On Scrapping The NYSC !! By Akindele Abdulqayyum Olalekan

On Scrapping The NYSC !! By Akindele Abdulqayyum Olalekan.

As fondly called, NYSC meaning National Youth Service Corps is a scheme established on 22nd of May, 1973 by the then Military President, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) after the Civil war between 6 July, 1967 and January 15, 1970 to foster unity as part of his 3Rs – Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reintegration. In line with this establishment, anybody who wishes to work under whatever government agencies or parastatals in Nigeria must provide either the scheme’s discharge certificate or exemption certificate before such wish can be considered.

However, on 24 May, 2021, several credible media published a confirmed report of the House of Representatives passing a bill intending to scrap the scheme. In fact, the bill is already going through the second reading at the Green Chamber. The sponsor of the bill, representing Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency of Rivers State, Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante disclosed his main reason for championing that course being the fact that the lives of corps members are in stake due to security challenges. The bill reads in part “due to insecurity across the country, the National Youth Service Corps management now gives considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thus defeating one of the objectives of setting up the service corps, i.e. developing common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.”

Similarly, so many organisations, not limited to private ones alone, now take delight in using and dumping Nigeria’s youths in the name of compulsory national service. Nevertheless, that is not enough to scrap the scheme totally. There are still some benefits left within the scheme that can be exploited. As rightly pointed out by Sen. Shehu Sani in his tweet on his official twitter handle which reads “The NYSC should not be scrapped. It is needed now more than ever before . Many Nigerians have never known anywhere other than their hometown and university town if not for NYSC. Its mandate should be expanded to give participants full military training in the face of insecurity.” As much as this sounds good and interesting, it does not worth taking all the risks especially the security ones.

Interestingly, many people like myself will continue to thank the scheme for having exposed us to many great deals of opportunities vis-a-vis skills acquisition, military training on its minimal level, meeting several great people, staying with people of different tribes, culture and tradition, etc. All these can not be thrown away without a second thought.

Likewise, is it not worthy of asking ourselves what happens to those employed under the scheme? Should they be retrenched or what? If I am not mistaken, no less than thirty-six thousands employees work under this scheme. Mind you, that figure is just my prediction.

It is in lieu of this that I suggest that the scheme be revised and reformed instead. First and foremost, the military training should be given a wider scope. Trainees should be trained on self defence, especially, in the face of security threats the nation witnesses now. It is worthy of mentioning that prospective corps members should yet be posted to states different from their states of births and schools. This will, as originally planned serve the main purpose of creating the scheme – familiarising graduates to the cultures, traditions, values, etc of other tribes with the intention of fostering unity and tolerance within and among several diverse tribes and communities in the country. In order to expose the prospective corps members to these objectives, they should stay at their various places of deployment between two to three months and be issued certificate of participation (discharge certificate).

I believe that everyone will align their thought with me that one of the major problems Nigeria faces is poverty which has continually refused to regress. This worm (poverty) needs to be eradicated and it should start with the youth. This is why, I suggest that corps members should not be paid while in camps or within that two-three months of service earlier suggested but instead be paid upon discharge (after that two or three months) all at once. I am crystally sure that if the money paid to individual corps members is paid all at once which amounts to three hundred and ninety-six thousand naira (#396,000), so many graduates will desist from wallowing from one street to another looking for office jobs. So, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be established already and this will go a long way to create job opportunities which will reduce the burden of employment on the government. Do not forget that this process will boost the economy of the country as well.

Hence, I will conclude by saying “National Youth Service Corps” has done more harm to a lot of people than good and its needs urgent reform.

By: Akindele Abdulqayyum Olalekan,
abdulqayyumakindele@gmail.com,
A current corps member, Kaduna state.