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Following the death of a youth corps member, Samuel Okonta at the hands of unnamed gunmen during the gubernatorial elections in Rivers State, the Director General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has announced plans to consider a review of the Memorandum of Understanding the bureau signed with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the participation of corps members in the electoral process.

Samuel Okonta’s murder blew up Twitter Nigeria, with the hashtag #RIPSamuelOkonta trending as Nigerians vented their frustrations with the government and its consistent nonchalance towards the plight of the oppressed. A careful consideration of the discussions that arose during this period pointed to a resurrection of the debate on whether the country should scrap its NYSC programme completely, or at least, make it optional.

The scheme was birthed in the early 1970’s during the rule of General Yakubu Gowon as a strategy to encourage cultural integration in the aftermath of the civil war. It was probably modelled after schemes of service that existed in countries such as the UK, US and Israel where youths were given military or paramilitary training, often for defence. However, almost all of these schemes have been reviewed or phased out after serving the purposes for which they were fashioned, except in Nigeria.

The NYSC achieved its purpose and fostered integration in the country to a very large extent. It also provided much needed skills and labour to disadvantaged communities as doctors, lawyers, nurses, and engineers are posted to various parts of the country to serve. The decree that established the NYSC made it compulsory for all graduates and before long, it became a prerequisite for employment or admission to postgraduate colleges in some cases. However, due to corrupt mismanagement and a failure to review the relevance of the scheme to modern day Nigeria – where integration is no longer an issue that needs to be addressed –, the scheme is failing.

Gone are the days where host communities protected their corps members. These days, host communities are hostile towards them. A corps member who served in Nasarawa state and chose to remain anonymous recounted her experience thus,

“These people hate us. They exploit us so much because a lot of us cannot speak the language.”

The Breaking Times opined that the shift in attitude was possibly caused by a lack of real impact made by these corper members in their communities of service. Corps members have been targeted and killed several times all over the country, and the average ‘corper’ only agrees to the service year because it is mandatory. Save a few exceptions, these young people go through the year absentmindedly with getting a discharge certificate as their sole aim.

With a scheme that has failed so woefully, the question that arises is why the government insists on carrying on despite impassioned pleas for the scheme to be called off. However, the answer is simple – the government is taking advantage of Nigerian youths through the scheme.

Perhaps the singular reason why the NYSC has continued to thrive despite calls for its abolition is the fact that the scheme has remained a huge pipe to siphon wealth. Olufemi Oguseye, in his call for the abolition of the scheme, said:

“For a scheme where numbers can be easily manipulated without any serious authentication techniques, you can just imagine what goes on. There are probably thousands and thousands of ghost corpers who get monthly allowances from the Federal Government. They are not ghosts. Actually, many of them are NYSC and government staff that have devised immoral means of enriching themselves. Then the procurement process for kits! I learnt a single corps member’s official wears, jungle boots and all, costs over seventy thousand Naira on the budget although, they may as well go for as low as ten thousand or even less in the real market. So thrice a year, someone makes over fifty thousand Naira on the head of over a hundred thousand corps members. As if we have no more urgent national needs that require every kobo we can gather.”

The value of skilled labour that corps members provide to the country is such that the government cannot truly afford to pay for it. These youth are paid minimum wage, a pittance of 19,800 Naira (about $98) monthly and are expected to be pillars of the communities they are posted to. They are expected to provide top notch services as doctors, lawyers, teachers, or engineers and yet, the government cannot guarantee their safety. They are sent into “war zones”, with little or no preparation. For a lot of corpers, the one year programme is a huge waste of time as it does nothing to advance future career prospects.

There have been reports, over the years, of government schools that do not employ regular teaching staff, but instead depend on the cheap services of corpers who are replaced every year. A lot of the corps members recruited as teachers are made to teach courses that have no relevance to their areas of specialisation. Despite these things, they are blamed for the high failure rate of secondary school students, leading the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) to demand that these graduates should not be sent to them as teachers.

INEC recruits these young people as Polling Officers who go to the hinterlands to conduct elections. Although the job is voluntary, the reality is that corps members need extra sources of income to supplement their allowances and would readily take the meagre pay INEC is willing to give. The young corper from Nasarawa state commented to Ventures Africa,

“We hope to get more election work; it is the only way we can really make more money. We are being charged exorbitantly – about 70,000 annually – for accommodation in the corpers’ lodge which is supposed to be free.”

Considering the prevalence of election violence in the country, the government doesn’t appear concerned with the welfare of the corps members. In 2011, ten corpers were killed in the post election violence that occurred in Bauchi State and no one was brought to justice. In Niger state, two corps members were killed and about 61 others injured, yet all the government did was give compensation to the families. No investigation was done, no one was held accountable.

Nigerians are left to wonder if the government has any iota of care left for the plight of the corps members.

It is common knowledge that it takes the Nigerian government a long time to reach decisions on issues concerning policy change. Therefore, while the country waits to see what will be done this time around, the NYSC body itself needs to step up the quality of paramilitary training given to corps members. They should be versed in self defence and be given protective gear before they are sent out. As this young man rightly pointed out:

The Rivers State government has promised to provide compensation to the family of the deceased and to increase the state allowance of the corpers in Rivers State by 5000 Naira (about $25) monthly, however, this is not sufficient. A massive review of the scheme and its purpose is what is required at this point in time. It is time to put an end to the exploitation of Nigeria’s helpless youth population. The billions of Naira budgeted for the scheme should be diverted into creating employment and developing areas of the country that are in sore need, rather than forcefully deploying young people to do the government’s work.

Oluwafemi Ogunseye rightly advises,

“…If government still doesn’t know what to do to the NYSC, I have a suggestion. Scrap it. It will save graduates. It will save the country. Then we can think of better ways of meeting needs of rural communities now that it’s obvious we are no more serious about national integration.”

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