President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just approved N35,000 grant for federal civil servants and N25,000 for pensioners in order to cushion the adverse effect of the removal of fuel subsidy in the country but there are no signs yet as to whether the government has made plans concerning an upward review of the monthly allowance of the members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
The NYSC monthly allowance was last reviewed in 2020 from N19,500 to N33,000 by the former President Muhammadu Buhari government and looking at the current cost of living today, N33,000 is too meagre.
Recently, many youth corps members expressed disappointment after expecting a review of their monthly allowance alongside that of civil servants and pensioners.
It is important to note that most of these young graduates are posted far away from home to serve our country and that leaves them with the bills of their feeding, transportation and other necessary expenses including house rents.
With the high cost of living due to the rising inflation, the cost of transportation and other necessities looking at the dropping value of naira, N33,000 is equivalent to little because it is barely enough even for feeding alone.
Almost all the corpers in the country today are lamenting due to excessive hardship and you don’t even need to ask them to know that they are suffering because this situation affects all. With one voice, all the masses and the corpers across the country are calling on the federal government to reinstate the trust of these youth in them by an upward review of their allowance from what it is today.
We know how important it is to serve our country but posting graduates far away from home to serve on empty stomach is certainly not encouraging. This is a clarion call to the National Youth Service Corps.
Rhoda Ibrahim,
Department of mass communication,
University of Maiduguri, Borno state
