Daily Independent Online.
*
Thursday, August 12, 2004.
Repositioning
the NYSC scheme
The current move to overhaul the
operational content of the National Youth
Service Corps (NYSC) with a view to making it assume a skill acquisition
thrust is welcome provided that this time government will not be wanting in
capacity to adequately marry its laudable intention with a competence to successfully
implement. Given that the many years of military rule have posted such amazing
success in running down all our laudable ventures and organised systems, including the NYSC
scheme, the present interest of government to reposition and re-invigorate the
scheme and make it able to respond to present-day realities certainly merits
our sympathy.
According to the Minister of Inter-Governmental
Affairs, Youth Development and Special Duties, Mr. Frank Nweke (Jnr), if the
new proposal is endorsed and becomes operational, the period of stay of corps
members at orientation camps will increase from three weeks to three months.
Within this period, well organised training programmes would be put in place to
make the corps members acquire meaningful entrepreneurial skills and quality
lessons in leadership to get them duly equipped for greater success despite the
daunting challenges of our increasingly distressful environment. They will be sufficiently acquainted
with the requisite information about job opportunities in the country and
empowered to establish themselves and stand on their own after their service
year. The hope is that this policy, if successfully pursued, will go a long way
to significantly reduce graduate unemployment in Nigeria. According Mr. Nweke, the
present 37 orientation camps in the country would be replaced with only six
centres, with one sited in each of the six geopolitical zones. These six new
centres, unlike what obtains in
the present 37, will by duly equipped with the relevant equipment to ensure
successful and meaningful training for the corps members.
So long as the initial intentions that informed the
establishment of the NYSC scheme remain accommodated in this new arrangement,
the programme is welcome. The NYSC was set up in 1973 to facilitate greater
inter-ethnic fellowship and better
understanding among the various groups that make up the nation. It was
rightly thought at that time that better understanding of each through enhanced
contacts would blow up the myths that impede national integration. That is why
graduates are usually posted outside their States of origin to encourage
greater acquaintance with persons and cultures of Nigerians from far-flung
States, and take advantage of the resultant healthy interactions to achieve greater
appreciation of the differing factors that lend others their uniqueness, in
order to build a strong, unified country based on mutual respect and
understanding of each other’s preferences and values. We are of the view
that this could still be achieved during the remaining months that follow the
three months orientation/training programme.
But our fear still dwells on the capacity of
government to adequately respond to the towering challenges posed by this
enlarged mandate. For instance, genuine doubts exist about the ability of
government to put in place sufficient structures to house the resultant greater
numbers of graduates that will convoke at these six centres. Until now, the NYSC programme has been undergoing
progressive trimming due to poor funding and inadequate facilities. National
Certificate of Education (NCE) graduates have been exempted from the programme,
and there is now an age limit set for prospective participants. Equally, the
programme is now done in batches to match the capacity of existing facilities
and government’s increasingly meagre allocation.
Neglect also is gradually robbing the programme of
its ennobling attraction, as we
progressively witness some
unhealthy practices that tend to negate its founding objectives. Large-scale
corruption has become pronounced among officials, so much so, that two former NYSC helmsmen were once docked
for large-scale fraud. It is now common practice for people to freely influence
their posting to choice areas while some others could even stay abroad and
still be “serving” in one remote area of Nigeria.
Government’s waning commitment to the programme has encouraged the
sustenance of poor remuneration and low morale.
So, given this increasingly lean support enjoyed by the
NYSC, many have had cause to call on government to scrap the programme. That is
why public skepticism towards the current move to review the scheme should be
understandable. Government therefore has the responsibility to allay
people’s fears about its capacity to successfully prosecute the revised
scheme. It must be clear that majority of even well-meaning citizens have since
lost faith in the Nigeria project, and
government should not use this project to aggravate their despair. They should not lose sight of the
disaster it will constitute to not gainfully engage the attention and interest
of these youths throughout these three months. What the resultant idleness and
boredom will breed are things this nation can ill-afford.
