The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a programme initiated by our then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon,after the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), as an integration strategy for Nigerian Graduates, after the bloody war, seems to have outlived its usefulness, based on the gory tales , we have heard about fate of Corps Members and the ineffectiveness of the scheme to achieve its purpose.
Principal, among these unpalatable happenings to Corps Members are:some Corps Members dying in accidents on their way to and from their states of deployment,some Corps Members dying from inadequate health care in remote areas they are posted to and some Corps Members being killed in ethno-religious cum political conflicts, et al.
The truth is that the whole scheme is just a sham! The Federal Government as at the time, I did my NYSC about a decade and half ago, spent about N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) on each Corps Members .Now, it is over a Million Naira per Corps Members . An amount if given to a Graduate, could lead to the emergence of young graduate millionaires, year after year, if well applied.
The Corps Members are just puns in a huge scheme meant to fleece the nation.The real gainers in the scheme are: the NYSC Contractors and their collaborators in NYSC, who make billions, every time Corps Members are mobilised to Camp. The NYSC Officials, who extort huge sums of money from would be Corps Members , to give them favourable postings, the Zonal Inspectors, who share the allowances of Corps Members , so that, they can stay away from their places of primary assignments and the NYSC Officials, who struggle to be among the Camp Officials, based on the money to be made, while there.
The whole thing is so stressful for Corps Members . On the first night in Camp, if you are unable to register as a Corps Member, your State of Origin automatically turns to OYO State- OYO (On Your Own), I remember people sleeping on the school field, in my first night in Camp , Tsafe ,Zamfara State .
So the scheme has been renamed, NYSC-Now Your Suffering Continues! It is mostly a whole year of waste, because no skill is learnt, no plan is made to absolve the graduates, whom the scheme churn out yearly. Money that is supposed to be used to settle the graduates, as start-ups up in life, are wasted making Millionaires and Billionaires.We should restructure NYSC, to National Graduates Skills Acquisition scheme. Where graduates, would acquire entrepreneurial skills For about two months, after which they should be given cheques to start up businesses. Nigeria will experience great economic prosperity, by that.
Graduates in a shorter period should go through compulsory Information Technology Training and Civics Education. They should also go through other vocational skills acquisition to prepare them for the vagaries of life.
The NYSC as it is now seems to be a dress rehearsal of the deceitful nature of the Nigerian Society. In the aftermath of the ENDSARS Protests, doing things the same way will be an invitation to more agitations.Nigeria has no reason to be poor, we only have a bunch of greedy leaders, who have poverty of ideas.
Those who have the ideas do not have the opportunities. Those who have the opportunities, do not have the ideas, a few, that is an exception to the above, who have the opportunities and the ideas are hostages to a cruel system of greed and callousness.
There is enough for our need ,but not enough for our greed!
It is our greed that now make us bleed.
Let us make Nigeria great again and enough of all these needless shananigans.
NYSC is the only scheme created by Law to.benefit the Youth .It should not be a scheme , schemed to fleece the Youth .Let the Youth be the real beneficiaries and not puns in a complex money making venture for vultures.Restructure the scheme , so those young ones can have business start ups in life.We can do things right
About the Author:
Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., @ douglasogbankwa@gmail.com ,a Benin Based Lawyer is the President of the Benin Writers’ Society.
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I am a corp member from Benin currently serving in one of the eastern states and I have found this your writeup worthy of insight and sharing. God bless you.