To facilitate the attainment of his three Rs – “Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Rehabilitation” governance agenda after the Nigerian Civil War, the then military regime of General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), on May 22, 1973 promulgated Decree No. 24, to establish the National Youth Service (NYSC) scheme.
Under it, graduates of Nigerian universities and polytechnics are posted outside their states of origin to serve the country for one year and are paid allowances for their upkeep. The scheme was designed to foster national unity, promote cultural exchange, instil patriotic service among the participants, and to distribute human capital across the country.
These graduates, who must not be above 30 years, are called corps members during the service year. They mix with people of other ethnic groups, social and family backgrounds, and learn the cultures and traditions of their host communities while undertaking this mandatory national assignment.
Over the years, these young Nigerians have been used in various critical assignments such as general elections, population census, and community services. They are also a source of cheap labour for national, subnational governments, and the private sector.
However, this laudable initiative has not gone without dire consequences for both the government and the parents of the participants. Many corps members have been attacked, maimed, abducted and killed by political thugs during elections, with their parents left to bear the bruises, scars and irreparable losses for life.
And with the advent of insurgency and banditry, the situation had become worse. Many corps members have been killed while others have been kidnapped, with their parents paying huge ransom to secure their release from these criminals. Till date, some corps members’ whereabouts cannot be established.
Several others have also died in the dens of kidnappers and non-state actors, who prey on them to secure the government’s attention. An unaccountable number of others have died in various disasters and road accidents. As a result, parents and guardians of the participants are always on edge throughout the service year.
It was only last year that Police operatives in Bauchi State arrested suspects over the killing of six NYSC members in Giade local government area during the 2011 post-election violence.
Added to the burden of the corps members and, by extension, parents, are the poor facilities in the orientation camps, acute accommodation challenges and the consequential high rents, which the corps members bear during the programme.
Parents and guardians, who struggled to see their children and wards through school, have to cough out huge amounts of money to rent accommodation as well as feed and provide other basic needs for the corps members.
Sometimes, they are posted to rural communities, where there are no health facilities, and during serious health problems, the NYSC management invites parents to come to such areas to pick up their children.
The stipends offered by the government remain grossly inadequate. Even with the current rate of N77,000, it is still not enough, considering the economic realities and the widespread hardship in the country.
All these have fuelled agitations for the cancellation of the NYSC, with the advocates arguing that the scheme has outlived its usefulness. Others have asserted that Nigeria is now more divided along ethnic and religious cleavages than when the NYSC was introduced.
It is from the foregoing, that, as a newspaper, we disagree with the Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa’s call for the extension of the NYSC programme from one year to two years.
According to the minister, the move is intended to further equip the participants with skills and experience, aligning with the country’s current needs.
While we agree that the graduates need better skills and experience, we do not believe that the NYSC is the right platform for it. We also do not believe that the proposed additional year will deliver the intended results.
The NYSC programme, established to foster national unity and provide young graduates with a sense of patriotism, has been marred by several challenges, as partly enumerated above.
Accommodating and deploying the growing number of corps members across the country has remained a daunting task, which would only be exacerbated by the proposed extension of the programme.
The extra year will equally place serious strains on the nation’s resources, coming at a time the government is unable to fund even the tertiary education sector.
Similarly, the additional service year will delay aspiring graduates’ entry into the workforce or to further their education, thereby stifling their progress.
Rather than extending the NYSC programme, we advise the government to learn from some private universities, which have set up well-equipped Departments of Entrepreneurship Studies, where undergraduates acquire vocational skills outside their core disciplines from start to graduation.
These have enabled them to internalise the skills thereby turning out to be self-employed job creators, and not job seekers.
We appreciate the desire of the minister to improve the NYSC programme, but extending it to two years is not the solution. We urge the government to consider the potential consequences and instead focus on enhancing the existing programme, investing in education, and promoting entrepreneurship. By doing so, it can unlock the potential of Nigerian graduates to drive national development.
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