A man is only called a priest when he wears the
priestly garment and same is true for a lawyer, his wig identifies and defines
him. Uniforms are of important significance much more than we merely think of.
Let’s consult a dictionary, “Uniform: distinctive
clothing identifying the wearer as a member of an organization or group” that’s
according to the Oxford Dictionary. Sometimes last year, a man on mufti confronted me, I
simply refuse to regards him, though he was an officer but by virtue of the
fact that he couldn’t be recognized as a military personnel judging by his
casual outfit neither by an identity card. As I drove on, he furthered
threatened me but I insisted that he had no right to do so at that time.
That
was brave of me, right? Yes, especially in our beloved country- Nigeria. The
knots tied around uniform and how it has been abused reminds me of a friend’s
story. On May 2015, while returning from NYSC orientation camp, Kaduna; a group
of uniformed men waved down their vehicle, they were fully kitted in military
uniform, so no one would have suspected these were thieves. The driver had
obediently parked the vehicle by the road blocks when they shot into the air
and ransacked everyone and everything possible.
Uniform might continually be abused by the average
Nigerian, especially in densely populated area with more illiterates but
controlling it isn’t an alien thought. Last week, I went visiting a friend in
one of the local governments in Kaduna state; we had not slept deep into the
night when we heard villagers roar around 1 AM but remained bottled in the room
till daybreak when the news was made public.
A young man had bulged into the house of a former
commissioner to rob, that wasn’t the news; it was a corps member. That was the
impression the entire village since he was putting on the complete NYSC uniform
7/7 as it is usually called, further research confirmed that the thief only
disguised as a corps member. The abuse of the National Youth Service Corps
uniform has sadly been on the increase. Oftentimes, I see young out-of-school
children, hawkers, drug addicts, mechanics and other categories of people
putting on the NYSC uniform. If the needful is not done in good time to nib
this ugly act in the bud, the love enjoyed by genuine youth corps members would
grow into hatred especially, in the rural areas.
"It is a show of faith in a brand reality that
a retired military officer will never contemplate in
the name of demonstration of charity to give out his military uniform to his
brother or any member of the society who has not passed through military
training like it has become the norm of giving out of NYSC uniform to none Corp
members by ex-Corp members! In the grove of showing benevolence to the needy,
ex-Corp give out their used NYSC uniform to none Corps
members"
This, like Hon Patrick would call is sardonic and lugubrious,it is a ”paraplegic crinkum-crankum
the act of these corp members which exposes serving corp members to threats,
danger and risk to the collective security of serving Corp members and should
be collectively frowned at by those who understand the purpose of the scheme
and the criteria necessary for one to be found worthy to put on the uniform.
It is absolutely necessary the governing body of the
NYSC carry out a sensitization workshop to warn Corp members who have a heart
or who intend to demonstrate such charity to desist from it and also back up
such sensitization with stringent laws to prosecute those found wanting even after the service year.
It is the same reason of brand faithfulness that the
military prevent the civilian populace from putting on it camouflage and it
won’t be wrong if the NYSC scheme toes the same line of thought in action
Adebote Mayowa
07015759276
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