RETHINKING NYSC: EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE IDEAS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION IN NIGERIA

         The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was created on the 22 of May 1973 during the general Yakubu Gowon regime as an avenue for the reconciliation, reconstruction, and rebuilding of the nation after the civil war. It was established based on decree No. 24, which stated that the scheme was created "with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity. It is a mandatory, post-tertiary scheme set up by the Nigerian government during the military regime of Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon to "reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil war". Prior to 1973, graduates of universities and polytechnics have been required to take part in the National Youth Service Corps program for one year. This is known as the "national service year". Ahmadu Ali served as the first Director-General of the NYSC until 1975. The incumbent Director-General was Brigadier General Yushua’u Ahmed Dogara. 

         Consequently, a university graduate that has been duly mobilized and documented for the program is generally known as a corp member, while a group of them are commonly referred to as “youth corpers.” A graduate is often deployed to any NYSC Orientation Camp (which is often one in each of the thirty-six states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory) in any part of the country, in most cases outside his place of birth and domicile. ‘It was at first, all inclusive of University graduates, HND and NCE holders but later only degree and HND graduates are required to take part in the compulsory National Youth Service Scheme’ (Ohagenyi, 2014). This action aims to foster national unity and appreciation of other ethnic groups in the country. 

            NYSC Corp Members are entitled to a monthly allowance that stems from the National Minimum Wage. The Corps Members receive a monthly stipend which is equal to the National Minimum wage and an additional 10% of the Minimum wage. In 2024, following the announcement of the new minimum wage of 70,000 Naira by the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a new allowance was also approved for the Corps Members, bringing their monthly stipend to 77,000 Naira. The corpers were expecting in the previous month's pay, however “Nigeria happened.” A publication by the NYSC Director-General after such unusual but unsurprising shock, stating that he cannot determine when infact the government will put such a law into action. He stated that “the fault is not from us, but from the government.” The previous allowances were 33,000 Naira and 19,800 Naira, all based on the previous minimum wages.

         The NYSC programme has for many years facilitated regular and effective distribution of skilled manpower, steady breaking of social and cultural barriers as well as the building of friendly bridges across ethno-linguistic boundaries. It promoted values of national unity and development, rekindled interest in neglected but vital areas of national development like agriculture and promoted leadership qualities in youths. The regular invitation of corps members to participate in the conduct of such sensitive national assignments as census, elections, immunization programme constantly pricks the conscience of the nation to the right course of development. Okafor and Rosemary (2014) in their research titled “The National Youth Service Corps Programme and Growing Security Threat in Nigeria”, extensive research was carried out on a scheme programme which existed before the introduction of NYSC in 1973, known as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).

        Those who share the sentiment of sustaining the scheme like the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) state that no other programme in the country best meets objectives of the NYSC. In an editorial, The Tide held that the reasons proffered in 1973 by the Yakubu Gowon administration for the establishment of the NYSC scheme are still very relevant in this country’s search for an enduring national unity. There is, therefore, no dispute on the desirability of the scheme and its benefits in our desire to maintain a strong, united and peaceful country despite recent assaults on its integrity. Amongst the corps members themselves, the friendships and endearing marriages the programme has facilitated will remain indelible in the history of the Nigerian nation. The NYSC programme has also inculcated various skill acquisition programmes for the youths at their orientation exercise. For instance, at the end of the 2012 Batch “B” orientation course, 45,000 corps members had been trained in various skill areas. A further breakdown shows that 5,404 were trained in agro-allied skills, 5,509 in food processing and preservation, 8,035 in culture and tourism-related skills and 5,062 in cosmetology. Information and communication technology had 8,119 power and energy 2,885 and environment 2,672. Another set of 2,837 members acquired skills in beautification, 2,057 in construction and 2,425 in education. All these portray the relevance of the programme in promoting national integration and socio-economic development.

       There are many challenges that have threatened the existence of the NYSC programme. It should be noted that while the earlier stated objectives of the NYSC programme are noble and targeted at youth empowerment and national development, the reality is that the effectiveness of its implementation remains an issue of massive criticism. Again, when the programme started in 1973, corps members are fed in the camp at the rate of three naira per person per day. Ironically, the same amount was used to feed corps members per day for the next ten years, making the then NYSC Director, Col. Peter Obasa to complain that it was grossly inadequate. The issue of Corp members receiving the kind of food that some trained dogs will not accept to eat has remained recurrent in some camps. For instance, the first objective is meant to instil the culture of industry at work; the fact is that some youths hardly engage in the primary assignment they are deployed to do, as they operate as ‘ghost’ corps members that serves the country in their areas of selfish-interest and visits their main place of NYSC posting during the monthly clearance exercise in order to get the monthly federal government allowance. The programme is prone to corruption. There are now permanent youth corps members who never pass out while embezzlement, nepotism, favouritism are now rampant in the scheme.

