I echo an American politician who said “let no crisis go to waste” by allowing our foreign born kids to come home at any age to offer their diverse expertise without the burden of NYSC, unless they want to… Let cooler heads prevail…we must use this opportunity to modify the 1973 law to encourage people of same background to come home.
As a father of a 22-year old young American lady who graduated from University of Cincinnati last June, I have been following the recent firestorm regarding Mrs. Adeosun’s NYSC Exemption Certificate controversy from a different perspective. I do not intend to address the genuineness or otherwise of the Certificate but given the reactions on social media, the majority of people want her to get ahead of the NYSC investigation by making comments in her own defence. The truth is that she is in an unenviable position because most people have formed firm opinions and whatever she has to say would never sway anybody.
Let me digress a bit: I grew up in a small village of about 40 people in my home state of Osun, in the early 70s where I had my primary education. I was always fascinated by the desire to travel largely because of stories of tall buildings in Ibadan and how the city was full of people, as often reported by a few farmers who transported their seasonal new yams, via Bedford lorries, to Ibadan for sale.
Fast forward to 1988, my traveling imagination was propelled by the NYSC when I was posted to Kaduna State where I stayed continuously for a full year outside the South-West for the very first time in my life. I took up employment in Sokoto, after National Service, where I met my wife, before emigrated to the United states in 1993 as a traveling Physiotherapist.
As you can see, I am a beneficiary of NYSC and I am grateful for the rich experiences I gained during that year. Coming back to Mrs. Adeosun, the overwhelming reactions on social media assume that she graduated from College at 22 and that she knew better to come home for National Service. The truth, and her reality at the time, was that she was born and raised in Britain and was as British as White Britons. I daresay if she was a White Briton who naturalised as a Nigerian in 2002, at the age of 32, no one would burden her with the NYSC Exemption Certificate.
Mrs. Adeosun did not graduate from University of Lagos (UNILAG) in 1989 and take the next plane to Britain in order to dodge the National Service… She was a young Briton in 1989 and came to Nigeria as a professional young British woman of Nigerian ancestry. In other words, there was nothing in her life history to suggest some deliberate efforts to avoid National Service.
As an occasional observer of American politics, I’m familiar with the so called “unintended consequences” of laws passed by the Congress, which for the most part, are often corrected. The NYSC was established in 1973, at a time when there were a few foreign born kids by Nigerian parents, and that generation was not directly addressed by the law. Mrs. Adeosun did not graduate from University of Lagos (UNILAG) in 1989 and take the next plane to Britain in order to dodge the National Service and then showed up in 2002, shopping for an Exemption Certificate from NYSC. She was a young Briton in 1989 and came to Nigeria as a professional young British woman of Nigerian ancestry. In other words, there was nothing in her life history to suggest some deliberate efforts to avoid National Service.
The core goal of NYSC was to fully integrate the Nigerian youth in places different from their tribes within Nigeria. If you asked me, an individual who grew up in Britain for the first 32 years of her life and then decided to live in Nigeria has more than fulfilled the goal of Nigerian integration. If British visas were granted to many who are clamouring for her head tonight, I bet they would be in U.K. tomorrow morning. Personally, I can authoritatively say it takes tens of thousands of dollars to go through College in the West. Put directly, the cost of her professional training and the diversity of experience she brings to the table are invaluable to Nigeria.
Nigeria is being gutted daily by brain drain via legal immigration, and hundreds of desperate and despairing youth are perishing by taking treacherous trips across the Sahara Desert with the hope of making it to Europe illegally. Ironically, we want to eat our own who voluntarily came to the land of her forefathers’ ancestry, while simultaneously losing professionals who are trained on the resources of the country.
Every developed country tries to attract the best talents available, irrespective of their countries of origin. Nigeria has thousands of young professionals born overseas and retaining the booby traps of a law drafted in 1973 is certainly not the reality of 21st century Nigeria.
The world of 1989 is different from 2002 and much more different from 2018. Given the massive brain drain of the late 80s to date, the country has lost significant numbers of her sons and daughters to the West and there are millions of kids of Nigerian descents aged between 21 to 25 who are pursuing their second professional degrees and probably don’t know the colour of the Nigerian Passport. In addition, there are rising and accomplished professionals age between 26 and 35 who may be thinking of giving back and redeeming the decades of abscondment of their “Andrew” parents.
Every developed country tries to attract the best talents available, irrespective of their countries of origin. Nigeria has thousands of young professionals born overseas and retaining the booby traps of a law drafted in 1973 is certainly not the reality of 21st century Nigeria. I left the shores of Nigeria in 1993 and still retain my thick Nigerian accent with visible tribal marks like “Jegede Sokoya” of the famed New Masquerade comedy drama, yet the individual response I get from my patients in the U.S. is “I’m glad you are here”, with no care for my look or accent but everything about my professional competence.
I echo an American politician who said “let no crisis go to waste” by allowing our foreign born kids to come home at any age to offer their diverse expertise without the burden of NYSC, unless they want to. Coming from the West to live in Nigeria is a big change and takes “skills”. A lot of my friends who left Nigeria years back have lost the “skills” to drive in Lagos or Abuja again. Yes, the change can be that dramatic and much worse for the foreign born. Let cooler heads prevail, Mrs. Adeosun is an asset to Nigeria and we must use this opportunity to modify the 1973 law to encourage people of same background to come home.
Mukaila Kareem, a doctor of physiotherapy, writes from the USA.
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