The move by the nation’s lawmakers to scrap the 48-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is seen by many Nigerians including this writer as not only selfish but also as one of the most unpatriotic ways of addressing matters that affect Nigerian youths. With the bill having passed second reading in the House of Reps, the lawmakers may have set the stage to repeal Section 315 (5) (a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). The bill is sponsored by Awaji-Inombek Abiante, the lawmaker representing Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency of Rivers State.
In the explanatory memorandum of the proposal, the lawmaker listed various reasons why the NYSC should be scrapped. He said the NYSC has led to the “incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism, and ethnic violence; incessant kidnapping of innocent corps members across the country. The proposed law also argues “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 promoting national unity and integration.”
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Another reason tendered by sponsor of the bill is that “public and private agencies/departments are no longer recruiting able and qualified Nigerian youths, thus relying heavily on the availability of corps members who are not being well remunerated and get discarded with impunity at the end of their service year without any hope of being gainfully employed.”
Reacting to the action of the lawmakers, Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare said the NYSC remains one of the country’s greatest tools for youth development. Lending his voice also to the matter when he hosted some selected members of NYSC Batch A stream 2 Corps members posted to Sokoto state in his palace, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, said the agitation for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme is not in the interest of Nigeria’s unity; adding that such people do not mean well for the country.
The NYSC scheme was set up by the military government of General Yakubu Gowon in 1973; barely three years after the country’s civil war ended. It was designed to mobilise Nigerian graduates of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education for a mandatory one-year national service with a view to fostering national unity, cohesion and integration. The scheme was intended to also involve youths in the collective project of nation building. Colonel Ahmadu Ali (retired) was the first Director-General of the NYSC.
In 1984, austere economic crisis forced the then military government to review mobilization criteria. Graduates above 30 years of age were exempted from participating in the scheme. Holders of the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) from colleges of education were also excluded from serving in the scheme; limiting mobilization to holders of university degree and polytechnic HND.
The current move by lawmakers against the NYSC is not the first attempt at scrapping the NYSC scheme. Sometime in 2008, paucity of funds made it difficult for NYSC authorities to mobilize graduates for the one-year national service. Gradually, their number became so huge that people started calling for the scrapping of the programme. However, the scheme survived that danger when the then President Umaru Musa Yar’adua provided special intervention funds for the mobilization of all graduates waiting to be enrolled into the scheme.
A period when mistrust, tribalism, hate speech, and regional agitations are threatening the country’s survival is the most inappropriate time to call for the scrapping of a scheme that has contributed so much to uniting and building a cohesive nation. With a history of over four decades, the gains of the scheme far outweigh its shortcomings (if any at all). This is why those who want the scheme scrapped need to be properly educated about the contributions NYSC has made to this country.
Through the NYSC scheme, young Nigerians have had the opportunity to interact and live with people they may never have met in life. During the 12-months period of national service, they learn to appreciate the culture and tradition of people in communities other than theirs. This would never have happened without NYSC and its policy of posting graduates outside of their states of origin to communities different and far away from theirs. Intercultural marriage among corps members is one worthwhile by-product of the NYSC scheme. The scheme has continued to provide easy transition from school to labour market. The monthly stipend paid to serving corps members during their service year helps to cushion the tension that would have confronted young graduates if they were to move directly from school to the heavily crowded job market.
From the submissions of Abiante, insecurity seem to be the most critical challenge facing the NYSC scheme. But then, what Abiante and his colleagues needed to do was to seek ways of addressing insecurity, which of course, was neither created by the NYSC scheme nor the corps members. Why then must the scheme be made to suffer for a problem it did not start? If lawmakers think scrapping the scheme would be a plausible solution to the killing of corps members, it would then follow that farming, schooling, traveling and many other human activities that currently suffer from insecurity would soon be ‘scrapped’. Insecurity has not allowed some lawmakers to visit their constituencies for many months; others for over a year. Yet, no one has called for the scrapping of the national assembly. Lawmakers have a responsibility to oblige the executive arm to strategically deal with insecurity. If there are challenges facing the survival of the NYSC, the scheme can be reviewed to make it more relevant. May Allah guide Oga Abiante and his colleagues to present bills that will ‘scrap’ insecurity, not NYSC; amin.
