Some X users have been locked in an argument on whether the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a paramilitary organisation.

The debate stemmed from the propriety or otherwise of a social media video posted by Ushie Rita Uguamaye, a corps member serving in Lagos, about the cost of living crisis imposed on citizens by the Bola Tinubu administration’s policies.

The TikTok video amassed a significant engagement on X on Saturday owing to the relatability of the issue she complained about. These issues include high internet data and transport costs and persistent rise in commodity prices which left her N33,000 NYSC monthly allowance insufficient for her upkeep.

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Being a corps member, some social media users perceived Uguamaye’s comments as against the NYSC rules. Those in this school of thought believed that the NYSC was a paramilitary force and its members were forbidden from openly criticising the government.

“I’m honestly surprised that there are people in Nigeria [who are] over 30 [years of age] who don’t know that NYSC is a paramilitary organisation,” said KemKem via @KemPatriot on X.

“You can’t convince me that our education system doesn’t need a complete overhaul. This is supposed to be basic!”

More commenters have expressed their opinions, here, here and here, indicating their belief that the NYSC was a regimented organisation.

FEATURES OF A PARAMILITARY FORCE

Contrary to those beliefs, FIJ can report that the NYSC is not a paramilitary body.

Dictionary definitions of the word “paramilitary” vary. However, the central theme remains that paramilitary forces are sometimes created by the government to assist legitimate forces in securing the country. Forces opposed to the government can also form a paramilitary force to torment it.

According to Britannica, paramilitary groups typically operate in fashions identical to military organisations and may have similar training and equipment.

“These groups often have political or ideological aims and may be involved in activities such as counterinsurgency, anti-terrorism, or internal security. They are often associated with governments but can also be used by non-state actors such as extremist groups or criminal organizations. Paramilitary organizations can be found in many countries, and their role and actions vary depending on their context,” Britannica explains.

With that definition in mind, corps members do not carry arms and are not empowered or trained to enforce any law when dealing with any events at their places of primary assignment.

Some paramilitaries in Nigeria include the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

Those agencies are set up along military lines to perform civil operations in safeguarding the country. None of the four broad objectives of the NYSC align with the objectives and purposes of these paramilitary agencies.

While corps members undergo a short paramilitary training in orientation camps for the first three weeks of their mobilisation, they neither render paramilitary services as members of the agency nor work alongside the Armed Forces of Nigeria to secure Nigeria.

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Ogbuagu Anikwe, a columnist for The Sun, writing on reforming the NYSC, said nothing in the agency’s operational model or founding law made it a paramilitary body.

“Ever since the Scheme took off in 1973, the agency has been managed as if it is a paramilitary organisation. But it is nothing of the sort, either by law or by operationalisation,” Anikwe wrote.

“There is nothing in the NYSC founding charter that confers on it the tag of a paramilitary outfit. The word ‘paramilitary’ does not appear in any section of its enabling law. However, selling it as a paramilitary outfit has allowed the army to control its operations for half of a century.

“NYSC is not a paramilitary agency. Even if it were, other paramilitary agencies (civil defence and road marshals, for example) groom their officers to lead. And the difference between those agencies and the NYSC is clear. Within a relatively shorter period, these younger institutions have become stronger organisations, while a 50-year old NYSC continues like a toddler learning how to walk.”