VOLUNTEERISM IN WAR SITUATION

In times past, when the question of reason for existence of certain populations were objects of any mention, many offered to freely serve in organised groups to defend their very right to not just living but having a quality life; gone are the days, in especially our part of the world-Africa, when such slogans as `freedom` were opium for the brain and natural alkaloid-like analgesics for the body no matter the pain. In our days, Volunteerism in the real sense of the word, has often lost out of many minds and in essence, conscription mainly in the guise of artificially created economic hardship, to compare people to consider the armed forces, has often now been the stimulus informing most minds to be recruited to fight a cause they will woul,d otherwise, have hardly considered. Therefore, the battle is often times even lost by some percentage before it is started. Well that is not to deny the fact that a couple still wilfully opt to join the armed forces.
But perhaps, the lack of honesty in the armed forces and the alleged love of money to the point of betraying one`s troops and country at large may have contributed much more to the volunteerism phobia` than may have been openly admitted recently. It is not uncommon to hear, among enlightened youth, nowadays, that they had rather joined and died in the Israeli or American military than to quell into the blood soaked unending war fields in Nigeria. Sad as this may sound, it`s harder to antagonise these opinions than to accept them, giving the realities on ground.
Volunteerism in war situation can take different forms. It ranges from the wilful submission of once self to serve in war torn Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, through offering one`s self to serve in the armed forces like the police, the army, the Navy and indeed the Air force. Yet another form of volunteerism is the wilful acceptance to serve in non-governmental organisations in war torn areas. It is important to note that whatever the choice one may prefer among these listed organisations, volunteerism has suffered setback in regards to persons subscribing to it in one form or the other.
Looking at the armed forces for example, most people if properly informed, and indeed a lot are already informed; prefer to join either the Air force (most preferred from sampled opinion) or the naval force. Less people would want to join the army in Nigeria. The reasons are not far-fetched. Even from entitlements, the take home of most soldiers at pal in the force with their sister forces is less than the take home of their contemporaries in the other forces. Needless to remind us, that, the police recently had an increment in their salary scale, while the dyeing soldiers have so far been left to hope at best. Needless, also, to say the land army is supposed to be a formidable fighting force that should be high in morale in every regard, the case is far from that however. As earlier introduced, a couple still wilfully opt to join the army, especially, solely for the love of it but a good number often end up dying from what one can comfortably call `preventable causes`. For instance what does one make of it to hear than a conventional army like that of Nigeria are less logistically, and otherwise, equipped than the invading insurgents? Why for that matter is it that the army, instead of attacking and taking the war to enemy territory is rather on the defensive? With these questions in mind and with the glaring reality of the loss of promising young men in the army, volunteerism as a phenomenon is looking less a recurring idea to the teaming population. This is further exemplified by the recent refusal of some police officers to be posted to the northeast even after a recent increment in their stipends, an event that saw wide welcome.   One would have reasoned that such individuals should gladly volunteer for the task however the exact opposite was the case; they didn’t only offer to reject the salaries, but to entirely leave the police force as we read on the pages of newspapers. Therefore, is there hope for volunteerism in war situations…?
Let’s take a careful look at the civilian world. Civilians can volunteer to either work in voluntary non-governmental organisations or to serve in such governmental organisations like the national youth service corps (NYSC) in war torn areas. Well, it is worthy of reminder that these non-governmental organisations pay fairly more than the government agencies available in the country. Despite that being the case, one hardly finds individuals who agree to work in war torn areas because of the somewhat loose nature of the security infrastructure. An African proverb has it that what affects the eyes can also affect the nose and nostrils; with even the armed forces being at the verge most times of losing territory and their very own lives, one wouldn’t need to reason much to see the reasons why many will not volunteer to work in these areas-their security is not guaranteed!
As such, where one already has empathy and sympathy for a suffering people, the second thought reminding them of the like-hood of harm coming to them; the said  helpers, is a pretty stronger antidote than the said humanitarian tendencies.
But is all hope lost…? Is there no way forward….? By the very nature of man, there`s always that aspect of a person that commands humanity in the guise of empathy, sympathy and manifest love, that is to admit that people will always be willing to be of help to the suffering innocent. The catch to that however is that these individuals must be guaranteed of reasonable safety. Therefore if volunteerism is a virtue that should be promoted, then the government must ensure that it does everything possible to, not politically by way of propaganda, stay on top of the security situation but to realistically and provably; based on facts on the ground, stay above the security situation. Anything short of this is likely to be consequent in a situation where the government may, one day, resort to bringing in foreign armies to keep it politically relevant! We pray it never has to be the case, but prayer without good works is likely to be mere sayings!