National Youth Service Corps

The National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) scheme has been weighed down by several challenges over the years. The scheme seeks to promote unity and integration among the diverse peoples of Nigeria. However, a cross section of Nigerians insist that the scheme has outlived its relevance while stressing that efforts should be geared towards repositioning the scheme. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke says that the management of the NYSC must be above board, for the scheme to serve the purpose for which it was established.

Is the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) still functioning to provide for the the unity and integration needs of Nigerians ?

The National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) scheme was established in 1973 as an aftermath effect of sanity restoration into Nigeria after the harrowing experience of the fratricidal war of Nigeria/Biafra of 1967/70, as part of the follow up of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation. One of the aims therefore is to foster unity among Nigerians of different tongues and tribes. The hope was to integrate people through their children, most especially the youth into different communities that constitute Nigeria.

Above all, the curriculum expectation is to inculcate in Nigerian graduates, a sense of discipline and integrity to become assets for development rather than been liabilities. The assessment of the NYSC scheme as programs and projects for Nigeria based on the above set of objectives, shall therefore be the criteria through which our assessment and evaluation shall be based.

Postings are influenced arbitrarily without considering the set of objectives for which the NYSC was established. When this happens, affected candidates are denied their rights of familiarity to areas of opportunity to learn different things like culture, tradition and languages that would have made them to understand better, the different nationalities that constitute Nigeria; for the purpose of of knowing the reasons why we must allow peaceful co-existence.

Presently, the South-South and the South East to me are still alien, if not for some opportunities of attending conferences of professional importance around the areas. The same thing happens to many of us having myopic views about regions beyond the areas of our race forcing ourselves to consume the lies and the truth about people from the races. For example, the Middle Belt and the North in general. On the security point of view, the NYSC has been badly affected. There are several cases of violence involving Corps members. The phenomenal cases of kidnapping and road hazards also contribute enormously to parental fear, making them to prefer their wards serving in near by states and in some cases their states of origin.

One expects the Federal Government to pay particular attention to the security needs of the nation and the safety of the Corps members while on service in any part of the country. The scheme is supposed to enjoy some level of immunity and privileges which could be appreciated in the Military services. When this kind of environment is guaranteed for the NYSC scheme, parents and their wards will have no alternative option to official posting procedure to be followed to the letter without any excuses or need for any influence.

Progressively, in terms of the NYSC at 10, during my own time, it paid us 200 Naira as monthly allowance, although then, the purchasing power of the Naira was equal to the Dollar and even then, jobs after the scheme were guaranteed.

However, graduates going for national service are already wallowing in an environment of poverty, inflation and unemployment, making them to live in a state of uncertainty for economic survival. Under this condition the tendency to misbehave to a state of indiscipline is very high, unless they are truly religious with very good upbringing. The NYSC scheme is therefore faced with how to regulate and control the exercise, effectively manage the incoming graduates as well as as how best to sustain the exercise not to lose track of the set objectives.The issue at stake therefore, revolve on the huge management cost for the scheme with the ever increasing number of graduates every year.

The remuneration for the NYSC participants is another issue of great economic interest. For example, we are in an era of the need for a living wage. Th status of corps members is highly above $98. Government must therefore live above rhetoric, but pay as appropriate with immediate effect, the corps members remuneration that is attractive and sustaining . If Corps members take home is about 50,000 Naira, nobody will thank the Federal Government for this. These graduates in the active service of the nation need motivation because the government forced them into the entrepreneurship scheme while they were in school most especially during their final year.

Instead of making them roam about the streets, government ought to create a saving scheme for them whereby they manage N25,000 monthly and save the remaining N25,000 for the 12 months they are to serve the nation for them to be able to establish a vocation of their choice based on the entrepreneurship scheme already acquired while they were in school. In the spirit of TIVET, such graduates must be made to have easy access to loans to complement the amount already saved. Such loans must attract very low interest rates with single digits, to be able to meet up with the agreed pay back period. An environment of this kind of hope would make the scheme continue to be relevant, while parents and their wards would be ready to accept any area of offer for the service. 

Our hope to have true integration of the people to accept other people’s culture in the spirit of one nation, lies in the success of the NYSC because only the youth filled with love for togetherness and service can achieve at sustainable level the set objective for which the NYSC was established. Finally, a scheme aims at promoting unity, system integration and production of assets rather than liabilities like the NYSC must be managed without fraud, while it must not equally be underfunded. In the spirit of Democracy that stands on justice and equity principles, the NYSC management must be above board hence people with impeccable character are expected to be saddled with the responsibility of ensuring peace and sustainable development in an environment of high respect for the fundamental human rights of the people. The youth constitute the NYSC, knowledgeable as they are, the nation must rely on them because apart from serving the nation through the primary and secondary duties assigned them, they equally promote friendship and intermarriages which Nigeria needs to be truly united.