By Samuel Oluwole Ogundele
NYSC means National Youth Service Corps. It was a creation of the Yakubu Gowon administration in 1973, for Nigerian university graduates not older than 30 years of age. Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates were later incorporated into the national scheme. This was an attempt by the central government to mobilise Nigerian youths for development.
The origin of this scheme was traceable to the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970, with its numerous devastating physical and psychological effects, too huge to be measured. The physical effects include sexual abuse, malnutrition, illnesses, and injuries. On the other hand, the psychological consequences entail trauma, anxiety, depression, and distrust of one another.
Nigeria is not the only country in Africa engaging the youth in national development agendas. Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia among others, have their national youth service schemes. The Nigerian brand of youth corps scheme has to be thoroughly reviewed periodically in order to capture the country’s ever dynamic existential realities and sensitivities.
Indeed, the NYSC was designed to mitigate the above ugly consequences capable of making national development on a sustainable scale, a wild goose chase. In this regard, the need for cross-cultural understanding, appreciation, and appropriation was/is sacrosanct. The Nigerian youth were made to serve compulsorily outside their states of origin. Nigeria had less than 10 universities during the early period. This made it possible for the government to take relatively good care of NYSC members. Everybody was excited about the scheme from several perspectives.
With the exception of a few parents who wanted to flaunt their wealth, there was no need for sending monies at all to the “youth corper” children. Again, the security situation was relatively in order. But this narrative has changed with the passage of time, in the face of a gross lack of proactive measures by the government. According to the National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigeria now has more than 43 federal universities. State governments have at least 48, while private varsities are at least 79 in number. Both federal and state-owned polytechnics are currently 17 and 26 respectively. This is in addition, to privately owned polytechnics which are mushrooming daily. Thus, for example, the Lagos State House of Assembly has just debated two bills in connection with the establishment of a new university. The bills scaled through the second reading, a couple of days ago. It seems to me, that very soon universities of Hair-Dressing and Pottery Making would be established in the country. Indeed, Nigerian leaders are a funny lot!
Despite the dwindling national resources arising mainly from unfettered corruption and mediocre leadership, the Nigerian government continues to dangerously establish new higher institutions. The NUC appears to be looking the other way, at the peril of the country’s future. This is a good illustration of smelly politicisation including trivialisation of education in Nigeria. No modern research and teaching facilities among other things. Ours is rapidly becoming a university system of near-complete mediocrities. Most of these so-called higher institutions are on a par with secondary schools. Consequently, poorly cooked, weak graduates pollute the NYSC space yearly. It is a fact, that the huge numbers of enrollees today are overstretching the NYSC’s resources leading to the steady damaging of the heart and soul of mother Nigeria. Abject material poverty dehumanises. The monthly allowance of N30,000 (less than $70) per NYSC member is grossly inadequate given the current hyper-inflation that tears the country into shreds.
The NYSC scheme has been thoroughly caricatured. There is need for a major reform or outright cancellation in the interest of the common good. Many NYSC members now regularly experience deep anxieties and/or mild depression. Boko Haram insurgents, sometimes masquerading as bandits are always going on a killing spree without been arrested, let alone prosecuted. In the process, some “youth corpers” are being mowed down regularly. Is Nigeria an animal kingdom?
I believe that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) can be changed to National Youth Volunteer Service Corps (NYVSC). The scheme does not need to be made compulsory any longer in view of the myriad of uncontrolled challenges confronting it. It is on record, that the Anti-Fraud Unit of Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) discovered illegal NYSC Orientation Camps in July, 2010 in Nassarawa State. Similarly, in 2011, some innocent NYSC members numbering 50 or thereabouts were locked up inside the Nigerian Christian Corpers’ Fellowship Secretariat in Minna, Niger State by a group of angry youths. They were protesting against the results of the presidential election. These young Nigerians (protesters) set the building ablaze. It was one of the NYSC members that managed to force the door open for everybody to escape.
Nigerians should also not forget in a hurry, the three NYSC members kidnapped from the Ogonokom Corpers’ Lodge in Rivers State in 2013. They were kept in captivity for 10 days before their release. Raping and/or molestation of NYSC members across the country have/has become a norm. This is a traumatic experience for the affected parents. A 21-year old female “youth corper” in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State was raped in May, 2020 by two men. Two students of Ogbogbo Baptist Grammar School in Ogun State raped a female NYSC member this February. Today, NYSC members are usually advised not to put on their uniforms when going out or embarking on intra-state and/or inter-state trips.
This scenario is at variance with what happened in the 1970s and early 1980s, when birds were crying like birds. Nigeria was then enshrined in fine-grained philosophies. I’m saddened to say here, that these philosophies have now taken flight due to a wide range of unprecedented leadership failings. Nigerian political leaders must convince us that NYSC members can serve in their various places of primary assignment in safety. Any leadership that fails or refuses to respect the sanctity of human lives but merely engages in empty, nauseating rhetoric (as if the followers are moronic) is a monumental irritant to humanity.
This is the situation in which Nigerians have found themselves today. Not unexpectedly, the global village holds Nigerians and their Janjaweed political leaders up to ridicule. The Minister for Youths and Sports Development recently said that the NYSC was being reformed by the government and that the scheme would not be abolished. Was this another political statement to trivialise our worries or fears?
It is an act of unspeakable callousness cum dishonesty to be talking about cross-cultural understanding/cohesion for the young Nigerian graduates. This is because most of the utterances and actions of political leaders especially in the last 4 or 5 years have been appalling. It is no longer news, that primordial ethnic/religious bigotry more than hitherto reigns supreme in our troubled geo-polity. Some individuals are now sacred cows who can defecate anywhere. Therefore, sacrificing the lives of some of our youths on the altar of personal aggrandisement and primitive arrogance among other things is highly condemnable. Today’s NYSC scheme is sited high up on an active volcano. An urgent, sophisticated re-engineering is most desirable in order to prevent in the long run, an eruption with all its devastating effects.
- Prof Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
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