Nigerian-born doctor in United States, Charles Oladare yesterday threatened to sue the Federal Government if it fails to amend the National Youth Service Corps Act (NYSC Act) to make the scheme voluntary, within 30 days.
Oladare, convener and national coordinator of Social Rehabilitation Grouppe and Support Initiative, argued compulsory participation in the scheme amounts to forced labour and servitude.
This, he said, erodes Nigerians’ fundamental right to free choice of employmentin sections 34 (1) (b)&(c) and 42 of the Constitution and articles IV and XXIII of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The 34- year-old toxicologist said he graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in 2012 but abstained from participating in the scheme on grounds of morality, belief and conscience.
Oladare, in a July 11 ‘Notice of intention to sue,’ to President Bola Tinubu by his lawyer, C.A. Mishael, of Mishael and Partners, is seeking the repeal of sections 12 and 13 of NYSC Act which made participation compulsory.
He said he copied Senate and House of Representatives.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) member urged President Tinubu to “respectfully use your good offices to cause a bill to be sent to National Assembly for the purpose, if not of jettisoning the NYSC Act, then to strike down sections 12 and 13, which make participation in the scheme compulsory and therefore a criminal offence not to participate.”
