ON NYSC “SOON TO BE COMPLETELY OPTIONAL” AND MATTERS ARISING

When it was recently made public that very soon, fresh graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions will be at liberty to participate or not to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme, we were glad with the development but however, we believe the option of scrapping the NYSC Scheme completely would have been better. This is hinged on the fact that the NYSC Scheme in Nigeria has definitely “outlived its usefulness” and seriously needs to be scrapped.

As a matter of fact, the money budgeted to be spent for the NYSC programme should be channeled and used for infrastructural projects across the country. While some may disagree with this and argue differently, a careful look at the entire NYSC Scheme, when compared with what the Scheme was intended at its inception in the first place, will clearly show that events in the polity over the years have overtaken the lofty goals of the Scheme, hence, it is time we do away with the so called compulsory program and save everyone the headaches created by it. Making it ‘optional’ will still not make any difference as there are far worst situations in the country that have made the entire Scheme no longer worthwhile.

According to a recently released press statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, Director-General General of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Brigadier-General Johnson Olawumi during a presidential briefing, informed President Muhammadu Buhari that plans are on the way to make the service voluntary due to the increasing number of prospective Corp members annually coupled with the lack of adequate fund to carter for their welfare. According to Brigadier-General Olawumi, if fresh graduates are allowed to choose whether to participate in the scheme or not, the number of prospective Corp members will decrease thereby making it easier to manage the scheme efficiently. The statement further disclosed that the officials of the ministry of youth development led by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Rabi Jimeta briefed President Buhari on the inability of NYSC to adequately carter for Corp members due to high increase in their population and inadequate funds for the scheme. Mrs. Jimeta told the President that the increasing number of NYSC participants posed a challenge to the Scheme due to the dwindling revenue, from the national budget, to cater for their needs. She told the President that the annual enrolment of Corps participants had increased from 2,364 at inception in 1974 to 229,016 in 2014. “Given the increasing number of tertiary institutions, our projection is that the number of corps participants may rise to 300,000 by year 2020,’’ she said. Responding, President Muhammadu Buhari pledged that his administration will take all necessary actions to maintain and improve the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme as a functional vehicle for the promotion of national unity and integration. The President affirmed his confidence and trust in the programme, saying that the objective for which the scheme was established in 1973 was still very relevant for national development now. We beg to strongly disagree with the President that the NYSC is still relevant, on grounds that prevailing circumstances, some of which were highlighted above the NYSC authorities, have made the Scheme no longer worthwhile. This is hinged on the fact that the Nigerian entity has grown beyond the need for us to still maintain the NYSC Scheme in the name of entrenching national unity. Among other things, the Information Technology (IT) industry and the Social Network have to a large extent, united Nigerians amongst themselves and with the world.

So, if the NYSC’s primary objective is to reconcile and unite the different geopolitical space of the country, the internet and IT industry has achieved even more. There is therefore no need for the continued existence of the NYSC Scheme, as the Scheme has outlived its usefulness. If we can recall last year, the decision by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to impose a N4, 000 online registration fees on prospective corps members in assessing their call-up letters was nothing short of extortion. The subsequent announcement by the NYSC Director of Press and Public Relations, Mrs. Bose Aderibigbe, when the decision became controversial, that the fee would be reduced in subsequent years but not year 2014, added absurdity to the proposed extortion. This clearly showed that the Scheme and its current Management are short of ideas on how to sustain the program or they simply looking for avenues to enrich their pockets. Whatever the case may be, these and many more, are signs that the NYSC Scheme has outlived its usefulness and needs to be scrapped completely. The initial obstinacy of the leadership of the NYSC, despite the widespread condemnation of the decision to impose a fee on Corps members in the collection of their call-up letters, was a demonstration of the fact that those in charge of this otherwise laudable scheme have become sorely desensitized to the fundamental conditions that necessitated it and its overall goals. The simplistic reasons offered in defense of that decision also exposed the limitations of the leadership of the NYSC. The NYSC Scheme was created in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War in 1973 as part of the elaborate efforts to reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country which had just survived a 30-month long challenge of dismemberment. The law establishing the NYSC, Decree No. 24 of 22nd May 1973, envisioned a scheme that would ensure “the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity.” From the onset of the scheme, and as acknowledged by the current leadership, the NYSC recognized and continues to recognize that the country is plagued by the problems of underdevelopment, including poverty. Indeed, tragically, the educated young Nigerians who are being called up to serve the nation through the scheme have mostly come to regard the NYSC as a stopgap between higher education and unemployment. Only in June last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that 80 per cent of Nigerian youths were without jobs. This is the bleak future that many of these young people who are graduating from the nation’s higher institutions face after their national service. This is made worse by the terrible conditions under which many of them survived in the years that they spent in higher institutions.

