Abuja, Nigeria: The Director-General of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps, Brig. Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, stated on Thursday, May 28, 2026, that corps members are not exempt from the country’s cyberbullying and social media laws during their mandatory service.
Okay News reports that Brig. Gen. Olakunle Nafiu confirmed this policy during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, emphasizing that participants remain fully subject to constitutional provisions regulating online behavior.
The agency will not provide legal representation for corps members involved in criminal or civil matters arising from their digital activities. “The fact that they are corps members does not absolve them from being citizens bound by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Nafiu said.
Allegations of online misconduct will be handled by law enforcement agencies, and the Legal Aid Council will be engaged to monitor court proceedings or provide pro bono services. “I am not funded to provide legal representation for you in court. What we do is engage the Legal Aid Council to monitor proceedings,” Nafiu said.
The agency intends to mobilise exclusively Generation Z graduates by the end of the year and supports their digital activities provided they remain lawful. “We know this generation loves content creation, and we are not against content, but there must be proper context and responsible engagement,” he said.
During the interview, Nafiu acknowledged a donation of mobile clinics by Nigeria’s First Lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, for medical outreach in rural areas. The mobile clinics are currently stationed in Abuja because transporting them to distant locations like Lagos requires specialized flatbed carriers, unlike deployments to nearby states such as Nasarawa, Kaduna, and Niger. The national service scheme was established in 1973.
