The national youth service corp scheme was established in 1973, 22nd May to be precise. The reason given for the establishment was that there was a need to build national cohesion and unity.
The scheme was set up during the reign of Yakubu Gowon as the military head of state and it was set up few years after the Nigerian civil war. The scheme was put together to enable Nigerian youths below 30 years of age to interact with one another and also serve their country.
Youths participating in the NYSC are new graduates across Nigerian higher institutions. They are posted to different parts of the country to serve their fatherland. The youth service period is for one whole year after graduation from a government-approved higher institution.
There had been a lot of misgivings about the scheme across Nigeria today with many insisting that the NYSC scheme has lost its relevance and should be scrapped.
Some of the antagonists use the security challenges going on around the country as the foundation for their insistence on why the scheme needs to be scrapped.
They also claim that Nigeria has become more strongly divided than ever, which means that the NYSC has failed in building the national cohesion it was set out to build. On the flip side, some other sets of people argue that the scheme is still much relevant.
One of the protagonists is the Minister of Youth and Sports and the Director-General for NYSC, with the latter stating that the NYSC scheme is “germane to Nigeria’s unity…” The best way to answer this question is to ask ourselves about the original objective or purpose of setting up the NYSC scheme.
Then will compare those objectives to what is obtainable today to determine if the scheme is still relevant or not.
Objectives of the NYSC
The following are some of the objectives for setting up the national youth service corp scheme:
- To make Nigerians more disciplined by making them appreciate the culture of hard work and be more interested in loyal service and patriotism to Nigeria anywhere they may find themselves
- To boost the morale of Nigerian youths by opening their eyes to the ideas of cultural improvement, social improvement, and national achievement
- To provide suitable training and diverse opportunities to the Nigeria youth, towards making them more prepared for mobilization in an attempt to protect the national interest
- To build self-reliance among Nigeria youths and give them skills that can enable self-employment
- To bring about the accelerated growth of the country’s economy
- To bring about national integrating and unity by opening their eyes to common grounds among different ethnic groups.
- To put an end to ignorance and prejudice, thereby removing barriers capable of causing ethnic division
- To make Nigerians understand the need for a corporate existence of the country and to make them realize that Nigerians have a common destiny
- To distribute members of the Corp equitably to different parts if t the country where their services are required
- To assign the youths to work in different parts of the country different from their states of origin
- To make each of the youths see himself as a representative of Nigerian anywhere he is posted to work
- To show the Nigerian youth what obtains in other ethnic groups by causing him to live among people from another part of the country
- To make the Nigerian youth shun religious intolerance and accommodate peoples’ religious differences
- To make members of the corp seek career opportunities in different parts of the country
- To encourage employers to employ people not only from their states of origin but base criteria on qualifications and skills only.
The views of Nigerians about the effectiveness or relevance of the NYSC are diverse with some being against it, while some other sets of individuals are for it.
The opponents
Today, bandits, kidnappers, Fulani herdsmen, etc have turned youth corners into the targets of their violence. They even become the victims of election-related violence.
In 2011, for example, several youth corpers participating in the presidential election exercise were killed by violent political protesters upon the announcement of a candidate that did not favor them.
The problem is that no one was brought to book for such a heinous crime. So, the opponents may have a good reason why they call for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme.
Some other people also see the NYSC as a waste of funds. They went further by saying the government should rather pay the corpers the funds upon graduation from the university so that the graduates can venture into businesses and become employers of labor.
Even the amount being paid to the corpers per month is very small; the amount is further rendered ineffective with the increase in inflation and the fall in the value of the Naira.
The youth corpers in camp are forced to stay together during the NYSC scheme with many of them not observing social distancing or the use of nose masks, thereby exposing them to diseases.
Some of them even use the opportunity as a means for illicit sexual affairs, thereby further exposing them to sexually transmitted diseases.
One of the objectives of the NYSC is to promote national cohesion and prevent religious intolerance. Looking around us today, we can see that such an achievement is far from being recorded.
In fact, many observers agree that Nigeria is more divided these days than it was in times past. So, one can say that the primary purpose of NYSC has not been fulfilled.
Proponents
Some proponents of the continuation of the NYSC scheme said that it is about the only uniting program that Nigeria has today. They believe that scrapping the NYSC will only further create a wider gap that may lead to the complete breakup of the country.
They believe that retaining the NYSC is a way of retaining gone of the things that help keep the country together.
There are many calls for the breakup of the country from different quarters and the proponents argue that scrapping the NYSC will make things even worse.
