Fear tempers national duty as NYSC camps open in volatile states

As Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) began its 2026 Batch A (Stream 1) orientation this week, the annual ritual of national mobilisation was met not with celebration but with unease. Across parts of northern Nigeria grappling with banditry, kidnappings and sporadic insurgent attacks, young graduates and their families are weighing civic duty against personal safety.

According to Punch, the three-week orientation exercise, which opened on January 21 across all 37 camps nationwide, comes amid a renewed surge in violence in several states. In recent weeks, mass abductions, roadside attacks and bomb scares have unsettled communities from the north-west to the north-east, reviving long-standing concerns about the risks faced by corps members posted to volatile areas.

Established in 1973 after the civil war, the NYSC was designed to foster national integration by deploying graduates outside their states of origin. More than five decades later, that ideal increasingly collides with Nigeria’s fragile security landscape. Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Niger, Plateau, Yobe and Borno, all states hosting camps this cycle, have featured prominently in recent security briefings and media reports.

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The scale of the programme has also expanded. In September last year, the NYSC said it planned to mobilise about 650,000 graduates across all streams in 2026, up from roughly 400,000 in 2025. Only about 40 per cent of those registered are expected to take part in the current stream, but even that leaves thousands travelling long distances through insecure corridors.

While official deployment figures have not been released, local officials estimate that roughly 8,000 corps members are attending orientation in high-risk states this month. Yobe has sworn in about 1,200 participants, Kaduna expects around 2,000, Katsina just over 2,000, while Zamfara is hosting about 600. Sokoto and Kebbi together account for a further 3,600.

For many, the most anxious moment came not in camp but on the road. Several corps members described journeys lasting more than 24 hours, broken by unscheduled overnight stops as drivers avoided travelling after dark. One participant posted to Zamfara said the fear of a bandit attack dominated his thoughts from the moment he received his call-up letter. His parents, he added, were deeply worried but eventually consented after prayers.

Another graduate, travelling from Plateau State to Zamfara, said he and fellow corps members slept in a village en route after arriving late at night. “Even with security personnel around, you can’t predict what non-state actors might do,” he said. Others spoke of constant vigilance on highways long associated with kidnappings.

In Borno State, where Islamist insurgency has persisted for more than a decade, a corps member travelling from Abuja said the presence of heavily armed security personnel was reassuring, but declined to say whether he would seek redeployment after orientation,  a common option quietly pursued by some participants.

State authorities insist they have taken extraordinary measures. Several camps have been relocated closer to state capitals, trading permanence for perceived safety. Zamfara moved its camp from Tsafe to Gusau, while Kwara shifted operations from Yikpata in Edu local government area to Ilorin late last year after repeated attacks in Kwara North. Kaduna’s camp remains temporarily housed within a government college in the state capital, after insecurity forced the abandonment of its permanent site along the Abuja highway.

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At these locations, soldiers, police officers and paramilitary groups maintain visible checkpoints, patrols and surveillance. Officials say the arrangements are designed to deter attacks and reassure families. Yet for many parents, reassurance remains fragile.

Haruna Danjuma, national president of the Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria, said deployments to volatile areas should come with “the highest form of protection”. He urged closer collaboration between security agencies and local leaders, arguing that the safety of corps members must be treated as a national priority rather than an administrative detail.

Public policy analysts have gone further, questioning whether the scheme’s current structure is sustainable amid prolonged insecurity. Waheed Bello, a public affairs analyst in Ilorin, called for a review of camp locations and greater flexibility in using temporary facilities. “There is nothing inevitable about placing young people in harm’s way in the name of tradition,” he said.

The NYSC has yet to respond publicly to specific concerns raised during this mobilisation. Efforts to reach its national spokesperson were unsuccessful.

For now, corps members inside the camps are adapting. Many say they plan to limit movement outside camp grounds, avoid late-night activities and rely on collective vigilance. Some are already thinking ahead to their primary assignments, weighing whether to seek redeployment once orientation ends.

The unease surrounding this year’s exercise underscores a broader dilemma facing Nigeria: how to preserve national institutions built for unity in an era defined by insecurity. For thousands of young graduates, the answer is being tested not in theory, but on the road and behind guarded camp gates.