The death of a 26-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Chidiebere Orji, who lost his life in last week’s bomb explosion in Maiduguri, yesterday, reignited calls for the unbundling of the scheme.

Orji, an indigene of Amurri in Enugu State, was among several victims of the deadly blast that rocked parts of the insurgency-hit city last week.

His remains were laid to rest in his hometown amid tears, anguish, and growing public anger over what many described as a preventable tragedy.

Reacting to his death, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) expressed deep outrage and grief over Orji’s death, and renewed its call for a comprehensive overhaul (or outright abolition) of the scheme, which it said, had failed to protect Nigerian youths.

In a statement, HURIWA, through its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the death of the young corps member highlights the persistent dangers faced by participants of the NYSC scheme, especially the corps members deployed to volatile regions without provision of adequate security for them.

The rights group recalled that the NYSC scheme was established in 1973 in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War with core objectives, including fostering national unity, promoting cultural integration, encouraging youth participation in national development, and bridging ethnic divides.

However, HURIWA lamented that nearly five decades later, these objectives have largely failed to materialise in any meaningful or measurable way.

According to the group, instead of serving as a platform for unity and development, the NYSC scheme has increasingly become a system that exposes young graduates to grave risks, including terrorism, kidnapping, and fatal road accidents.

HURIWA noted that numerous corps members had been abducted in recent years by armed groups, sometimes held for months without decisive intervention from authorities, while others had died in road mishaps linked to poor travel arrangements and lack of institutional support.

The association criticised what it described as systemic inefficiency, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and a glaring lack of leadership within the Ministry of Youth Development and the NYSC Directorate, which it said, contributed to the deterioration of the scheme’s original vision.

HURIWA further disclosed that an opinion poll it conducted revealed that 85 per cent of Nigerians supported the abolition of the NYSC, citing its failure to adapt to modern realities and guarantee the safety and welfare of participants.

The group stated that this overwhelming public sentiment cannot be ignored.

“The gruesome killing of Chidiebere Orji by terrorists in Borno State is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern of negligence and systemic failure. Nigerian youths, trained through the sacrifices of their struggling parents, should not be sent into harm’s way under a programme that has outlived its purpose,” the statement stated.

The group also pointed to recurring reports of corps members being posted to high-risk areas without proper risk assessment, adequate security coverage, or emergency response mechanisms, describing the practice as reckless and inhumane.

HURIWA, therefore, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take immediate and decisive action by either unbundling and restructuring the NYSC scheme into a safer, more efficient system or scrapping it entirely. It emphasised the need to remove what it termed “civil service encumbrances” and redesign youth engagement policies to reflect current security and socio-economic realities.

The association said that continuing with the status quo would only lead to more avoidable deaths and deepen public distrust in government’s institutions, insisting that the safety and dignity of Nigerian youths must take precedence over preserving a failing structure.

HURIWA urged the Federal Government to honour the memory of Chidiebere and others who have died in service by ensuring that no Nigerian youth is again subjected to such preventable risks under the guise of national service.