Editor’s note: Ini Akpan Morgan, Naij.com guest columnist, writes an open letter to Solomon Dalong, the minister of youth and sports, in an effort to restore the justice that, in the author’s opinion, was violated with the participation of the NYSC, which is subordinate to Mr Dalong. Ini Morgan tells a story of Jennifer Pan, who, in the words of Mr Morgan, was unfairly deprived of the deserved award at the 2015 NYSC Presidential Awards ceremony held in March 2015.
Picturing the ordeals Jennifer Pam had to go through to win the desired award, Ini Morgan, who represents Ms Pam in the Federal Executive Council, hopes his call for justice will reach Minister Dalong.
Dear Minister Dalong,
Permit me to congratulate you once again on your well-deserved appointment to the Federal Executive Council, and wish you a fruitful tenure in office as the honourable minister of youths and sports. I do not need to remind you of the dispensation, which you are now serving in, because you have always been one of the drivers of the APC change mantra in Plateau state and Nigeria at large.
I write to you concerning the issue of the injustice and social robbery of an indigent young woman and a hardworking daughter of Plateau state, Jennifer Stanley Pam, committed by the hands of the devious and vicious collaborators of the NYSC and the office of the presidential adviser on youths development. Miss Pam was denied a well-deserved NYSC presidential award during the 2015 NYSC Presidential Awards ceremony held in March 2015 shortly before the 2015 general elections. That awards ceremony is believed to have been one of the incentives ushered in to promote the chances of the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, in the elections.
It was the act of wickedness when Jennifer Stanley Pam, the winner of the NYSC Best Graduating Corps Member Award for Taraba state in the 2013/14 NYSC service year, was denied the well-deserved reward at the 2015 NYSC Presidential Awards ceremony. Her name was deliberately substituted on the list of the awardees, who were granted medals, given cash rewards and offered automatic and immediate appointments into the Federal Civil Service.
Certificate indicating that Jennifer Pam is the winner of the NYSC Best Graduating Corps Member Award for Taraba state in the 2013/14 NYSC service year. Photo credit: Ini A. Morgan
Jennifer Pam is the second child among five girls in the family. Her father, Stanley Pam, the former assistant comptroller of customs in the Nigeria Custom Service, died when Jennifer was about graduating from the Nasarawa State University, Keffi in 2012; at the time her elder sister Jane was serving as a youth corps member in Yobe state. Jennifer’s mother, a petty trader in Jos, was struggling to see Jennifer through the university, and to provide for the other children, who were in school. We thank God the Canadian government sponsored Jennifer’s younger sister Joy to study in Ontario in September 2014.
In sympathy with her mother’s plight of shouldering the burden of raising the children alone, Ms Pam decided early in her service year in Jalingo, Taraba state, to be thrift and severe with her monthly allowances in an effort to commence a project to win the Best Corps Member Award for Taraba state. She managed to win the support of the well-meaning individuals, including the then Governor Umar of Taraba state, who assisted Jennifer with a plot of land in Jalingo to enhance the chances to achieve her goal. She worked as a labourer throughout the five-month construction of her pet project, carrying concrete mixes in pans and building woods. Serving both as mason and carpenter Jennifer was also responsible for paying throughout the duration of the project. It was her desire to let the zonal officers of the NYSC have the head office in Jalingo, the capital of Taraba state. Before Jennifer Pam made the zonal office available, the NYSC staff in Jalingo had worked under intolerable conditions; thus, she decided to build a befitting office for them, making this dream her community development service project, which fortunately won her the Best Graduating Corps Member Award for Taraba state in the 2013/14 service year.
Article devoted to Jennifer Pam’s community development project. Photo credit: Ini A. Morgan
To win the state’s Best Graduating Corps Member Award and be the guest of President Jonathan on the night he hosted three batches (2011/12 to 2013/14) of over 470 corps members during the 2015 NYSC Presidential Awards ceremony in Aso Rock Villa in Abuja was Jennifer’s Pam’s dear dream. She with no doubt should have been included on the lists of the awardees, being one of the 36 best graduating corps members of the 2013/14 service year nationwide. I wonder why Jennifer’s name was omitted. In my opinion, she deserved to be among the first 111 names on the awardees list. What happened?
The then Federal Ministry of Youths Development, the National Youth Service Corps and the office of President Jonathan’s special assistant on youth affairs conspired and robbed Jennifer Pam, a Nigerian citizen, a job creator, humanitarian activist and social service provider, of equity and her reward. It was through the austere living and sacrifice that she braced the tape of her dream and won the Best Graduating Corps Member Award for Taraba state in the 2013/14 service year. Jennifer’s name was substituted on the list of presidential awardees by some wicked people, who instead of rewarding hard work chose rather to reward political patronage based on primitive and partisan interests. This is the witchcraft as it is; we are now looking for such kind of people in Nigeria to hunt them down. Minister Dalong, this is the witch-hunt you must take part in.
As you are reading this, Jennifer Pam, who completed her service year in June 2014, remains unemployed and an additional burden, not a relief, for her mother. This young woman, who denied herself the little comfort her NYSC allowances could have provided, created jobs for two artisans in Jalingo, provided the federal government agency with the office accommodation and won a just award, but was denied it by a cabal of partisan apologists in “collabo” with the dubious civil servants. The question is: would this short change and denial have happened if Jennifer’s father, the former deputy comptroller of customs, had not died?
I therefore bring this to your notice, Mr Dalong, with accompanying photographs, believing that though Mr Stanley Pam died, his daughter Jennifer deserves to be protected and adequately provided for by the laws of Nigeria and by the officials like you, who have come on board with an onerous mission to change the twisted wheels of governance caused by dangerous maneuvers and abuse of our national psyche and patriotic zeal by a gang of usurpers making up the ruling party for the last 16 years. As an appointee from Plateau state, representing the interests of Ms Pam in the Federal Executive Council, I feel that no other person is divinely positioned to fill the shoes left behind by Mr Pam, and, who knows, maybe that is why the almighty God has brought you into the national prominence at this time. It is now your responsibility to raise the hope of Jennifer Pam, who has lost her sense of patriotism and belief in Nigeria as a nation that can provide for the vulnerable ones. God bless you as you are going to address this ungodly national deprivation against a helpless and fatherless young woman. We condemn prostitutes, but we do not know why our young women choose this path in life. Physical witches in Nigeria must be hunted down. Thank you for your time.
Ini Akpan Morgan for Naij.com
Ini A. Morgan is a Port Harcourt-based architect, writer and public affairs analyst. He is married with children.
This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or its editors.
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The post Open Letter To Youth Minister Solomon Dalong: Stop The Injustice Encouraged By The NYSC! appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
