Kidnapped NYSC members are not just victims. They are a metaphor for Nigerian citizens.
Mobilised to serve the nation, yet abandoned in their moment of danger.
Their ordeal reflects a deeper crisis: a state that fails in its most basic duty—protection of its people.
As in sundry other cases, families are left to negotiate, communities to intervene, and victims to endure, while government response remains, slow, ineffective or totally absent. This is the real proof of poor governance—not just insecurity, but the normalization of abandonment.
Read Also: We Trained Our Children for Years—Now They’re Kidnapped’: Parents demand end to NYSC
When citizens rely on luck, connections or personal means, instead of institutions for safety, the social contract is broken.
Until leadership prioritizes security, welfare and accountability, the fate of all Nigerians may just be similar to that of unlucky corps members.
Iyoha is a legal practitioner with special interst in Public Interest, Development Law & Legislative Advocacy. He was a member of the 2014 National Conference.
