The proposed review of the NYSC scheme
RECENTLY the Minister of Inter-Governmental Affairs, Youth Development and Special Duties, Mr. Frank Nweke Jr., announced the government's intention to reform the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in order to make it "more meaningful and rewarding". Under the proposed reform plan, corps members will spend three months in the orientation camp rather than the current three weeks to enable them acquire "practical skills and lessons in leadership training and governance."
The minister explained further that the reform plan will empower corps members with the skills and knowledge for meaningful self-employment. It will "reduce the rate of unemployment as a sizeable number of fresh graduates will no longer be job seekers." In essence the reform plan has two objectives: leadership training and self-empowerment for the nation's youths. And it is on these two precepts that we believe that the reform plan is ill-conceived, ill-advised, and impracticable.
The NYSC came into being on May 22,1973 against the backdrop of a country desperate to heal the wounds of a civil war and was seeking to build bridges of understanding, national cohesion and national unity across a multi-ethnic divide. The scheme's objective, as designed by the government of General Yakubu Gowon, was clear and precise: to mobilise Nigerian youths for nation building and to prepare them for patriotic and loyal service to their fatherland. The programme sought to inculcate discipline in the nation's youths, develop common ties among them and promote national unity by assigning corps members to work outside their states of origin. The NYSC was expected to transform our diversity into an instrument of strength and unity.
The scheme was also designed to promote youth participation in national development and to redress the imbalance in the availability of skill manpower in different sections of the country. In fact its special feature was the expectation that a greater percentage of corps members would be deployed to the rural areas of the country for their primary assignments. An added advantage was that it offered ample opportunity for participants to secure permanent employment in both the public and private sectors where they were deployed for their primary assignment.
The primary assignment, during which corps members fulfil their community development obligation, constitutes the core of the scheme. It lasts for 11 calendar months. The scheme's broad objectives are realised during the primary assignment. On the other hand, the first month is devoted to orientation and induction, during which participants are kept together in a camp where they are expected to be infused with a sense of mission, and inspired to actualise the scheme's objectives. And it is this orientation programme whose duration the minister is proposing to extend to three months.
In a way, the minister is right in recognising the need to reform the NYSC. No one can dispute the fact that the scheme as currently run has deviated from the laudable objectives and vision of its founding fathers. The public, certainly the participants in the scheme, perceive it as a burden imposed on the nation's youths, without purpose, and with little or no impact on their personal and collective aspirations. The NYSC has lost its dynamic essence and national relevance, is currently ossified in corruption and institutional inertia. Not surprisingly, some have called for its scrapping. After more than three decades it is imperative to re-examine the programme's conception, objectives and implementation strategies in order to determine its relevance to contemporary society.
But is the minister's proposal the answer to the problem in the NYSC Is extending the orientation period likely to address the scheme's limitations Is the orientation programme of greater importance to the attainment of the scheme's objective than the primary assignment Is leadership something to be taught in three months Can the NYSC equip corps members with the requisite skills that will empower them for self-employment
Will corps members be posted to primary assignments where they will utilise the skills acquired during the orientation, or will they be posted to areas of need where they could utilise the education and professional skills acquired over four years or more of university education Is the minister implying that our educational system has failed the nation and that the NYSC will come to the rescue with a three-month skill-acquisition programme What of the issue of cost Can the nation shoulder the additional burden implied in the extension of the orientation programme
As is common knowledge leadership is defined by selfless service. The original conception of the NYSC was based on the philosophy of selfless service and our youths were expected to evolve leadership qualities through selfless service. It was not the orientation programme that instilled leadership qualities in our youths; it was the challenges they faced in a totally different environment, and the opportunity which the primary assignment gave them to rise to the occasion.
Leadership cannot be taught by precepts, but by example. Does the current culture of leadership in the country offer a good model for our youths To be sure the NYSC needs urgent reforms but not as conceived by the honourable minister. It is imperative to re-visit the scheme's core values as a means to measuring or determining the extent to which it has lost focus and direction. Perhaps the minister may want to avail himself of the expertise of some of the founding fathers of the programme. General Gowon is still very much around and we are sure that he will support any effort to extricate the NYSC from the visionless and purposeless pit into which it has fallen in recent times.
