Today marks the golden jubilee of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), set up by the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon in 1973. Coming barely three years after the civil war ended, it was created to help heal the wounds by fostering national unity, integration and cohesion, in a country riven by the fratricidal conflict of 1967 to 1970, between the then Eastern Region and Nigeria. Decree 24 of 22 May, 1973, which established the NYSC, states its goal to be, inter alia, “…to inculcate in Nigerian youths the spirit of selfless service to the community and to emphasize the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of Nigerians irrespective of cultural and social background.”
With this legal framework, all graduates from the country’s universities have been mobilised for a compulsory one-year national service in states other than their states of origin since then. The pioneer 2,300 youth corps members were drawn from the 17,750 students’ population when only six universities existed, namely: University of Ibadan; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Ife; University of Lagos; and University of Benin. The number of the 1973/74 set has “grown to between 350,000 to 400,000 youth corps members annually”, according to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare.
A day like this is opportune for introspection on the journey so far. No doubt, the programme has recorded successes. Many states have found in the scheme, an annual source of cheap labour, especially of school teachers, medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists and other professionals, many of whom are often deployed in rural areas, which do not attract workers ordinarily. The NYSC is also a reservoir of personnel for elections, census and national immunisation programmes. In the 2023 general elections, for instance, youth corps members numbering 200,000, served as ad hoc electoral officials, which constituted 75 per cent of the personnel deployed for the national assignment.
Conversely, the scheme’s continued existence is seriously being threatened by challenges, to the point that some Nigerians have been demanding, for a while now, that it should be scrapped, claiming it has outlived its usefulness. The lack of adequate financial resources for the NYSC scheme is a big issue. Currently, there are 1,855,261 undergraduates in Nigerian universities expected to go through the service, sooner than later. This figure will invariably increase with the total number of 258 public and private universities, as of last Wednesday last week, following a Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval of 37 new private universities in the country. Students from abroad and in the polytechnics spike the number further.
Corruption in the administration of the NYSC and universities is crippling the scheme. Cases abound in which non-graduates are mobilised for service by tainted university officials, for the unqualified to collect the monthly allowance, as unemployment ravages. The effect of this racketeering on the programme was such that in 2017, the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier-General Shuabu Ibrahim, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to wade in, during a visit to its chairman, Ibrahim Magu. The NYSC boss had then revealed: “Currently, we are investigating some of such so-called graduates, many of whom cannot write or spell any word in English.”
Besides, children of the elite, through their parents, decide where they would be posted. This is an abuse, which has been going on for years but is exacerbated by the current wave of insecurity nationwide. In some instances, these corps members complete the orientation programme, get deployed to places of primary assignment and then vanish until the time to collect the discharge certificates. These challenges, among others, are why calls have been strident for the scheme to be voluntary now, as against its mandatory nature.
The exponential increase in call-ups to the service, with the earlier inclusion of National Certificate of Education (NCE) graduates of Colleges of Education, compelled a rethink on how to prune the figure in 1985. With effect from the 1st of August that year, those above the age of 30, military and police personnel, members of staff of the State Security Service, Nigeria Intelligence Agency, Defence Intelligence Service and individuals conferred with national honours, were exempted from service.
Yet, the strategy has not contained the surge because of illegal admissions by universities. The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, following pressure from vice-chancellors and parents, had to regularise the admissions of about one million students in April 2022, who had already graduated, to make them eligible for service. At a stakeholders meeting, the Minister said, “I had approved that all illegitimate admissions from 2017 to 2022 be condoned, as long as such candidates met the minimum entry qualifications in their various courses of study.” Graduates sometimes wait for three years or more after graduation, before they are mobilised. These are abuses of epic proportions and existential toxic stressors, which require better handling than the Adamu recipe.
With the Federal Government spending 96 per cent of its revenue on servicing debts, it is time for it to think out of the box on how to sustain, strengthen and maintain the NYSC’s relevance. The voluntary enlistment being canvassed is an option that strongly recommends itself. Nigeria is not the only country where such youth programmes exist. It could learn something good from Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile, Taiwan and others with similar schemes to improve its own.
In many of these countries, enlistment is highly competitive or for the best. Malaysia has 85,000 vacancies for a three-month programme and selection is by lottery. In Chile, through competition, medical doctors, engineers and lawyers are professionals selected and deployed in rural areas for rural poverty reduction, which lasts for 13 months. In Israel, it is for three and two years for males and females respectively, and only for secularists aged 18, for military training. Recruitment is through examination and interviews.
As presently run, the scheme needs a radical overhaul for survival. A visit to some of the orientation camps across the states, tells a story of neglect and a national institution in dire straits. Many states no longer discharge their statutory support to the scheme in the maintenance of orientation camps. Its erstwhile Director-General, Sachari Kazaure, was so pained by the remiss when he inspected Yikpata camp in Kwara State, a few years ago, that he exclaimed: “With what I have seen here, I am highly disappointed. It is nothing to write home about.” The camp had no fence, while dilapidated buildings, inadequate beds, poor roads and obsolete facilities were ugly spectacles.
National discipline; conformity with the law, rules and regulations; and punishment for errant behaviours are irreducible conditions that should be strictly adhered to by all stakeholders in the years ahead, for the scheme to endure. A reduction in the number of participants through a well-considered set of criteria will significantly address its funding crisis and enhance the welfare package of corps members. The current allowance of N33,000 monthly cannot take care of a youth corps member, amid growing inflationary pressures in the country. If the welfare of corps members is well catered for, they will give their best in serving the nation.
For these reasons, the NYSC Trust Fund Bill before the House of Representatives is a welcome idea. It seeks to provide more funding for the scheme through one per cent of the profit of companies. This will help to scale-up the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) of NYSC, devoted to training corps members for self-reliance after national service.
With the 277,537 shortfall of teachers in the country, according to the 2018 National Personnel Audit report, in basic education – primary to the first three years of secondary education –scrapping the scheme will be tragic for education in Nigeria, due to the contributions of NYSC teachers.
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