NYSC: A POTENTIAL VICTIM OF THE NATION’S RISING INSECURITY

There have been raging discourse in recent years about the usefulness or otherwise of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) amidst some new and unfolding events in the country. Many argue that the initiative has over the years failed to achieve the very objectives behind its establishment while others think otherwise. More recently however, the rising security challenges that characterized much of the northern states as well as other parts of the country have further raised the scepticism of the people regarding whether the NYSC scheme is really fulfilling its purpose as well as regarding its sustainability in the future.

Since the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2007, some parts of northern Nigeria like Borno and Yobe states have become a no-go-area not only to visitors but even to some indigenes, a situation that continue to have a serious negative effect on the region’s socio-economic wellbeing. This unfortunate situation has recently forced the NYSC directorate to review some of its policies to allow the staging of NYSC orientation camp exercise for the affected states in other neighbouring states before the corps members could be assigned their various primary assignments in those states. And that’s not all, the directorate had to also loosen its laws to give the corps members the prerogative to chose either to serve in the states tagged as ‘security-challenged states’ or to apply for relocation elsewhere with an automatic endorsement.

However, in the year 2012, the NYSC scheme took a more dramatic dimension, following the spread of the terrorist activities from the north-east to some parts of the north-west. The list of the no-go-areas then multiplied to include states like Kaduna and Kano, which hitherto used to be toast of corps members, who were privileged to be posted there.

Sequel to the rising spate of coordinated bomb attacks targeting strategic military formations, places of worship and institutions of learning, that characterized Kano and Kaduna since the beginning of the year 2012, many parents from other parts of the country could not approve their children or wards being sent to the security-challenged states of Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Yobe, in the name of serving their country while putting their lives and the huge educational investment made on them at a great danger. This agitation led to the National Assembly’s directive for the relocation of any corps member posted to the affected states to other safer location. It is therefore, on this backdrop that more than 70% of the 2012 Batch B corps members posted to those crises-prone states applied and were given automatic approval for relocation to safer grounds.

This latest development has in no small measure undermined the basic aim behind establishing the NYSC scheme, which was ultimately to foster unity among the country’s diverse ethno-religious formations by sending Nigerian youths to different parts of the country other than their states of origin on a one year national service, in order to live with, understand and appreciate the cultures and traditions of other fellow countrymen. The event has also defeated the cardinal objective of the programme, which was to inculcate in Nigerian youths the spirit of selfless service to the community and to emphasize the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians, irrespective of cultural or social background.

The very idea for this highly commendable effort towards imbibing high sense of nationalism and ethno-religious tolerance was hatched by former military head of state Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) in 1973, as part of the Federal Government’s Rehabilitation, Reconciliation and Reconstruction programme following the traumatic events of the bloody civil war in 1967, which culminated as a result of the immediate post-independence experience, characterized by ethnic loyalties, mutual group suspicion and distrust that almost torn the country into pieces. Indeed, it was evident that in the first few years of the programme, the scheme had played a very tremendous role in bringing about unity and understanding, as well as promoting ethno-religious cohesion among Nigerians despite their geographical, social, cultural and religious differences.

Part of the socio-cultural benefits of the scheme includes intermarriages between people of different ethno-religious backgrounds and even permanent settlement of some corps members in the states they were posted to serve. Economically, the scheme has also succeeded in opening doors and opportunities for commercial activities across regional and state boarders. Similarly, the three weeks orientation camp programme of the NYSC scheme avails the fresh graduates from different institutions of higher learning a golden opportunity to undergo physical and moral discipline, employment counselling, skills acquisition programmes among other social interactions that mould and prepare them for the labour market or entrepreneurship.

It is therefore, very unfortunate that this laudable initiative is gradually becoming a potential victim of the rising insecurity situation in the country, which is continuously having a very dangerous consequence on the nation’s socio-economic wellbeing. This goes to say that unless the government tackles the security situation properly and urgently, the very survival of the NYSC scheme among other several institutions is at a great risk. It is also a strong indicator to the bitter fact that the government is fast losing the fight to perpetrators of terrorism in the country.

It is therefore, imperative for the government and other stakeholders to rise up to the challenge and save the NYSC scheme and other similar institutions that are at risk from collapsing. The rising level of insecurity in the country, that is threatening the very existence of the nation as one, must be properly and urgently addressed. Specifically on the NYSC scheme, apart from the security challenge, there is also the need to address some logistics and organisational challenges that militate against the maximum performance of the scheme. These include the monthly allowance given to the corps members which is practically insufficient to cater for their livelihood during the service year, the hygiene and living conditions of the orientation camps should also be improved, the rigorous military drills should also be reduced and replaced with more practical skills acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes to help the corps members imbibe self-reliant vocations amidst the rising scarcity of job opportunities.

Indeed, the NYSC scheme holds so much promises and hope for a better Nigeria if only it can be properly organised and managed. The scheme has the capacity of bridging the ethno-religious gaps among the people, make the nation’s youths more useful and productive to themselves and the society as a whole, as well as ensure a better future for the country and therefore deserves all the necessary attention effort required to sustain it.