Re: Are we better at this too?

Fatima Sanda Usara  Initially, the drama surrounding corps member KD/12C/2265, Abubakar Idris, known for his story titled “In Kaduna, Corps members sleep in the toilet” elicited only a passing interest from this writer. However, reading yet another piece on the matter saddened me. Seeing the dimension the incident is taking, I feel obliged to share […]

Fatima Sanda Usara 

Initially, the drama surrounding corps member KD/12C/2265, Abubakar Idris, known for his story titled “In Kaduna, Corps members sleep in the toilet” elicited only a passing interest from this writer. However, reading yet another piece on the matter saddened me. Seeing the dimension the incident is taking, I feel obliged to share the little knowledge I have on the matter. This became necessary on my part in order that the public would not ignorantly crucify people going about their legitimate duties. I have been privileged with information on the matter from the onset and keeping same to myself, I envisage, would do no one any good.
First, Abubakar in the said article stated “CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the number of youths posted to the camp was more than its capacity”, which led some to take refuge in their cars, mosques and even convert an abandoned toilet to a room. He wrote that camp facilities were grossly inadequate with members numbering about 2,300; 700 higher than in Batch A. Abubakar participated in Batch C. Yet, records show that Kaduna hosted 2,892 corps members for Batch A; 2,506 for Batch B while Batch C (Abubakar’s) was least with 2,462 corp members. Please calculate and see for yourself.
Not only that, the Orientation Camp is said to have a capacity of 3,100 persons at a time- camp officials inclusive. Even at the time he filed his report, there were two unoccupied hostels; each with 300 beds. Add this to the number of corps members in the camp at the time and you will get 3,062; 48 persons less than its capacity. Moreover, it is on record that for Batch C of 2011, the same camp played host to 3,000 corps members which included some members posted to Abuja but were diverted to Kaduna for their orientation programme due to challenges at the Federal Capital Camp at the time. What then informed batch C 2012 with only 2,462 members to be labeled overstretched? Indeed, it is common knowledge that the National Headquarters of the NYSC is responsible for postings and always takes cognizance of each camp’s capacity.
Secondly, Abubakar while trying to justify his claim that the camp is overstretched he attributed Camp Director, Mrs L D Mburi’s admonition to female corps members to desist from defecating indiscriminately as evidence of his assertion. He goofed. If there was shortage of lavatories, as he wants us to believe, to the extent that some corps members resort to defecating outside, how come some members have the luxury of converting a toilet into bedroom? This is at best an oxymoron. Anyway, most of us who went to boarding schools, University campuses and NYSC orientation camps know from experience that it is not necessarily shortage of toilets that leads to boarders defecating indiscriminately.
Thirdly, with all due respect, there is this claim in Muhammad Haruna’s open letter to D.G NYSC which alleged that Mr Abubakar was requested by the authorities to place advertorials in three different newspapers before he could receive his posting letter. Even though one is not aware of the evidence, my esteemed brother in the media believed this serious allegation. However, in Abubakar’s own letter dated 10/01/2013 which was a response to a query requesting to know why he did not collect his posting letter two months after orientation programme ended, he wrote “…I didn’t come to collect the letter due to the condition that was given to me. That condition is that I have to write and publish a retraction of a controversial news story I wrote, unfortunately, I couldn’t fulfill that condition”. No mention of one advertorial was made in his letter talk less of three. Similarly, in minutes of a meeting dated 07/01/2013 in which Abubakar, his father, his father’s friend, corps members (lawyers) and other camp officials all numbering 17 held in the state coordinator’s office on Abubakar’s issue, inclusive of his inability to honour his pledge to retract his earlier publication, no mention was made of an advertorial. What is stated instead reads thus, that the committee had “accepted his apology in which he promised to write a rejoinder to retract the earlier publication..” He had promised to do so within two weeks.
If the responses by those Abubakar implicated in the saga did not kill off his story, nothing else would. The corps member, KD/12C/1094 whose picture appeared in the said article, responded in his query that Abubakar displayed his picture without his consent and though he posed for the snapshot, he had no inkling of any ulterior “…motive for him to snap me.”
While the above member KD/12C/1094 alienated himself from Abubakar’s story, the owners of the “toilet room” went a step further with a letter of protest to the D.G NYSC after serving their punishments. In the letter, Barristers KD/12C/2398 and KD/12C/1141 denied using the abandoned toilet as their accommodation and found the story as vexatious, calculated mischief and defamation of their character. Explaining that while they have their actual bunks in their dormitories, “the space in question was just used as a hideout space for male corps members: …various corps (male) members, use that toilet space as a hideout from camp activities”.
On the motherly side, it was revealed that Mrs Ango had to go down on her knees when Abubakar’s father did the same pleading on his son’s behalf. She begged him to stand up because he was old enough to be her father and traditional respect frowns at such a thing. The Mrs Mburi Abubakar is trying to colour as inhuman confessed to have personally begged the father not to curse his son because according to the father, whose paternity Abubakar allegedly denied, his son has caused him enough problems already.  Again contrary to what Abubakar would want others to believe, his later penalty emanated from the Headquarters; it is the only organ that can relocate or redeploy a member.
Muhammad Haruna, apparently acting on Abubakar’s version of the story, described Abubakar as facing unrelenting punishment for practicing what he was taught about the watchdog role of a journalist, and for his “malicious” story whose accuracy no one challenged during interrogation, yet, “he’ll make the record as the first corper to be court-martialed in the state.” To put matters straight, first, NYSC Bye Laws do not recognise anything as court-martial only a camp court and it has been a fairly old tradition where members are tried for various offences. The standard procedure for any camp court according to Mrs Ango, is the camp director acts as chairperson, representatives from every security body on camp as members, corps members as defence lawyers and the culprit, which was the procedure followed in Abubakar’s camp court sitting. The court is designed to give the culprits fair hearing and to take disciplinary action if found guilty.  Secondly, it would interest the reader to know that prior to Abubakar’s camp court sitting, a similar one had taken place on the 15/11/12 where four corps members were arraigned for committing various offences which included insulting camp officials, rudeness and insubordination. So where lies the truth of going on record as the first to face a camp court or court-martial in the state? More importantly, with the undisputed inaccuracies in his report, how realistic is it that it was not challenged in the camp court sitting? One gathered that he was actually taken round to see the unoccupied hostels as proof of his inaccuracy.
In the same line, if Abubakar had tested hepatitis B positive since early 2012 for which reason he sought consensual posting to Kaduna North, he made a bad case of it from the onset, during registration. There is this NYSC personal data form in which items 9 and 11 require corps members to identify any particular ailment they may be suffering from, with a warning clearly stated in parenthesis that failure to do so might be a decision one might regret later. He did not specify any. So, how could his later claim be believed?
Finally to Abubakar, though sensationalism might be tempting to some journalists, nevertheless there is no alternative to stating the facts; twisting same is what could amount to professional suicide.
Fatima can be reached on <[email protected]>