Before Scrapping the National Youth Service Corps

The call for the scapping of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC), established in 1973 by the Gowon led administration, has gained momentum since the murder of Corper Leke Akande during the recent Jos, Plateau State crisis. In fact, the call has assumed global dimension with a Facebook.com campaign tagged “JUSTICE FOR LEKE AKANDE/ SCRAP NYSC”. But the question that many of the scheme’s antagonists have not paused to consider is: whether the the cure for the headache is the severance of the head?

These critics who will stop at nothing but see an end to the scheme have harped their condemnation on several reasons, but for the sake of space, I shall examine four. The first is the poor state of the orientation camp. The second is the rejection of the corps members at the place of primary assignment. The third is the paltry allowance (or is it salary?) that corps members are paid. Fourthly is the conclusive argument that the scheme no more promotes the unity it was set out to promote for Nigerians are more sharply divided now as they were at independence. Like I mooted earlier, the reasons are many but the above are the ‘Top-Four’ of the reasons being put forth by the antagonist of the scheme. However, as seemingly logical and ‘constructive’ as the reasons are, they are spurious and defies the laws of sound ratiocination and are therefore subjectively myopic, selfish and highly unpatriotic. The ground-norm of my objection however is the Yoruba proverb which says “ Ori bibe ko ni ogun ori fifo”, that is ‘the cure of an headache is not the severance of the head’.

For the avoidance of any doubt, let me make it clear that I was a corps member some few years ago. I served among the Kuteb people of Ussa Local Government Area of Taraba State. Like every other corps members I have to participate in the scheme because it is mandatory for every Nigerian fresh graduate of universities and polytechnics who are under the age of thirty years. But unlike most of them, I was willing to serve in any part of the country. Indeed, I had a glimpse of the other side of life realities in other parts of Nigeria compared to what I thought life was as a South-westerner. For the first time in my life I have a feel of what it takes to live in the stone-age in a science driven twenty-first century. Kpambo, the village I served in, and indeed the whole local government, was without electricity, pipe-borne water, good road network, no hospitals but ill-equipped and ill-staffed maternity center, and a host of other lacks anyone could think of. Here was where I spent close to ten months of my life teaching English language to the future leaders of the Kuteb Kingdom, a kingdom that is always in strife with other tribes such as the Jukuns and the Tivs. If not for the NYSC, I would not have believed that there are sixteen and eighteen year olds who have never seen a condom in their life; young persons who have never seen a computer before and who do not have any knowledge of existing profession apart from Teachers and Doctors, may be Lawyer. It was really hectic teaching, counseling and mentoring both on career and HIV/AIDS as a UNICEF/NYSC Adolescent Reproductive Health (the protem Coordinator for the whole Taraba State).
Before anyone starts to think that I have not tasted the beautiful side of life, let me quickly add here that prior to my service year, I had visited over four European countries, namely, Norway, Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium as well as such African capitals as Kampala, Uganda and Accra, Ghana.

Now that I have given you a glimpse into my background, let me veer away from further digression. At this juncture, I will like to address the four major/popular reasons being put forth by the protagonists of the NYSC scheme.

To start with, the poor state of the orientation camps ought not to be an issue at all! The NYSC scheme being part of the Nigerian society which has an appreciable rate of poverty that fluctuates between 50 and 70% cannot be expected to be exceptional. It is part of a poverty-inflicted order. A reflection of the dearth of the basics that ‘wines and dines’ with majority of Nigerians. What need to be done to remedy this is to encourage prudence and diligence on the part of camp/state coordinator and seriously clamour for the support and cooperation of the various state governors. In the ‘good old days’ as some persons are akin to easily say and making us to believe, there may be plenty to eat and drink at the camp and a ready made job on completion but these persons have forgotten that corruption then was at the lowest ebb unlike today that it is commonplace. Again, corps members must not be seeking for comfort where they can’t find it. The orientation camps ought to be a place to build enduring life changing traits. No one stops corps members from taking a mosquito treated net to the camp and none stops them from seeking for food option at their respective camps’ ‘mammy markets’. The solution to this problem is to send the anti-graft men after the corrupt state coordinators and also urge state governments to take care of corps members posted to their states.

In addressing the issues of corps members rejection, let me quickly note that most of the cases of rejections were self-inflicted. I will explain. It no news that majority of corps members never wanted to serve in the villages but in the cities. In fact, some of the prospective corps members that are connected, who do not qualify for concessional postings usually get posted to their choice State; not satisfied they usually take a step further to lobby to stay in the cities. This usually creates tension in the posting of corps members as the lobbyist groups have to share the available spaces in the cities with the talented (mostly sportsmen and others) and the lucky ones who are specifically requested based on the quality of degree by various establishments. Fierce and intense lobbying surfaces and creates M4P (money for posting), S4P (sex for posting) and F4P (favour for posting) phenomenon. At the end of the whole exercise, which usually entails officials posting more than the requested to many companies and industries, the population of corps members in the cities becomes overblown and surplus to required. In a nutshell, rejection is a vocabulary in the cities, and among the city-maniac corps members, not in the villages where the corps members are needed most. The solution to this is simple: If they are rejected in the cities, let them go to the villages where they are most needed, simple as ABC!

Concerning the unnecessary lamentations over ‘allowee’ as the corps members often call the NYSC allowance, I can’t understand the reason for the outcry. From my own dictionary, an allowance is never a salary; likewise a salary is never an allowance. Is it? So, what the corps members are to be paid is never meant to enable them buy houses and cars, but to enable them survive. (In fact, most past village corps members know that the so called ‘pittance’ is enough to eat, cloth and have some savings to take home). If the critics want to push for salary for corps members, they are free to do so. But if they are still bent on clamouring to increment of allowance, they will continue to put a square peg in a round hole. I will waste time no more on this. Let’s let allowee be allowee and salary be salary. Chikena!

In a similar vein, the argument that the scheme no more builds bridges across ethno-religious differences is likewise baseless. I make bold to say that till date am still in touch with countless persons I met during my service year: Abershi, Rimamskep, Uruku, Ajinus, James, Tunde (Kwesati), Tunde (Fikyu), Adeola (Rufu) and a host of others. These are persons that have a totally different background, culture, beliefs, orientation, etc from mine but linked together by the NYSC. These persons have being of immense help to me, and I to some of them, since I completed my youth service.

Such programme as this is not peculiar to Nigeria as countries such as Norway, Germany, Ghana, and some other operate similar programme, some with the same length and some shorter. But they are all directed at building young persons’ endurance and strength in facing the challenges of years ahead and in case of “incasity” (the discerning knows what I meant by this). In fact, it has been a very useful experience for some ex-corps members who have to stay for years without a job (those that belongs to the Now Your Suffering Continues group!)

Although I sincerely commiserate with the family of the deceased corp members, including Leke Akande, who like soldiers, and many other patrotic Nigerians, lost their lives in the service of fatherland. Yet, I do not subscribe to the current call for the scrapping of the programme, harping it on the death of these young Nigerians. NYSC, as I see it, is nothing, but an opportunity to explore the Nigeria’s unique diversities in our unity. To have a better understanding of these diversities is to be knowledgeable enough to appreciate the need for us to remain one big different peoples with history bonded future. What we need is not to throw the baby with the bath water, or kill the scheme, but rather overhaul and stem the corruption tide that is fast sinking the scheme. Again, we could look into a means of making the scheme to be shorter, say six months, so as to make life more meaningful at the orientation camps and make for spaces at various companies and industries for prospective corps members.

Onward!

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Yemi Ademowo Johnson, socio-political philosopher and applied anthropologist, is the Editor, YouthSpeak!, Belgium.

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