It was a surprise for so many people in the country
when the Batch ‘A’ of 2012 set of corps members left their orientation
camps and their presence could hardly be felt in the city centers as has
always been the case. Corps members that usually leave orientation
camps, especially in townships like Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos and
other capitals are always found stranded in the sun, rain and other
terrible conditions.
Some suffer from the combination of rejection from places
posted for their primary assignments, lack of residential accommodation
and intolerable service conditions. This is in addition to a situation
where the NYSC became a source for the supply of cheap and unappreciated
labour for private and commercial companies instead of providing the
required service to the Nigerian nation as dreamt by the founding
fathers.
The NYSC also got its biggest blow when in 2011 corps
members became a target of politically inspired crises in some parts of
northern Nigeria leading to the death of many young men and women who
were caught in the middle of the crises while contributing to the
democratic experience of the country.
These terrible experiences have begun to phase out as a
result of the reforms put together and implemented by the Federal
Ministry of Youth Development under the former minister, Mallam Bolaji
Abdulahi. This new dispensation saw to it that corps members were posted
to areas where the country needs them and they will have the
opportunity of serving the nation and contributing to its human and
infrastructural development. It has seen to it that corps members are
now being posted to rural areas where they are needed and appreciated
thereby resolving the issue of rejection, insecurity and also fulfilling
the integration dream of the founding fathers.
The NYSC was established by decree 24 of 22nd May, 1973.
It was to be repealed twenty years after by decree 51 of 16th June, 1993
which is now an Act of Parliament. In 1973, the Gowon-led
administration initiated the NYSC scheme to, among other things, create a
true sense of patriotism among Nigerian youths; afford the youths the
basic or foundational experience of what to expect in the labour market
by ensuring that they are posted to organisations and firms related to
their disciplines; ensure a broad-based understanding of Nigeria as a
country and to engender unity; create a platform for graduates to learn
and practice discipline, have an understanding and appreciation of the
various cultures in the country and to have the mentality to face the
pressures of life after school.
The almost four decades old scheme has witnessed its
several ups and downs. Most often than not, it has been bashed even by
pundits. The gratuitous killings of 10 Corps members as a result of the
post election violence of April 2011 fanned the embers of misgivings
some Nigerians hold against the scheme giving rise to a cacophony of
voices shouting “scrap the scheme” as it has lost its ‘relevance’. Some
viewed NYSC as a threshold to death while others see the twelve months
of service as unnecessary waste of precious time stating that the Scheme
has ‘outlived’ its usefulness.
In another instance, Onyekaba Charles opined in a document
submitted to masterweb that it is no longer a secret that the NYSC has
since lost its sense of purpose and value in near all ramifications. The
programme is not only an extension of the inequality, injustice and
unfairness that has characterised the Nigerian society since time
immemorial, but has also paved way for other abnormalities such as
corruption and influencing of posting processes, extortions and bribery
from students prior to posting.
Others are creation of an illicit quid-pro quo sex trade
environment among the officials and female corps members, frustration
and negative influence on the norms and values of honorable corps
members who had truly wanted to serve the nation, avoidable occasions of
death and other misfortunes mostly arising from the need for corps
members to visit their families, undue expenses usually encountered by
sponsors, friends and relatives who most times have had to borrow in
order to meet with the service requirements.
But the significance of the scheme has been boosted by the
support of the Nigerian press, especially during the post election
violence that killed some corps members, a circumstance that was blamed
on security lapses and poor intelligence gathering on the part of
security agencies. They added, and rightly too, that the gruesome
killings did not in any way vitiate the fact that Corps members
approached the election duty with patriotic fervor and responsibility
thus conferring great credibility to the whole electoral process. Both
local and international observers unanimously applauded the commendable
role the Corps members played.
It is against the backdrop of these numerous criticisms
that the management of the scheme went back to the drawing board to
reinvent a scheme that is tailored to the security and socio-economic
realities of the time. It is a truism that no sound economy can be built
on the altar of violence and insecurity. This same maxim applies to
corps members who will not give their best in the face of threat to
their personal security.
