The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Transworld Security, Dr Victoria Ekhomu, has urged the Federal Government to adopt a more intelligence driven and risk based approach to deploying National Youth Service Corps members, insisting that the safety of young graduates must remain paramount amid Nigeria's persistent security challenges. She made the call while reacting to a Federal Government directive posting corps members to states facing security difficulties.

While acknowledging the NYSC scheme as one of Nigeria's most enduring nation building programmes, fostering national integration and cultural exchange among young Nigerians from different backgrounds, Ekhomu maintained that no policy aimed at promoting unity should expose corps members to avoidable danger. She argued that every deployment decision should be guided by comprehensive security risk assessments carried out by professional security and intelligence agencies, noting that the security situation across the country is far from uniform, with some states managing isolated concerns while others continue battling terrorism, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts and violent crime.

According to her, deployment decisions should rest on current intelligence, continuous threat assessments and government's demonstrated capacity to protect corps members, rather than broad geographical classifications, since security conditions remain dynamic and policies must be flexible enough to reflect changing realities. She warned that implementing the policy without adequate safeguards could expose corps members to kidnapping, terrorist attacks, armed robbery, communal violence and psychological trauma, cautioning that such incidents could discourage graduates from participating in the scheme and heighten anxiety among parents.

Ekhomu further noted that host communities also stand to lose if corps members cannot serve in their areas, given their contributions to education, healthcare, agriculture and community development, though she cautioned that security incidents involving corps members could strain already stretched local security resources. She recommended stronger intelligence gathering, improved inter agency collaboration, rapid emergency response mechanisms, secure accommodation and regular security briefings throughout the service year, alongside integrating GPS enabled emergency reporting systems and dedicated communication channels into the NYSC security framework.

She also called for a review of the deployment policy toward a dynamic, risk based framework assessing individual local government areas rather than entire states, arguing this would allow authorities to suspend deployments immediately when security deteriorates and resume postings once conditions improve. Ekhomu concluded that protecting corps members is both a moral obligation and essential to sustaining public confidence in the scheme.