₦airaland Forum

An NYSC member took to social media days ago to criticise what she saw as bad governance and made her opinions known to the public and this has cause a lot of talk and talk back. Whether this violates her position in the NYSC is talk for another day but what has me writing this is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi opinion and the reactions to it.

Temitope is of the opinion that making the video violates her terms of service and she should be punished and this were his exact words “Citizens can abuse a living day out of their President or any public official. It is normal. But a copper violated her oath and conduct here. That is capital punishment under NYSC.". Seems people were more interested in the last sentence than the entire opinion.

People's Gazette and FIJ, two news platforms that are more known for sensationalism went ahead to either purposely or unpurposely misinterpret the statement "That is capital punishment under NYSC" as they removed the last two words and based their writings on "That is capital punishment" in which they claimed Temitope Ajayi said she should face the death penalty.

Capital Punishment refers to the highest penalty under an act. In Law, the highest penalty a human being can pay is with his or her life and it is mostly associated with death so when people say capital punishment, they are referring to a death sentence but this was not the case in the statement Temitope Ajayi made.

He said Capital Punishment under NYSC which means the highest punishment within the confines of NYSC which is basically expulsion. I wonder how these media houses translated that to mean the death sentence. I wonder if it is an innocent misinterpretation or just a sinister propaganda to mislead the public since even in their reporting, they added the "under NYSC" then removed it in their interpretation

In the USA, under the NCAA, there is something called the "death penalty" and this is sometimes applied to schools who violate laws. It doesn't translate to killing the school or hanging the students of the team, the Death Penalty under NCAA Simply means a one year ban as this is the maximum punishment that school can get.

We have always raised issues of personal responsibility and responsibility to the public within the media and this is one of the instances. It is quite unfair and unprofessional for someone to make a public opinion only for it to be twisted by media houses who intend to use it to push narratives. But then again, have we as Nigerians lost our ability to read and comprehend so badly that we can't translate by ourselves?

I remember when in primary and secondary school, we did comprehension as part of English language and this is to ensure that you read a passage and you are able to pick exactly what the author meant by the sentences, did we all fail this or we lost the ability to now read and comprehend simple English.?

I wonder why these media houses did this, did they consider the trauma this NYSC member will go through reading headlines saying a presidential aide was calling for her to be killed or the need to push agendas have now superceded their initial responsibility to the public which is to present accurate news reports.

I am willing to bet if regulatory agencies decide to look into this or take steps to sanction these media houses, the same people will come out to accuse the government of fighting the media when they themselves are the ones breaking their own codes and directives.

This is just tiring. Very tiring

Sheuns:
I’ll ask this question.

Which of NYSC rules did the lady break?

Everyone saying as a corps member you’re not allowed to criticize or make comments about the country or government should provide the place in the rule book where this is written.

emkz:
Capital punishment does not have any meaning in NYSC context. It means capital punishment, i.e., decapitate the head

Mynd44:
You must be a proponent of the now popular saying "school na scam"

Mynd44:
Not my problem. That is between her and the NYSC's vague rules.

NYSC have rules that bans press statements by corp members and they take it a bit too seriously since social media is not the press neither are the corp members civil servants

Mynd44:
You must be a proponent of the now popular saying "school na scam"

Juoflife1:
These people keep embarrassing themselves. Oya arrest her and see.

Mynd44:
Not my problem. That is between her and the NYSC's vague rules.

NYSC have rules that bans press statements by corp members and they take it a bit too seriously since social media is not the press neither are the corp members civil servants

Mynd44:
You must be a proponent of the now popular saying "school na scam"

Mynd44:
Not my problem. That is between her and the NYSC's vague rules.

NYSC have rules that bans press statements by corp members and they take it a bit too seriously since social media is not the press neither are the corp members civil servants

Sheuns:
I’ll ask this question.

Which of NYSC rules did the lady break?

Everyone saying as a corps member you’re not allowed to criticize or make comments about the country or government should provide the place in the rule book where this is written.

NYSC BYE-LAWS (Revised 2011)

3. CODE OF CONDUCT

III. DURING THE PERIOD OF PRIMARY ASSIGNMENT

Not be rude to constituted authority
Any member who is rude to constituted authority shall be tried by the Corps Disciplinary Committee and, if found guilty, be liable to extension of service for a period not less than thirty (30) days with half pay