Photograph — Thenationon

The Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was inaugurated in March 2012 to “address” unemployment in the country by teaching corp members skills they will need to be self-employed in today’s harsh economy. What we were told during orientation camp a little over a year ago was that if we learn any of these skills, some of which include fish farming, bead making, makeup artistry, soap making, fashion designing, baking and sewing, we have a strong chance at becoming employers of labour rather than job seekers.Since its inception, the SAED programme has trained over 500,000 corp members, however,

Since its inception, the SAED programme has trained over 500,000 corp members, however, only 1,600 of the half a million trained have gone on to become full-time entrepreneurs. That’s a 0.32 percent success rate, which is indicative of policy failure of the highest degree.

This failure can be attributed in part to the conflict of ideology SAED programme creates. SAED is focused on wealth creation, by putting corp members through training that turns them into entrepreneurs, its objective is to teach graduate youths how to generate wealth and to make up for years of unbridled corruption, mismanagement and sheer waste that has hindered economic growth in the country.

The SAED director (in my camp) even conceded that it was common for corp members of her generation to have about 3 jobs offers to choose from by the end of the service year. What has changed between then and now is the twin evils of unemployment and poverty that has possessed the graduate youth. Consequently, wealth is now the dominant value of most Nigerians, and most young people go to university to improve their job prospects because we were told that if we want a good job in today’s fiercely competitive market we must get a degree. So why then put us through a programme like SAED which teach us skills we do not need a degree to learn?

The NYSC, I believe is tasked with the supreme mandate to de-emphasise and replace the narratives of money first and individualism with service, academic prowess, honesty, coverage and all the contributions by citizens that bring honour and glory to the fatherland. Therefore, SAED is the antithesis of what youths should be learning during NYSC. It not only distracts scorp members from engaging in Community Development Service (CDS), as there are reports that some corp members attempt to replace weekly CDS meetings with SAED, it also re-emphasises the poisonous narrative today’s youth have come to internalise, i.e. above national integration and service, making money is priority number one.

SAED is not only a travesty to cushion the effects of decades of bad policies, mismanagement and corruption that have delivered us into poverty, it is the mother of all bad policies currently in effect because it teaches mediocrity to the “skilled” young working population and can jeopardise the effectiveness of every other development policy currently in execution or on the drawing board.

This is not to say that SAED programme was not designed with good intentions because there are opportunities to learn soft skills like programming and foreign languages. However, the get rich quick mentality that has possessed the minds of young graduates is causing them to favour skills like cake baking and bead making over, say, learning say German, which takes longer hours to master and doesn’t generate income in the short term.

“We can not entrepreneur our way around bad leadership. We can’t entrepreneur our way around bad policies. Those of us who have managed to entrepreneur ourselves out of it are living in a very false security.” – Ory Okolloh

Reckless policies like SAED that focus too much on short-term benefits and are blind to the long-term aspirations are products of the people that destroyed our educational system. The Nigerian educational system has been in recession for decades, which has in turn affected the quality of education we get from our higher institutions, which puts us at a disadvantage when compared to what is being offered to youths in many other countries–the same youths our Nigerian parents expect us to not only compete with but beat. And if that is the mission, then there exists no strategy worse than SAED to prop up our chances because it is a low skill, labour intensive centred programme, that is consistent with the attributes of periphery economies, according to the World-systems theory of development.

In other words, the government is raising an army of low-skilled workers, and what is more disturbing is that SAED targets the very group (graduate youths) that should be aiming for the stars, filled with the energy, knowledge and drive needed to prosecute real human capital development strategies like the transfer of technology from highly skilled expatriates and multinational companies in Nigeria, learning strategic skills that made them globally competitive, and teaching them mediocrity.

The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) should feel insulted by the NYSC’s SAED programme which looks upon their products as potential bead makers and makeup artists. The attention of the National Youth Service Corps needs to be drawn to the second stanza of the University of Benin’s anthem

“Between blue sky and red soil

Excellent hard work endure

We groom man and nation in

Spirits of Unibest pure

Come through our opened gate

Where fair play and merit dictate.

Refrain:  Arise mighty UNIBEN…”

The university community is not only important for producing authentic research and expanding knowledge, it is also where civil society is built. The vibrancy of civil society and the production of a high-skilled labour force is a function of the type and quality of education at the tertiary level because no nation can develop beyond its quality of education. Through the pursuit of excellence and adherence to ethics, universities serve to programme the mind of students and graduates for nation building, but the NYSC is making a mockery of this noble purpose of higher education by saying, “Look, you can indeed change the world, but learn sewing first.”

Tellingly, the NYSC should terminate its SAED programme with immediate effect. Anyone waiting for me to propose an alternative to SAED need wait no further, the perfect substitute for SAED is CDS, yes! WhichIi recall is the very reason the National Youth Service Corps was set up. Now more than ever, every community in Nigeria needs champions. So the NYSC should retrace its steps to truly inspire the youths to serve, because there is so much work to do.

We have to really believe that where government has failed, youths can rise up to fix the problem, whether temporarily or permanently, until it is time for another general election where we shall vote into office those who really respect the effort we have put into earning our degrees and believe Nigeria’s young graduates are more than bead makers, fashion designers and makeup artists.

The NYSC is the symbol of the unification of all classes, tribes, religion and knowledge of the Nigerian people, not an empty idea (SAED) or formality. The youths are indeed the courage, faith and the only hope of our people. With our higher education given wisdom, with our Aluta fire, we will make great this nation called Nigeria, which is our heritage for all time, through pioneering and innovative work that truly tasks our creativity and dynamism.

This will require sacrifice, and sacrifice we must! Because we are the living guarantee of the living future of Nigeria.

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