The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has reacted to the incident of a Corps member proposing to an unnamed female soldier at an orientation camp in Kwara.
The Director-General of the NYSC while addressing the media on Tuesday at the orientation camp in Yikpata, Kwara state said “we always tell our corps members to play by the rules”.
According to him, “Every organisation has its own customs and traditions, and we have to abide by it. We, on our part, have spoken to our corps members.
“We encourage them to inter-marry, but we have never had a situation where a corps member will go and propose (to a soldier).
“The army has its own tradition and they will not joke with it. So, we always tell our corps members to play by the rules.
“I can assure that the army as an institution is built on its customs and traditions, and anything that will impinge on discipline, they will not take it lightly.”
Meanwhile, the Army in its reaction said; “If the female soldier had not engaged in public romance in uniform at the orientation camp, but outside, nobody would have bothered.
“If she is not sanctioned, others may just be emboldened to do even worse than she did. Remember that military laws and regulations are different from that of the civil service.
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“The military, as an institution, has its laws, and regulations that need to be followed and complied with, and if they are being abused by officers and soldiers, without any sanction, then it is only a matter of time before the institution loses its respect in the eyes of the public.”
Army spokesperson, Brig Gen Onyema Nwachukwu while speaking on the development said that it is an act of indiscipline for a trainer to engage in an affair with her trainee.
Describing the act as fraternisation in military terms, he said it is an act of gross misconduct for personnel to engage in romance while in uniform.
His words, “The Nigerian Army has codes of conduct, rules and regulations guiding our personnel whenever and wherever they are deployed for duty.
“As personnel, her task was to train the corps members and not to indulge in an amorous relationship with any of them.
Mr Nwachukwu said the public perception would have been different if a male soldier had proposed to a female trainee, adding that it (public) would have seen it as taking advantage of the female trainee.
“These rules were put in place for the purpose of proper administration and discipline in the Army. If I may ask, what if the soldier was a male? How would the public have perceived his action? Definitely, it would have been perceived as taking advantage of a female corps member, a trainee, put in his care for training.
“The same applies here. The Nigerian military like all others has its disciplinary codes, distinct from that of the general society. Every personnel has voluntarily undertaken to be bound by this code,” he noted.
