NYSC-Charting A Way Forward

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has been in existence since 1973. A few years a stone throw from that event, the unemployment rate in Nigeria, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (2003) rose from 4.3 Percent in 1970 to 6.4 percent in 1980(1).

On second thought, this can be considered to be typical for the economy of a young country that had just hit oil. The naira to dollar exchange rate was healthy as it stood at 658 kobo to the value of a dollar (2). 41 years after the end of the civil war, where is the nation now? What is the numbers saying?

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, quoting figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said no fewer than 5.3 million youths are jobless in the country, while 1.8 million graduates enter the labour market every year(3).

Also, the current naira to dollar exchange rate stands at N162 to a dollar. A civil war that had left the country torn apart, hopeless and disfigured from 1967 to 1970, had to be remedied and the Yakubu Gowon led administration with swift wisdom created the NYSC programme to reintegrate the country together, like the sewing together of the violently torn apart pieces of fine apparel.

In retrospect, the scheme had been successful, with opportunities such as 'corpers' going to states and regions they probably had not been before, meeting other corpers from other regions and states, and having a fantastic platform to serve the fatherland. The participants of the scheme were expected to serve their respective host communities in the areas of community development, education, social welfare, health services and agriculture during the one-year service period (7).

Many corpers have obtained priceless exposure from the experience and also many have made impact on the communities of the Primary Place of Assignment. There was nothing much as stake, for it was of the duration of 12 months and at its initial creation up to many years ago, the frequency of strikes in tertiary institutions did not plague undergraduates as it is today. These days, after several sessions of strikes have left graduates numb with devastation, they still proceed to spend one year compulsorily in service.

An assertion is made here and now for a way forward from a failed system. Nigerians need to put to a halt their permanent residence in the comfort of the past and begin to live in the face of the challenges the future poses. A man of the future; Albert Einstein, had this simple but powerful thing to say: 'Doing a thing the same way and expecting a different result is insanity'. Dele Momodu asserted, 'Change is to move away from an existing disorder'.

The NYSC initiative has done the Nigerian populace greatly well, but of recent, it has not made positive impressions on the masses. In an online forum titled “They are saying NYSC is a death trap that must be scrapped!” several of the participants voted for a revision of NYSC (4). It is obvious how much we need to look toward the direction of a change, in the way of empowerment. As stated in an article, NYSC-How long shall we tarry? The writer states “It would be safe to conclude that the NYSC has lost its focus, what it is now experienced seems to be is a conscription exercise that lasts a year. It's time the Government has a rethink.

The NYSC should be scrapped or rebranded!”(5). There are several evident reasons for this vigorous contention. Foremost among them concerns the security issue bedeviling the nation as at now. The question remains that in the face of terrorism raging vehemently in the northern part of Nigeria, some young Nigerians that have spent five years or more in school are being sent to this region like 'lambs to the slaughter', to pay as a sacrifice for the myriad of sins committed by their rulers.

It is as if they expend those years in school being fattened up for the kill. About three weeks ago, three students of Kano State Polytechnic were killed and 21 others injured while they checked the NYSC mobilisation list posted by the institution's authorities (6).

All these are happening yet President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan recently asserted in an address to mark the passing out of a batch of corps members: “We feel proud that the NYSC remains a true symbol of national unity, bringing together young people from various institutions and diverse parts of the country”(7).

A final challenge from the current structure of the NYSC programme is its ineffectiveness to empower the graduates for self employment and entrepreneurship. Daily in the news it is heard from well meaning affluent Nigerians encouraging the initiation of Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) which is plausible but as it stands, there are no structures to encourage this. Most post-NYSC graduates spend another year or more in frantic search for a well paid job and of course, are usually on another wild goose chase.

Those who may want to create careers as entrepreneurs face the hurdle of lack of funds for capital. Thus unemployment and its related accomplices remain the status quo. Fellow Nigerians, a way forward from this decadence is in the form of an empowerment scheme which is a better alternative to the now miscarried National Youth Service Corps.

