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NYSC Dismisses Report Of DG’s Plan To Islamize Benue Orientation Camp

Joel Ajayi
The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has rebuffed the report speculating that the Director General of the Scheme, Brigadier General Ibrahim Shuaibu, is orchestrating plans to Islamize Benue camp, describing it as the imagination of the writer.
A group under the auspices of Coalition for Peace and Justice had in a statement alleged that the NYSC DG expressed anger that there is no Mosque in the camp and ordered Benue State Coordinator to build a mosque in the camp immediately.
However, in a statement signed by the scheme’s Director, Press and Public Relations, Adenike Adeyemi, the management noted that the DG’s instruction was targeted at corps welfare and aimed at ensuring all groups worship under structures built for that purpose and not exposed to negative weather elements in the event of rain or extreme sunshine.
The management further said that there was no time during the DG’s visit such instruction was given, insisting that the scheme recognizes all faith and even allowed the National Association of Catholic Corpers (NACC), Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF) and Muslim Corpers Association of Nigeria. (MCAN) to operate without hinder in the camp.
“When we visited the camp, the DG observed the three associations worshiping in the open space, he therefore instructed the State coordinator to provide spaces for them, as those worshiping should have a structure under which they should worship. The instruction was therefore targeted toward the welfare of the corps members.
“In fact, it wasn’t only Muslim Corpers Association of Nigeria (MCAN) that he saw that day. He was only concern about the welfare of the corps members without prejudice. As the scheme does not favour any religion against another.
“So the DG’s instruction was targeted at corps welfare and aimed at ensuring all groups worship under structures built for that purpose and not exposed to negative weather elements in the event of rain or extreme sunshine,” the statement read.
The management wondered where those peddling the report of Islamization got it from, urging mischief makers to leave the scheme out of any religion, political or ethnic sentiment as it cannot be working against the vision of the scheme.
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ELECTING A POPE: THE BURDEN OF MAKING CHOICES

By Olubunmi Mayaki
“Habemus papam!” which in the English Language means, “We have a Pope.” was pronounced by Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a French Catholic prelate, His Eminence, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti from the iconic loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican City on Thursday 8 May 2025 after white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Those Latin words proclaimed to a tensed global audience the result of the election of a new Supreme Pontiff after the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) on 21 April 2025 at the age of 88 years.
The Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Robert Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) emerged as primus inter pares (first among equals) from the cardinals after undergoing detailed election rituals, which have been the process of selecting the head of the 2000-year-old Catholic Church for centuries.
A papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected, was held consisting of one hundred and thirty-three (133) College of Cardinals, drawn from different parts of the world converged at St. Peter’s Basilica for a public mass before heading to the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes to elect the 267th Pope. During the mass, part of the choir renditions reminded voters to remember their last day when they would stand before God in judgment to render their stewardship on earth, which is to prevent them from rigging the voting process. At the behest of the senior cardinal deacon, voting formalities were read to the electors, which included- oath-taking- “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one whom I believe should be elected according to God”. Other processes are banning phones, jamming calls, forbidding speaking or contacting any of the candidates, voting rounds, spiritual pauses etc.
Looking at the voting process, one should be curious about how an election to pick a leader for a religious body could be so systematic and attract such global attention. It is a sharp contrast to elections where political leaders are chosen. Even in the so-called advanced democracies, we have seen electoral flaws and a dearth of political leaders. States are finding it difficult to pick genuine statesmen, giving rise to hegemonic leaders. These political imperia ums are emerging and stoking crises in their domain. Fallouts of elections are no longer favourable due to unpopular candidates forced on citizens.
Africa, as a case study, shows that no matter the rules put in place by the continent’s leaders, our election processes have been fraught with rigging, corruption and waste. In most cases, the leaders who set the rules are the violators of the same process. Governments conspire with electoral bodies to truncate election processes at will. Such political brigandage has destroyed the progress of the continent.
Closing this view, I hope that African leaders will take a cue from the Catholic Church’s election process to reinvigorate and rejig the continent’s faltering political process for the good of its people. Better still; political scholars from the continent can study the Catholic model. The common features of elections in most parts of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, are riddled with vote rigging, violence, human rights abuse, repression, barbarism, crises, untold hardship, and sometimes, outright war. This is the bane of Africa’s development.
The burden of making good political choices should ordinarily rest on citizens. However, politicians have hijacked this process for selfish reasons. It has given birth to bad leaders. If we fail to get it right, what we see is what we get. That is the story of the world politics!
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