         Some federal officials are totally blind, selfish and corrupt; all they care for is what their bank accounts read after each NYSC programme is completed. That is the reason they don’t want to scrap NYSC. Report indicate that while the corps members are supposed to serve in their host communities for a year; in reality, less than 30% of those mobilized actually serve the country, the rest return to their states of origin, only returning to the area of primary assignment during the quarterly and now, monthly screening exercise for payment popularly called “alawi”. The inspectors have also being accused of getting 50% or more of the allowances of these ‘ghost’ corps members for giving them patriotic cover-up has queried the position of those who argue that the NYSC promotes national unity. He states that ‘the NYSC programme has united nothing. Nor has it created any more patriotic citizens. Unity and patriotism require more fundamental variables than periodically stuffing young people to places they would rather not go to on a starvation stipend’. The issue of NYSC programme being a platform for learning about higher national ideal is often an ideal dream as the larger Nigerian society is filled with all forms of manipulative and corrupt culture. In short, there are those who believe that the twenty one days orientation camp is often a training ground for those who still had their family and religious virtues to lose it, in the face of the massive dysfunctional behaviours experienced in the NYSC camps. 

        The patriotic vision of developing the sense of corporate existence and common destiny of the Nigerian people, which the programme is out to promote has progressively remained a mirage when reviewed in terms of the reality of the recurrent-weekly crisis between one ethnic group and another or one settler-community and another non-settler (aboriginal settlers) of the community. On July 27, 2010, the Anti-Fraud Unit of Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) arrested 69 suspected fake NYSC members in an illegal orientation camp located in Angwan Lambu, Keffi, and Nasarawa State. There is also the traditional challenge of indiscriminate rejection of corps members in the establishment that they are posted to serve thereby, creating the nightmare of roaming the streets for weeks in search for a new place of primary assignment. It is a very difficult situation that has been worsened by the fact that Nigerian tertiary institutions continue to churn-out graduates without recourse to the ability of NYSC to properly organize orientation for them. This has left the scheme with backlog of graduates awaiting national service for months and sometimes years, a situation that depreciates the quality and motivation of Nigerian youths. A former NYSC Director General, Yusuf Bomoi once lamented that myriads of problems threaten the objectives of the scheme. They include post service unemployment, lack of camp facilities and the challenge of maintaining discipline. The programme has equally suffered from poor financing and sometimes late payment of corps members allowances.

          Inequality in the amount paid in different places of primary assignment is another factor that makes the corps members to lobby extensively to be posted to high-paying places of primary assignment like banks and oil companies. Ironically, At the time of its (NYSC) inception, the state of the nation was different... Now, we are in a very different place. Our priority has shifted from national integration and unity towards a crisis of governance and plain simple mismanagement of public expectations. The danger posed by bad governance is today far greater than any threat to national unity. By far the greater threats to Nigeria’s future include epic incompetence, the domination of the public services and strategic institutions by expired, incompetent and very corrupt people. Worse still, this arm of the elite has organized itself into cabals for the protection of clique interests and huge portions of national wealth. An NYSC scheme that was originally designed to forge cosmetic unity is functionally useless in today’s circumstances.

Taking a look at these sides of claims, the golden question comes to mind, 

“SHOULD NYSC BE CONTINUED OR SCRAPPED?!”

        Both sides made some pretty strong claims, however the main aim of the NYSC programme should not be forgotten. The programme allows youths to have a change of environment and have something to learn from tolerating cultures different from theirs. It enables them to, in a way, “taste life as it is.” The staining of the selection process has to stop in order for its administrators to boast of a nation-fit development programme for the youths. These officials, as earlier said, collect a handsome fee to serve in states of their choosing. The more exotic, the more expensive. When it comes to the question of continuance or stopping of the programme, it should be continued, however certain restrictions have to be paid.

          The wishes of the youths is to get experience in worthwhile areas for a year. The NYSC body should look into sending people to worthwhile and areas that reflect their wishes on the portal. There should be adequate provisons for adequate facilities to house more graduates at each state's orientation exercises. With the growing number of graduateseaxh academic year, it has been discovered that once nysc reaches its limit of graduates, it shuts its application window till another couple of months, leaving a pretty amount of graduates missing out.

       The NYSC programme is a beautiful experience with lessons to be learnt about the real world. It should not be substituted or scrapped, however it needs a revisit on its policies, wages, and administration.