Since security is cardinal to the optimal performance of
corps members, the Scheme in the first quarter of this year concretized
the concept of establishing a Distress Call Centre which if were in
place would have mitigated or even averted the mayhem visited on the
unfortunate Corps members last year.
The centre has its base at the NYSC National Directorate
Headquarters, Abuja. The purpose of this innovation is to assist corps
members in getting rapid intervention anytime their security is
threatened. The IT-based centre holds the data of all corps members
cutting across the three batches, including their telephone numbers as
well as that of security agencies, traditional rulers and prominent
personalities in all the Corps locations. Any call put to the Centre
indicates the name and particulars of the caller with his place of
service. In the event of threat to the Corps member, the Centre alerts
the nearest security agencies for rapid response.
It is instructive to note that this initiative has in no
mean way buoyed the confidence and morale of Corps members in the
performance of their duties, since psychologically; they are now placed
on a better pedestal to perform their duties without fear of their
security.
In other to boost the physical and financial security of
Corps members, the NYSC management introduced martial art training into
the orientation course content so as to equip them with the requisite
skills for self defence. A corollary to the above is the introduction of
Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship programmes also into the course
content in order to raise an army of entrepreneurs that will drive the
economy of this nation and not job seekers that will trudge the streets
of Nigeria in search of scarcely available jobs.
To institutionalise this, the federal government raised
the number of departments in the NYSC from seven to eleven with
Department of Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development as one
of the new departments. It is already up and running.
Let me hasten to posit that prior to the formulation of
the above laudable policy, the Scheme had been complementing
government’s effort at reducing unemployment. In this wise, under
NYSC/MDGs War Against Poverty, WAP the NYSC has trained and empowered
over one thousand, three hundred and seventy-six corps members in
various agro-allied ventures/businesses in the last one year.
An interest free loan of N229,000,000:00 (Two hundred and
twenty-nine million, five hundred thousand Naira) had been released to
the Corps beneficiaries of the training as soft loans at zero percent
interest rate to enable them kick-start their businesses. A mechanism
has been put in place to track the performances of these entrepreneurs
and gratifyingly, most of them are doing very well in their businesses.
Perhaps, one of the most revolutionary policies of the
Scheme in recent times has to do with the new perspective of Corps
posting. As a foremost development focused national institution that is
responsive to the yearnings of its environment, the Scheme reviewed its
posting policy aligning it with the transformation agenda of the Federal
Government.
This policy commenced with the 2012 Batch ‘A’ Corps
members who in tandem with the new thrust were posted to the four
critical sectors of the economy: Education, Healthcare delivery,
Agriculture and Infrastructure/Public works. In the long run, this
policy will give a veritable boost to the Federal Government’s Universal
Basic Education, food security, increase in quantitative and
qualitative rural healthcare and improvement of infrastructure.
This sound policy has stopped the antics of some
unscrupulous employers who look for cheap labours year in year out.
Corps members’ energy will now be redirected to more productive ventures
that will build the economy of the country.
In the final analysis, from the body language of the
managers of the Scheme, there is no gainsaying the fact that in the
months ahead, the Scheme will continue to leverage and build on the
gains so far achieved with a view to repositioning and making it a
pragmatic and result oriented Scheme that its stakeholders and indeed
Nigerians will be proud of.
Even though complaints have arisen especially corps
members who have desired to serve in the city centers and enjoy the
attendant comfort and privileges of city life alongside those who have
tried unsuccessfully to influence the system, the managers of the reform
should not let down as every reform is bound to create some
inconvenience to those who are used to the former system.
It is also the desire of many onlookers that even though
there is a change of baton at the youth ministry, the new Minister of
Youth Development should ensure that he supports the management of the
NYSC to continue to drive the reforms to pleasure and realization of the
dreams of the founding fathers.
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