ON CHIBOK GIRLS, NYSC AND EFCCISTS

Acommon thread runs through the narratives of “Chibok Girls,” the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and that thread is so subtle that discerning its dishonest course requires astute observation. But the closest to such an astute observation was the worrying analysis provided by the Northern Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) a short while ago. The kidnap, rape, killings, and forceful conversions that are the talking points of the tragedy at Chibok has a Christian denominator because that incident was a carefully-orchestrated plan to thrust a spear into the heart of the Christian community, as a matter of speaking. The idea that Christian school girls are easy pickings because some religion decrees so is repugnant to say the least especially when the larger corpus of this religion choose the path of guile or approved deception to give the impression that that action at Chibok was evil. The suppression of Christians is put to the glare at the NYSC with respect to distribution of corps members in line with the founding principle of this scheme; it is known that NYSC takes it as given that Muslim girls cannot serve outside their areas of choice (most commonly the town they call home) because of the “risks” they would be exposed to and because of the extreme “sensitivities” of their upbringing that forbids them from “mixing-up.” That is one huge puff to the founding charter of the NYSC; thus, clearly, Christians girls are here, once again, easy pickings for lecherous men during their service year because NYSC duly expects them to be posted anywhere and “serve their fatherland.” The EFCC provides the worst kind of religious divide; the relentless pursuit and demonisation of Christians by the EFCC has left a lot of people befuddled and flustered and so the thinking is that the “holy North” must be a place of economic prosperity and equitable distribution of resources where poverty is unknown. Regrettably, an enquiry into this “holy North” reveals startling gulf of wealth on a scale not known in the “corrupt South” and one that has made this southern parts attractive for migration for families from the north. Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna