Imagine the anxiety of Oyeyode Abimbola Inioluwa, who sent her child off to NYSC camp in faraway Kano with best wishes and prayers. Imagine her panic at receiving her a distress call from her daughter, saying she was sick. Once. Twice. Three times. Her worst fears confirmed.

Imagine her pleading with the authorities to do all they can for her daughter, while she makes a 16-hour road journey to Kano because there are no flights, and because she cannot wait.

She gets there, but it is too late. She meets her daughter’s lifeless body, when she said goodbye to a hale and hearty young girl. All the hopes that a mother has for her child are now gone, shattered on the rock that is Nigeria.

The NYSC camp coordinator’s explanation adds insult to injury.

The truth of the matter was that the corper did not die at the camp, she died in the hospital. She was sick, treated at the camp clinic, and when she was not responding, she was taken to second facility hospital at Gwarzo General hospital. I have reported the matter to my Head office, she was handled by our doctors in the camp before she was transferred to Government hospital. We have nothing to do with her death, the records and the files are there, the Doctors that treated her at the camp are there likewise those that treated her in her at the Government hospital.

Where Ifedolapo died is irrelevant. What is relevant is that she was in the care of the NYSC for three weeks, and everything should have been done to ensure she returns to her family the way she came.

The truth of the matter is that once again, the NYSC has failed to ensure the well-being of the young people under its care. There is no reason why the best medical care in every state should not be available to corps members serving in those states.

Rather than ensure this, the NYSC appear perfectly happy to pass the blame. Here’s a newsflash: Ifedolapo Oladepo was not mobilised to report to the Gwarzo General Hospital. She reported to the NYSC Orientation Camp.

Her mother will never hold her daughter anymore, but justice must be served. What will justice mean?

First, there must be a full accounting of all those involved in the chain of events leading to Ifedolapo’s death, the extent of their culpability determined, and charges brought as necessary.

A full apology should be given to Ifedolapo’s family, along with compensation. None of these will bring her back, but it will send a message that a government based on ‘change’ understands the gravity of what has just happened.

Most importantly, this must not happen again. We can ensure that more lives are not lost, and that begins with the either the scrap, or the overhaul, at the very least, of the NYSC.  It can be made voluntary, for example.

Maintaining the status quo is a disservice to the dead, their grieving families, and all those who will be put in harm’s way simply because they are going to youth service. That is not good enough.

Joachim MacEbong