Pregnant and nursing mothers at the National Youth Service Corps Scheme camp in Lagos State insist they want to participate in physical exercises like their colleagues, SEGUN OLUGBILE reports
Dateline was Friday, July 5. Venue was the Iyana Ipaja Orientation Camp of the Lagos State National Youth Service Corps. Nursing mothers with their babies strapped to their backs joined their colleagues to welcome the Minister of Youth Development, Dr. Inuwa Abdulkadir, who was at the camp on an official visit.
In spite of the bundles of joy they carried, the nursing mothers, who are members of the 2013 Batch B of the NYSC, would not want to be outdone by their colleagues. Those who came to the camp with their housemaids left their babies with them for safekeeping. Promptly, they joined others when it was time to sing the NYSC anthem. With their voices raised, their NYSC fez caps fittingly on their heads, they sang-
Youth obey the clarion call
Let us lift our nation high
Under the sun or in the rain
With dedication and selflessness
Nigeria’s ours
Nigeria we serve!
As they sang, their babies were busy playing, sleeping or fiddling with their mothers’ hair. Eleven-month-old Prosper, whose mother, Mrs. Ezeokeke Ifeoma, is a graduate of Akanu Ibiam Polytechnic, Ebonyi State, is one of such tots distracting his mum’s attention by fiddling with her hair. Ezeokeke says she would have loved to wait till after the service year before marriage but for her husband who desperately wanted a baby.
While this was going on. Then some of the 2,163 corps members, including 12 physically challenged graduates deployed in the state for the mandatory one-year service, hurriedly ran under the canopies. The minister and his entourage and the Lagos Coordinator of the NYSC, Mrs. Adenike Adeyemi, soon joined them. But in spite of the rains, some corps members, including some of the 156 nursing mothers and 68 pregnant women serving in the state, defied the rains.
The passion, commitment and courage the nursing mothers displayed during the parade drew the attention of our correspondent to some of them. They narrated the joy and the challenges of undergoing the service year as nursing mothers and pregnant women, as the case may be.
One of them, who got married shortly after the completion of her degree in Health Education at the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, in 2012, Mrs. Salau Adebisi, says though the camp has been exciting, the policy that excludes nursing mothers and pregnant corps members from in-house residency at the camp should be reviewed.
“It is understandable if they say we should not participate in physical exercises, but I don’t think it is right to deny us rooms in the camp. We should stay in the camp too, like our unmarried colleagues because we are missing out on those social activities that hold mostly at night in the camp,” she says.
Salau, who got married last year, has a seven-month-old baby named Ayomide. She expresses the hope that her being in camp with the girl will have a motivational effect on her daughter later in life.
“Nursing a child is not an easy job, let alone combining it with the national service. However, the youth corps year is what one had been looking forward to experiencing. But fortunately or unfortunately, I could not participate in the rope climbing, scaling the barrier and general physical exercises. Though I did not plan to have a baby before service, when it happened, my husband and I have no choice but to live with it. I’m enjoying every bit of the action here and I hope that by the time my baby grows up and I tell her the story of how she was here with me during my service year, she would be motivated to be serious with her studies,” she says.
Another nursing mother, Mrs. Umuneje Jennifer, who also has a degree in Health Education from the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, says combining the national youth service with nursing a baby is stressful but worthwhile.
“I got married last year because my husband could no longer wait. I want to be part of those social activities if I cannot be involved in the physical exercises. So, I want the NYSC to make it possible for us to achieve this,” she says.
A pregnant corps member, Mrs. Ogungbemi Stella, also notes that her experience at the camp has been enjoyable.
Her words, “I got married in 2008 and I already had a baby. We didn’t plan to have a baby because I’d planned to come here and enjoy my service year but when I got pregnant, there was nothing I could do,” she says.
So, how has she been coping with her pregnancy and ante-natal care? Ogungbemi says, “The NYSC law does not allow pregnant corps members and nursing mothers to stay in the orientation camp. So, I have to move from my husband’s house in Sango to put up with my parents at Ikotun-Egbe, a place that is closer to the camp. From there, I go for the ante-natal clinic from where I come to the camp. Let me say that I’m missing the fun at the camp – the exercises, the social activities, the drills, the early morning walk-outs and all the fanfare.
“The Federal Government should review the NYSC regulation to allow pregnant corps members and nursing mothers to stay in camp. Orientation camps should be built to accommodate people like us,” Ogungbemi, whose husband works as a human resource manager on Victoria Island, says.
However, another corps member, Miss Ejakita Cordelia, who has a degree in International Business from University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, says apart from allowing these categories of corps members to stay at the orientation camp, the monthly allowance for all corps members should be increased from N19,000 to N35,000 per month.
The 28-year-old lady from Kwale in Ndokwa Local Government Area of Delta State says the condition of living at the camp is horrible.
She calls on the government to expand facilities at the camp, saying, “I’m a Nigerian and I must participate in the NYSC, but I can tell you that the condition here is horrible. I could not sleep during my first three days at the camp. We were 18 in a room – oh, sorry, in a hall. But it’s our country. I’m learning to cope. But I don’t go to the kitchen for meals. I buy my food at the Mammy Market,” the 2007 graduate of Careers College, Warri, says.
She commends the pregnant corps members and nursing mothers for their patriotism and courage.
The NYSC Coordinator, Adeyemi, however, explains that since the NYSC regulation forbids these categories of corps members to live at the orientation camps across the country, nothing could be done to help them.
“We understand how they feel, but there is nothing we can do to change that; but I can tell you that we ensure that they are not denied their rights. We ensure that they go in and out of the camp anytime they present their exeat card. They cannot live at the orientation camp because we do not have facilities with which to take care of them. The medical facilities we have cannot handle deliveries and children’s health,” she says.
Also, the minister explains that the pregnant corps members and the nursing mothers have not done anything wrong. “We cannot sanction them; we can only support them and create an environment that will make things easy for them. That is what we have done. They go in and out of the camp at will and we ensure that other corps members too enjoy their stay in our various orientation camps across the country,” he adds.
Abdulkadir also assesses the 40-year-old scheme and concludes that the Federal Government is satisfied with the NYSC. The scheme, he says, has delivered on its mandate to enhance national integration and unity.
“NYSC has done very well in the past 40 years to promote national unity, integration and harmony. What the Federal Government wants to do now is to strengthen the scheme by incorporating more programmes that will benefit our youths. We will also ensure an improved welfare package for corps members and before this batch concludes their service year, the new welfare package should commence,” the minister adds.
He, however, calls on the corps members to make good use of the social media network to promote the nation. This, he says, they can do by promoting positive happenings in the country.
“You should also be patriotic and enhance national unity. You should avoid all actions that could bring this nation into disrepute,” he says.
Adeyemi also highlights the challenges facing the NYSC in Lagos. These, she explains, include lack of a permanent orientation camp, inadequate space for corps members and lack of a lecture hall.
Abdulkadir and Adeyemi, therefore, appeal to the Lagos State Government to perform its statutory duty by building a befitting permanent orientation camp for the Lagos NYSC.
