If 20 NYSC Members Can Be Abducted, What Exactly Are We Sending Young Nigerians Into?

Gist time, but let's set one rule first: there are no jokes about the 20 young people. They are somebody's children and somebody's siblings, and their families are waiting. If there's anything to laugh bitterly at here, it's the system that put them on that road.

Here's what we know. Twenty prospective corps members, travelling from Ibadan to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom, were stopped by gunmen on the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State. The police have confirmed it, say efforts are ongoing, and report no arrests yet. Their families say the kidnappers reduced the ransom from ₦50 million each to ₦5 million each, and allege the captives are being beaten.

Think about the journey we ask of these graduates. You finish school, register, collect your call-up letter, and then you're told to travel hundreds of kilometres by commercial bus to another state. "Service to the fatherland," they call it. The fatherland, meanwhile, says "good luck on the road."

And this isn't the first time. In August, corps members were abducted in Kogi State and rescued on August 31. So the pattern now has a calendar: abduction, statement, rescue headline, silence, and the next batch travels the same route.

The word "mandatory" is carrying a lot in "mandatory national service." The service is compulsory. The safety, apparently, is optional.

The official response follows its usual formula: tactical teams deployed, "efforts intensified," families told to be patient. Meanwhile, radio listeners are now calling for gun licensing so citizens can defend themselves. When a country starts debating how to arm its own graduates, that is the national mood.

So, here are the questions. Is there an escort plan for interstate corps travel? Who reviews the routes? Is there a safer way to move thousands of young people? And why do these questions only appear after the headline?

The 20 have to come home safe. Then, somebody should answer for the road.