In any country on Earth, you can criticise your government and its leaders if you are a member of the military forces and paramilitary services. However, you are expected to resign your commission or leave the force to do so.
For the same reason, you cannot be a serving member of a military force and paramilitary service and contest for an election. You can contest. But you will have to resign your commission or leave the service to do so.
In the United Kingdom, it is even more extreme. Please fact-check me. According to the last guidelines in the HSR 2: General Principles of Conduct of the British Civil Service, "You must give your undivided allegiance to the State."
They have no problem with you attacking the government, but you must resign to do so.
Many Nigerians are just very sentimental. They do not think. They just jump on trends. The National Youth Service Corp is actually a paramilitary reserve force. That is why it is a corp. It is just like the Federal Road Safety Corp, only that the FRSC is a career, and the NYSC is just for a year.
Read the NYSC enabling law. The Federal Government of Nigeria can deploy NYSC Corp members to fight during a state of war. Read. It is in the NYSC Act!
If every corp member was allowed to criticise the government, there would be no discipline in the corp, and any Presidential aspirant supporting this behaviour would be irresponsible.
There is no perfect government on Earth. If we allow corp members criticise governments publicly, morale in the corp will collapse. Not may. Will. And the NYSC will become an anything can happen institution that gradually loses its relevance and credibility as various corp members start vying to outdo themselves in attacking whichever government policy they dislike.
People aspiring to lead Nigeria ought to know these things. Not everything should be politicised.
Please wait until after your one year of service. Then, you can join el-Rufai or Peter Obi's campaigns or their parties. But if you cannot wait for one year, resign now and join them.
Reno Omokri
Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022. 21st Most Talked About Person in Africa, 2024.
@OfficialAPCNg@APCUKingdom@fkeyamo@MBuhari@ProfOsinbajo Its must have done on the leader of APC that the fragrant of ideal in testing people's will with cash policy & petrol scarcity at the last minute is what resulted to loosing all strongholds but why must it cont?
@followlastma@officialABAT@jidesanwoolu Is this how how lagosian will cont to spend hours in Ikeja along cos of no presence of traffic officials? It's high time we build strong system rather than strong individuals.
Igbega Eko Ajumose Ni!!!
@MBuhari@NigeriaGov May Almighty grant the departed forgiveness & quick recovery for d injured. But Mr President needs to address cash cos Nigerians are dying.