Therefore, to demand that these young people who are looking forward to the “interregnum” that the service year represents in their lives pay any amount of money to receive their call-up letters is a brazen response to the tough conditions of their past, present and future. How do we expect the nation’s graduates to pay money in other to serve their country? Seriously, we find appalling how government establishments and their officials treat the Nigerian populace with reckless abandon and impunity. The said newly introduced policy of money-for-call-up letters imposed through a dubious biometric-enabled on-line registration of prospective corps members requesting each to pay N4,000, can best be described as the most insensitive, illogical and irresponsible plans ever contemplated by any government establishment. As planned by the management of the NYSC, the Scheme is the height of insensitivity to the plight of the average Nigerian youth already traumatized by a poor but rigorous education system and who even face a bleak future in the labour market. To facilitate payment, a prospective corps member was expected to use “any bank’s ATM card or the PIN vending option”. Participants have an option of online registration or collection of letter from school this current year but the enforcement of N4, 000 payment option was said to start this year with ‘Batch A’. By any logic, it cannot and should not stand. Though, the former House of Representatives had then directed the NYSC to suspend forthwith the said policy requiring prospective corps members to pay N4,000 as registration fee before accessing their call-up letters, but beyond that, for the simple fact that it was suggested in the first place by the NYSC authorities, clearly shows that something is intricately wrong somewhere. These graduates should not have to pay even a kobo to receive their call-up letters. That the spokesperson of the NYSC explained then that the N4, 000 controversy as a charge “just for the operation and provision of infrastructural facilities in all NYSC camps and its 37 secretariats and offices in the 774 local governments nationwide” is an unashamed display of the lack of imagination of the leadership of the NYSC and the relevant oversight institutions in both the executive and legislative branches of the government of the federation. It is not the duty of the corps members to fund or subsidize the NYSC. A government that establishes a compulsory service scheme must have the funds to run its operations. And when the government can no longer provide the infrastructure that can accommodate the increasing number of graduates yearly, and also not able to sustain the funding of the programme based on the economic harsh realities of the country at the moment, the best option is to completely scrap the Scheme, not even to make it voluntary as the NYSC authorities are suggesting. Let us recall that some months ago, the world was shocked by the avoidable death of scores of enterprising graduates across the country spearheaded by the Ministry of the Interior through a scandalous recruitment exercise credited to Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) that was hardly intended to recruit genuine applicants among the more than 700,000 candidates who reported at the suffocating centres to write tests. Many were trampled to death, many more suffocated to death. Months after, the Minister and his collaborators were still on their seats with the immediate past government. That was not the first incident of NIS job-hunting centre made a death zone. A Comptroller- General was earlier forced into retirement on similar grounds. These are serious issues the current Federal Government should be busy trying to address rather than wasting more scarce State funds to sustain a Scheme that has become irrelevant. Despite its lofty objectives, and close to forty years of its existence, the NYSC Scheme has over the years, gradually lost its relevance and importance to the extent that many are beginning to question its continued existence. With Nigerian graduates that are serving as NYSC members, becoming targets of kidnap and Boko Haram insurgents; getting killed and maimed in the Northern parts of the country, particularly in the 2011 post-Presidential election violence that erupted in those parts of the country, many Nigerians are greatly worried that the NYSC Scheme, rather than being a unifying agent, is now a channel through which their sons and daughters are murdered. The current insecurity situation in Northern Nigerian instigated by the Boko Haram sect is even making things worse for parents/guardians to allow their prospective NYSC children to get posted in those parts of the country. In so many countless occasions, Corp members have been killed, kidnapped and tortured (mostly in Northern Nigeria), while carrying out the so called mandatory one year Youth Service. Parents/Guardians can no longer expect to accept the posting of their wards to some parts of the country – the North, for fear of having their wards killed and become targets of attack by some disgruntled elements; and some parts of the South for fear of having their wards kidnapped in exchange of ransoms.

