people in their language and how to interact with the citizens of the state you are posted to.
In my country going for that one year of compulsory service is a great joy for our parents, they always believe that they have given us the best and are always happy and proud to say the children are serving now.
Wearing this uniform always brings respect for anyone, especially in the western part of the country, they always value people who are serving their fatherland, and they interact with them as if they are the second god, especially in a village that has is not exposed.
I am always envious of these clothes anytime I see people wearing them, the fitness and smartness they bring, make my dream of wearing the clothes one day, but not until they finally reach my turn, after graduation I was posted to the southern part of the country, going to that part of the country has always been my dream because I wish to explore, the training was quite impressive and we were treated well, no special treatment not until the posting was about to commence.
Well corruption is everywhere and we are preaching against it, I think the changes must start with us rather than criticizing the government, there was a lot of favoritism during this process, and everyone is bribing their way to the best place which would be comfortable, I think this should stecdzExxop since we all have equal rights then things should be done accordingly.
One thing I observe now is that people do not value people serving their fatherland anymore, they are now the targets of kidnappers, and the level of insecurity is higher than we expected in the country, some months ago, some corp members were posted and I have a neighbor who is among them, she was posted to the Eastern part of the country.
The day she left we were in contact with her, monitoring her journey just to keep her busy and lively while embarking on her journey, not too long we didn't hear from her and we were worried, it was just a disaster, we kept on calling and calling but to no avail, the next day the parents got a call from an unknown number and requested for a ransom of a million naira, the lady had been kidnapped, are parents started to run around and debate on how to get this unplanned situation that occur suddenly, they called the NYSC office and relate the situation on ground, the NYSC office told them that there is nothing they can do about.
I think this is uncalled for because the government should be able to provide adequate security measures for everyone ready to serve their fatherland not just feel concerned about their lives, I wouldn't say it should be scrapped because some people gain more from it by saving their allowance to establish themselves and also some depend solely for their survival for that one year.
The government created this initiative to learn more about each other's culture and this has helped to reduce tribalism in the country, but the issue of security should be paramount and people should be able to serve their fatherland in peace without antagonists.
NOTE:- ALL THE PICTURES ARE MINE
This is my response to this episode of hivelearners community prompt of #hl-w127e2 which the topic is tagged MANDATORY SERVICE
