At the end of the civil war, there arose a need to foster unity in Nigeria in a bid to reconcile and rebuild the nation. I believe that gave rise to the Decree No.24 of 22nd May 1973, which established the National Youth Service Corps, "with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity".
I did my Youth Service in 2006 (seems like yesterday though), and back then, I remember being sad when I got posted to Jigawa state for the orientation. People that got posted to Borno and Adamawa were wailing. That was before the era of Boko Haram o!
These days, people go the extra mile not to get posted to the North; the lobby for Lagos, Abuja, PH (and maybe Delta State) is not moi-moi. Lately, news have been been going round about the postponement of the Batch A, stream 11 due to paucity of funds (that's a phrase civil servants understand well, lol), though the Corps' spokesperson debunked the rumour.
Therefore, considering the time graduates wait before they go for Youth Service (some wait for years) thereby staying idle as no serious organisation employs without the 'almighty' NYSC discharge certificate or certificate of exemption; also, the security challenges we're being faced have further defeated the aim of the scheme (in my opinion), add these issues to the monetary aspect (allowances owed here and there); is it still necessary for the scheme to continue? Should it be scrapped and graduates allowed to move on once they leave school?? What do you think??
let me go and think about it.
ReplyDelete- Nnamdi Umeh
Quiet frankly I think it should be scrapped. Gone are the days youth corpers and the scheme itself were celebrated. Rather than send graduates to states/communities to be butchered like animals or endure hardship for a full year, the FG should introduce an entrepreneurial program to educate graduands on skills to be successful in business as an option ( my thoughts though). Truth is we need to create businesses and what better way than to leverage on proactive nature of these young minds.
ReplyDeleteI think that it has outlived its usefulness. There seems to be an increase in xenophobia in unstable parts of Nigeria, the corps members are the first victims. Also, corps members are used for all the work that nobody wants to do; election work, immunization work, stuff that puts them in harm's way as they are hardly provided adequate protection and one hears about deaths associated with these jobs. In addition, when NYSC was set up, the government actually actively provided health insurance, posting and housing for corps members. These things are basic necessities for the one year obligatory service. These days, corps members are literally on their own in terms of health, life insurance, accident insurance, housing, even posting sometimes. Please end this farce, it is irresponsible to put citizens through these deplorable conditions. It makes me wonder then how bad the conditions of our service men and women are. As an aside, I also served in Jigawa in Jan 2005-Feb 2006. I had a great time as I was one of the lucky few to get a secondary school that gave me housing within the school premises. It was also my first time in the North and it really did feel like a completely different world/country. I think if I had the chance to rewind my life, I will still serve in Jigawa. But things are getting worse, and even while we were serving, many people lose their lives and the FG could have prevented those deaths by providing better conditions. Scrap NYSC!
ReplyDeleteThe scheme now has a department of skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development. We know problem with unemployment, It is not just the course you studied alone that can put bread on your table; having something to fall back on is necessary. And the corps members have been doing so well. Some of them do agriculture, poultry, fishery, beading, tailoring etc. So the benefits are so many.yes there are challenges just like any other sectors and agencies, or wherever, even Nigeria has its own problems too. We have to find a way of solving these problems. NYSC is just a small entity under Nigeria. So if there are problems, NYSC is working towards solving that problem. Apart from that, you will realise that the way higher institutions churn out graduates from schools. And the unemployment issue is a serious one. If you just churn out graduates and there is no industry and places to absorb them, the crime rate will definitely increase. And you will find out that NYSC acts like a stop gap for these corps members. When they come out of school, there is somewhere they go to – that is NYSC. And within that period, they are able to also empower themselves, rather than just push them into the labour market. This will prepare them for self-employment and combat graduate unemployment that is currently dealing with us now. It will also help in reducing youth restiveness and crime.To me scrapping it is not the solution
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