My children are God's gift to me and my wife and while they are under our care and below the legal age they are our responsibility and our protection.

Even if it is against the law of the land, I will not allow my children to be exposed to a National Service programme which has been hastily put together and without much preparation.

It is evident that the NS programme is marred with problems of indiscipline, violence and poor administration. Trainers and instructors in the programme ought to be men and women of character and integrity with good records.

What we see today however shows none of that.

My children are young still, thankfully. However when they are of that age, I may have to make the difficult choice of not sending them.