The one that worries many most, which is the greatest of all, is the situation where Corp members have become targets of attack especially during any political or ethno-religious conflicts, crises or violence in the Northern parts of the country. Aside the identified problem above, the NYSC Scheme is also inflicted with the problems of mismanagement, corruption, ineptitude in functions and lack of focus. It has been observed that during the three weeks NYSC Camp experience and paramilitary training, apart from the benefits of networking/inter-mingling with Corp members from different parts and background of the country; the feeding and accommodation in most NYSC CAMPS in the country is so pathetic and a sorry sight to behold that one begins to wonder, are these ‘refugees’ or ‘graduates’ of higher institution? Then the most disturbing part of all is when Corp members are designated to their various ‘primary assignment areas’ where one is expected to serve his or her father land in one year. Apart from the fact that most Corp members are assigned to serve in schools, irrespective of what they have studied, there is the problem of getting ‘rejected’, particularly to those assigned to serve in companies, organizations, corporate bodies etc. In fact, some Corps members are driven out at the gate entrance of some establishments. And their usual excuse is “no space” for them to be taken to serve. This leaves many corps members roaming the streets of cities looking for where to ‘serve their father land’ and prepare themselves for the labour market that is without jobs. Even those posted to rural areas/schools (including those in the cities) usually suffer the problems of getting good accommodation to stay for the whole year. The truth is that, the ‘evolved problems’ of the whole NYSC Scheme are too numerous to elaborate. All of which questions its relevance. The NYSC Scheme is now branded by undergraduates as – “Now Your Suffering Continues” (NYSC). In the late 70s and 80s, all of the problems mentioned were absent. As a matter of fact, being a Youth Corp member then was a thing of pride, an honour, and a privilege that is given to an individual as an opportunity to serve the nation in his/her own little way. Corp members then were ‘respected’ by all and sundry no matter where they were posted. Wherever one is posted to, you get to enjoy a lot of things for free; ranging from transportation, food items (farm produce), accommodation etc.

Then, undergraduates were desperately looking forward to the NYSC Scheme, and the experience in the Camp was something else. Right after the Camp then, you have jobs waiting for you. Even after the Service year, most Corp members were usually retained by their employers with attractive fringe benefits. And getting where to serve was no problem at all. But today, all that has changed dramatically, making the purpose and relevance of the NYSC Scheme no longer there or visible. If not for the fact that it was made compulsory for all graduates to undergo the one year exercise, most fresh graduates would prefer to boycott the scheme, rather than ‘waste’ a whole year of their lives and end up achieving practically little or nothing, or even end up dead. But even now that they are considering making the NYSC Scheme optional in other to reduce the population of those going for the Scheme, we still believe the best option is to scrap it completely because it is still funds (which are now lean) that will be used to sustain the Scheme. In other to avoid the ‘sufferings’ of the one year compulsory service, most Parents/Guardians of prospective Corp members now troop to Abuja or identify any available ‘connections’ around to lobby the postings of their wards in their favour, particularly to states like Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt etc, where it is not only ‘safe’ but they will stand a chance of getting job opportunities. In other words, Parents/Guardians would strive to see that their children are posted to places where it will be safe and convenient for them to have ‘good jobs’ opportunities and good accommodation. This has made the issue of ‘cross-posting’ and ‘re-posting’ a normalised occurrence in the NYSC Scheme. But who would blame the Parents/Guardians. No sane parent would allow his/her ward(s) to be exposed to possible danger and the harsh economic realities of the country. As noted above, one basic problem the NYSC Scheme is always grappling with is the issue of ‘population growth’ of yearly graduates from various higher institutions and the overstretched or non-existing infrastructure to accommodate this growth, coupled with the high level of unemployment in the country. This has brought with it the problems of mismanagement and inept organizational pioneering to actualize the objectives of the scheme. Despite the fact that the NYSC system was some time ago divided into three Batches (A, B and C), the problem of having so many graduates waiting for their ‘call-up-letters’ is still there with the Scheme.

Like us, some Nigerians have been calling for the complete scrapping of the NYSC Scheme, as a result of the numerous problems of the scheme stated here, while others are advocating ‘a review’ of the Acts backing the Scheme to make it more relevant and without the problems identified. And now, the NYSC authorities are planning to make the Scheme ‘optional’ for graduates to do. While the latter might seem like a better option, even though the President seem to disagree, but we strongly believe that the NYSC Scheme has outlived its usefulness, hence, completely scrapping it will be the best possible solution. Our graduates do not deserve to be subjected or exposed to any sort of extortion, hardship, risks of their lives or anything that would make their efforts to settle down in life more difficult than it is already.

Zik Gbemre,JP.

National Coordinator Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)