by That Viral Youth Corper Who Criticized
There are NYSC bylaws that bar corps members from doing many things, including openly criticizing authorities. The penalties are grave and I will accept that Corps member Ushie Rita uguamaye, faulted the rule book. But I want to tell you why I say she is a victim and I will not have done differently if I were in her shoes.
She is from my place, Obudu, in Cross River State. Her father was an Immigration officer who died in May 2019, after participating in a protest over the demolition of his palm plantation for the Obudu International Airport.
There was a protest by youths and women of Ukambi community over the demolition of their community farmlands for the Obudu International cargo and passenger airport. According to a CrossRiverWatch report, her dad, Mr. Raphael A. Ushie, a Chief Inspector of Nigeria Immigration Service NIS, who was also the younger brother of Governor Ayade’s personal physician, Dr. Vincent Ushie, died after he was rushed from a hospital in Obudu to the Univerisity of Calabar Teaching Hospital UCTH, having participated in the protest.
Her father, who was nearing retirement from the Nigeria Immigration Service had invested his lifetime savings in a palm plantation in his village, Ukambi. On hearing that farmlands in neighboring Atiekpe and Ikwomikwu had been demolished and same was going to commence in Ukambi, he rushed home to confront the bulldozer that was encroaching into his palm plantation.
He arrived and went straight to the farm in his uniform and met the bulldozer nearing his plantation. He faced the operator and tried to prevent him from encroaching into his land before other community members joined him in the farm. He participated fully in the day’s protest and the demolition and collapsed after then. He was rushed to a hospital in Obudu. The matter couldn’t be handled there and he was moved to UCTH in Calabar where he passed on.
Not a single dime was paid to the family as compensation for the palm plantation or for any other other expenses.
Ushie Rita Aguamaye, who is now 24, was 19 years old when the inefficiency of Nigeria took her dad away. Their poor mum was left alone to see them through school and till now, there is no hope that the investment their father hoped to keep for them will be compensated.
And this young girl goes to the market and comes back to complain about what everyone in the country, including the President’s supporters are grumbling about, and some persons are calling for her head?
If you were in her shoes, you live in a country where the system kills your dad for no reason, when you are only 19, your mother suffers to see you through school and when you try to express your frustrations publicly, the same nation that killed your father threatens to kill you too? So where is the freedom of expression?
I think that rather than pushing this young girl into additional complications, well meaning Nigerians should rather sympathize with her ordeal and rise up to support her and the family to regain the missing gaps in their lives.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
The attached picture is the picture of her late dad.
Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Agba Jalingo, and does not represent TheLumineNews, its agent or the organization the author works for.