This different approach as an empowerment scheme is an initiative to actively engage fresh graduates out of school with resources to enable them pursue their ideas and execute them in an environment of support and guidance. Financial and advisory resources will be made available to ONLY graduates with an enterprising spirit and with entrepreneurial interests, tendencies and projections.

Although the mass of graduates that would apply for this, numbers into the millions, certain strategic guidelines would be employed to screen out the many and to select a choice amount of the applicants.

A pilot form of this scheme may be executed to help in the decision making process of its permanency, temporariness or its outright dismissal. Graduates with less interest in the scheme may decide to instead opt for an internship programme in preparation for the corporate world in government parastatals or the private sector.

The post empowerment scheme gradates should however not be marginalized from becoming employed in corporate institutions, as any form of favoritism commonly characterized in employee selection based on institution attended and corresponding certificate should be majorly frowned upon by all and sundry.

After a duration of three months, which marks a period of training and orientation in business development, leadership and other necessary skills, participants are given the resources they need to give flesh to their ideas. Some may want to start a business, others a social enterprise, while the more innovative ones may have the intention to execute a novel idea such as an invention.

Graduates that may want to set up research institutes in the sciences and social sciences will also benefit immensely. From time to time the government uses the aid of consulting firms to supervise these projects for the first year. Upon its successful actualization, the now graduates-turned-entrepreneurs may then only need consultation by their own discretion.

The enactment of this scheme will go a long way in reducing the astoundingly growing rate of unemployment. There is no doubt that the numbers will drop in half by the time most of Nigerian graduates are empowered. Besides, as these graduates are galvanized, they will turn create multiple opportunities to empower many by employment and training. Among all other deterrent effects of unemployment, criminal behavior stands as most significant.

The total prison population of Nigeria is an estimated 40,000 prisoners, the 36th highest in the world (8). If graduates were gainfully engaged pursuing their interests, their minds would be too busy to think of robbery or internet fraud. This will in effect create a suitable, safe and peaceful physical and social environment for Nigerians as they can carry on about their business.

It cannot be underestimated the relief Nigerians would enjoy as the prejudice they suffer from the international community for years now as fraudsters become minimal. The perceptions of foreigners will change drastically as they make moves to invest in a thriving capitalist economy. The Boko Haram insurgency will grow thin in force as potential and present recruits will see better ways to benefit themselves and their families than blowing people to shreds.

In addition to the many benefits of the scheme, graduates do not have to be coerced to serve their fatherland in now displeasing ways. Also, poverty that has etched very deeply into the Nigerian psyche, with most Nigerians living on less than a dollar a day, will be abated.

To be quite frank at this point, It is a fact that the principal reason why a mass of graduates settle for the NYSC programme is that they know that without it they cannot secure a well paying job, without a job no earnings, with no earnings no future. So they shrug it off, left with no better alternative, to spend an extra year in service.

As undergraduates in their final year in school stand facing the future, they have an intense debate of the choice of whether or not to enroll for the programme. Most of them would gladly enroll for the empowerment scheme if it is enacted. This medium is therefore used to awaken the legislature to a far better way and hope that this time, they listen.

If you truly believe in this initiative as the way forward, please do tweet about it with

#ReviseNYSC so it can generate a trend towards change for our upcoming graduates.

Oluwatobi Gbemisola
Nation Builder

Oluwatobi Gbemisola is a final year Psychology student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He can be reached via social media @TobiGbemisola, [email protected] and www.deetablet.blogspot.com.

References
(1) http://chrisdonasco.blogspot.com/2013/12/discuss-effect-of-cronic-unemployment.html

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_naira
(3) http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=59179
(4) http://ngmix.net/lib/vendor/web/articles/7/4197.html

(5) “NYSC-How long shall we tarry”-www.omojuwa.com
(6) http://pulse.ng/student_pulse/female-time-bombs-14-year-old-kano-suicide-bomber-targeted-nysc-corp-members-id3024526.html

(7) http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/02/nysc-remains-true-symbol-national-unity-says-jonathan/

(8) http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Nigeria/Crime