Sex shouldn't get you kicked out of camp

Last week, two

They were caught having sex in a gutter in the Plateau camp (hey, when you gotta go, you've gotta go). The two corps members were dismissed from camp.

The only issue I see here is that the female corps member is married. Her conduct goes against the vows she took in the presence of God. Apart from this, I do not see the crime here.

If you go through the NYSC website, sex isn't listed as one of the many offences that will get you kicked out of camp. Smoking and getting drunk can get you decamped among other things. Sex isn't outlawed out rightly.

The reality is this- if you are found having sex on campus premises you will get decamped. Why is this an unwritten rule? If you are kicking out fully grown adults for having sex at least it should be written in black and white.

The Nigerian attitude towards sex is very conservative and impractical. The NYSC orientation requires graduates to be in camp for 21 days as part of their service to the fatherland. In these 21 days, the fact that authorities think that adults won't have sex is both laughable and sad.

Our attitude towards sex is hypocritical. We choose to believe that everyone has sex after marriage but common knowledge and data suggest otherwise. Consenting adults shouldn't have to hide inside a gutter before they have sex. You have healthy, young people in a camp for three weeks, of course, they are meant to have sex.

There are so many camp stories of grown men and women hiding in bushes just to have sex. This is not Iran. People shouldn't be punished because they have sex.

In NYSC camps, there are sex education talks about HIV/AIDS and the corps members are given condoms but they are not allowed to have sex. What gives? This is very confusing.

You can come from the religious angle and say it is fornication or sexual immorality. Christianity is the religion of one man and one God. Let God judge the people committing sin. Jesus did not die for holier-than-thou Christians to judge others.

Sex is a normal human function. Adults shouldn't be punished for it. Religion and morality should not intertwine with the state. Young Nigerians are serving their country and should not be judged on an altar of conservatism and religious values.