In the annals of Nigeria’s long and shameful betrayals of liberty, the withholding of the – NYSC discharge certificate of Ushie Rita Uguamaye – known to millions by her social media name as “Raye” will certainly stand out as a petty, vindictive stain on the conscience of this Republic. This is not discipline. This is not law. This is the crude and clumsy hand of political retribution; an authoritarian reflex dressed in the tatters of bureaucracy. More than anything else, this is not the spirit of democracy; it is the twitching reflex of authoritarianism; the petty tyranny of small men in big offices, and a shameful echo of military-era repression. But here’s the truth – it is not Raye’s name that will carry the shame. It is the NYSC’s. It is the Tinubu administration. And history is an unforgiving witness.
That a young woman who served her country faithfully should be punished for daring to speak truth to power is an obscenity against free speech and the very idea of democracy itself. Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, guarantees Raye’s right to criticize the government; yet the NYSC, in an act both cowardly and contemptible, has trampled that right beneath the jackboot of political subservience to the Tinubu administration. This is not the Nigeria of renewed hope agenda promised to youths; this is a Nigeria that fears them.
The ridiculous official NYSC excuse – that Raye missed biometric clearance – is a convenient fig leaf to cover the nakedness of the vendetta, that is laughable and should attract no further comment. We have seen this movie before: in 1988, Bamidele Aturu was stripped of his certificate for refusing to bow before military vanity. That was under the jackal rule of the khaki boys. What excuse does the Tinubu administration have now, in the supposed daylight of democracy?
This is an assault not just on Raye, but on every Nigerian who dares to raise their voice against corruption, incompetence, and bad governance. It sends a chilling message: your degree may be yours; your voice may be yours, but your future belongs to the State – if you obey. And if you do not, they will take even the paper that proves your service, and with it, your dignity.
The NYSC has reduced itself from a national institution to a petty enforcer for thin-skinned power. It has abandoned its founding principles of nationalism and patriotism for the cheap thrill of pleasing the throne. It now polishes the boots that trample the very ideals it claims to uphold.
Let it be known: every certificate withheld for dissent is a badge of honour for the recipient and a brand of shame on the issuer. Every attempt to muzzle criticism fertilizes the soil of resistance. And every petty act of revenge from a fearful state will one day be remembered not as an assertion of strength, but as the final confession of its weakness. Either way, every fear-driven act of silencing writes, in ink and in memory, the story of an ossified Tinubu administration that knows it cannot withstand the truth.
Nigeria cannot build a future on silencing the voices that would save it. By silencing one voice, they condemn themselves before history as enemies of liberty – proof that those who fear words have already lost the argument. If the government and its agencies persist in waging war on free speech, they will discover, too late, that a nation that kills its critics is a nation digging its own grave; with the applause of its own silence.
