When National Service becomes a kidnapper’s opportunity

The abduction of 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in Imo State is more than another grim entry in Nigeria’s expanding catalogue of kidnappings. It is an indictment of a state that is asking young Nigerians to serve the nation while failing to guarantee their most basic right, the right to travel and live without becoming prey to criminals. That the kidnappers’ hideout has reportedly been located but security forces are being forced to proceed cautiously because of suspected improvised explosive devices (IEDs) makes the episode even more alarming.

The message from this incident is stark: Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis has reached a point where even national service has become a hunting ground for criminals. That is intolerable.

These are young Nigerians at the beginning of their working lives, preparing to undertake a programme designed to strengthen national integration. They should be thinking about their places of primary assignment, new communities and the experience of serving their country—not whether armed criminals will intercept them on the journey.

The NYSC scheme was conceived in the aftermath of the civil war as an instrument for bringing Nigerians from different parts of the country together. Generations of graduates have travelled away from their homes, lived among communities with different languages and cultures, taught in schools, worked in public institutions and contributed to local development. The underlying compact was straightforward: the Nigerian state could ask its young citizens to serve because the state would provide reasonable protection while they did so. That compact is now under severe strain.

Kidnapping has become sufficiently entrenched that the abduction of prospective corps members can risk being treated as just another security incident. It must not. Once criminals can target young people moving towards an official national programme, the issue is no longer simply about individual vigilance or avoiding dangerous roads. It is about the capacity and responsibility of the state.

The reported presence of IEDs around the kidnappers’ hideout raises the stakes considerably. A criminal gang capable of holding 20 hostages and protecting its camp with explosives is not an ordinary band of opportunistic criminals. It points to an increasingly sophisticated kidnapping economy, sustained by money, intelligence, weapons and the confidence that the state can be outmanoeuvred. The immediate priority must therefore be unequivocal: bring the victims home safely.

Every operational decision must put the lives of the abducted corps members first. A reckless assault could endanger the hostages. But caution must not become an excuse for drift. If security agencies have located the kidnappers’ camp, every available intelligence, surveillance and specialist capability should now be deployed to secure the victims and dismantle the network responsible.

The families of the abducted young Nigerians are carrying an unbearable burden. Reports of a ransom demand running into hundreds of millions of naira only compound their anguish. Most families cannot possibly raise such sums, and even where ransom is paid, the underlying problem remains: successful kidnappings finance the next abduction.

This is why the government must resist the temptation to treat the incident as an isolated criminal episode. Every ransom extracted strengthens the economics of kidnapping. Every prolonged hostage situation tests the credibility of the security agencies. Every successful operation by criminals reinforces the perception that there are parts of Nigeria where the state does not exercise effective control.

The Federal Government must consequently move beyond rescue operations to prevention.

Security planning for the NYSC must be fundamentally reviewed. The routes used by corps members, transportation arrangements, orientation camps and deployment locations should be subjected to credible, continuously updated threat assessments. Where intelligence indicates an elevated threat, deployments should be adjusted rather than allowing administrative schedules to take precedence over human lives.

State governments, local authorities and security agencies must also share intelligence more effectively. Criminal networks do not respect administrative boundaries; the security architecture confronting them cannot afford to remain fragmented.

There is, in addition, a broader lesson for the NYSC itself. The scheme should not operate on the assumption that because national deployment has been carried out for decades, its traditional methods remain adequate in today’s security environment. Protecting corps members is not an optional enhancement to the programme. It is a fundamental responsibility.

Nigeria cannot credibly preach national unity to its young people while exposing them to criminals on the roads that connect the country.

The 20 prospective corps members must remain the immediate focus until they are safely reunited with their families. But their ordeal should also force a larger national reckoning.

National service was created to bring Nigerians together and deepen their sense of belonging to one country. If young Nigerians now approach that journey with the reasonable fear that they may be kidnapped along the way, then the crisis is no longer merely one of insecurity.

It is a crisis of the Nigerian state’s ability to protect the very citizens it calls upon to build the nation. That is the real scandal and it demands more than another rescue operation