Considering that it was the unfortunate antecedents in our national history that gave impetus to the establishment of the NYSC by Decree No. 24 of May, 1973 which stated that the NYSC was being established “with a view to prosper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and promotion of national unity”.
But as we discussed here in the part one of our discourse last week, the phony dishonesty of our political elites has insulted the sensibility of this noble establishment.
And as if this dishonesty on the part of our leaders is not enough, they devised another scandal: the barefaced inequality being perpetrated in the system.
Children and wards of important personalities are given preferential treatment over and above those of common parents. Nigeria graduates from foreign universities are given VIP treatment.
Recently we all bear witness to David Adeleke’s – Davido’s sojourn in the scheme and how his entry into the camp violated at least not a few standing orders of the program including leaving the orientation camp before passing-out ceremony. What about those who will liaise with the Local Government Inspector (LGI) to allow them go about their
private business while the LGI will be covering them in weekly Community Development Services (CDS) and monthly clearance at the bribery rate of 50% of their monthly allowances.
Suffice it to say that corruption has reared its ugly heads into the fabric of the organization.
Just the other day we woke up to hear that ‘Auntie’ Kemi Adeosun has abdicated her office as Finance Minister having conceded to NYSC certificate forgery after several denials. She was safely escorted to the airport and out of the country by the ‘corruption-fighting’ APC government.
Every year, hundreds of millions of naira are being pumped into the scheme for feeding of Corps members during orientation courses and other logistics for the program with no accountability. The food served at the orientation camps is best compared to the junk the biblical prodigal son ate in the distant land of his wastage (Luke 15:11–32), simply because the top ‘men’ of the organization embezzle the rest with impunity.
The premier philosophy that once guided the organization, where no one except serving married Corps members are allowed to serve in their states are no longer there. People bribe their way into serving at any state of their choice. Those from other geopolitical zones who hate the south will serve at their own region and vice versa.
Yet to those from the south who stick out their heads to serve wherever they are posted
to, in faraway Katsina, President Buhari would read out riot acts to them in his Daura country-home when they paid him courtesy visit in 2016.
As you read this some ambassadors of the scheme in some corners might be getting agitated, arguing that there had been some goodies harvested from the program since inception.
That is a fact!
There is no such thing as absolute evil. That NYSC have some gains is a palpable truth. But juxtaposed with its innumerable disadvantages, the scheme is due for cremation in our historical archives.
IPOB and OPC have in their ranks ex-Corps members. May be because at the end of their service year, they became disappointed in the so-called philosophy of the scheme; and the overhyped national unity which it claimed to engender, and decided to vent their anger by joining separatist movements.
NYSC and its founders have the responsibility of repositioning the organization or cosigning it to the dustbin of our national museums.
David Owaboye, in an article published in Punch newspaper on February 7, 2017 observed: “We all know, the scheme does not create revenue for the governments but rather milks the government of huge amount of money in paying the staffs and taking care of the corps members. Due to the recent recession in the economy, the scheme became more threatened.”
For the NYSC scheme to fully actualize its purpose, under the harsh economic atmosphere of Nigeria, certain reforms need to be put in place.
Federal Government should charge agencies for the services of corps members assigned to them. These employers of labour should be made to buy licence before corps members can be posted to their organisations and these licences will be renewed either monthly or yearly to enable the Federal Government increase corps members’ allowances by 50 per cent.
Also, a policy should be made for every state to be accountable for corps members deployed to their state. Therefore, all states should be able to pay allowances to their corps members and provide maximum security for them.
Also, to foster the purpose of this scheme, let every corps member be posted to their Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) according to their course of study. Graduates of Education Faculty should be posted to schools, graduates of management sciences be posted to finance sectors just as Medical and Health Corps members are placed in hospitals. This will foster economic growth in Nigeria.
The Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development which was initiated to reposition corps members for challenges ahead and make them self-reliant/independent should be expanded and loans be readily made available to corps members with ideas and innovations in their selected skills.
What becomes of about fifteen thousand employees of the scheme you would ask?
Well, if all these errors bedeviling NYSC prove incurable then it will only be safer for government to set up an interim management committee that will see to its winding down and subsequent re-absorption of its numerous staff members into the ministry of youths and sports and the dormant National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
Anything less, NYSC should be embalmed, recycled and interred. This will help spare our country and her youths of the ungodly stress of having to waste one full calendar year and innumerable resources in a scheme that runs on botched values.
May the Light spare us.
Concluded.
Ogechukwu writes via ezejudeogechi@gmail.com