Why we want Peace Corps legalised – Senator Ndume

After President Buhari rejected the bill for an act to establish the Peace Corps in February 2018, the bill was reintroduced by Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) in 2019.

Checks by Daily Trust show that the bill has passed first and second readings in the Senate.

According to the bill, one of the core objectives of the corps is to “develop, empower and provide gainful employment for the youth, facilitate peace, volunteerism, community services, neighbourhood watch, nation-building and related matters.”

Ndume, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, said that he and his colleagues in the National Assembly are pushing for the passage and assent of the Peace Corps Bill to address unemployment and security challenges bedevilling the country.

The Senator, who sponsored the Peace Corps Bill at the Senate, said the corps as an internationally recognised organisation, backed by the United Nations should be supported by all to complement the services of the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies in the fight against terrorism, banditry and other crimes.

“Members of the corps can be used to maintain peace, instead of force especially during peaceful protest; it is the members of the corps that are supposed to give them cover not the police carrying AK-47. If there is an occasion like a political rally, you don’t need to deploy police but Peace Corps. Have you ever seen police in a stadium in the US?” he asked.

According to him, “It is about volunteerism, they (Peace Corps) have 180,000 youth that have registered with them voluntarily. Now there are about 5,000 soldiers in Borno and they are supposed to be in the war front. So, since there is peace in Maiduguri, members of the Peace Corps can be deployed to stabilise the capital,” he said in a phone interview.

Ndume said at both chambers of the National Assembly, there is unanimity that the bill be passed and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari to address unemployment and insecurity in the country.

“I am not the only one that is pushing for it. In fact, many people wanted to sponsor it but we synchronised because the bill is popular. If they (my colleagues) are not in support of it, it wouldn’t have passed the third reading in the 8th Senate. And now, when I presented it again, it was unanimously supported. It is inter-agency conflicts and rivalry that stopped it before. Other security organisations, especially the police, don’t want Peace Corps. That was how we battled on the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and look at the progress they are bringing,” he said.