NYSC @ 50: The Beginning, The Challenges And The Future

By Ernest Omoarelojie

Following the challenges that emanated from the 1967-1970 Nigerian civil war, the country’s government, then headed by General Yakubu Gowon, decided to set up a national programme that would help to accentuate its 3-R Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation policy.\

Designed to harness potentials across the Nigerian divides and channel same into becoming a fertile instrument for the promotion of national unity, cross cultural integration and development, the scheme was deliberately anchored on the country’s growing army of young, educated people, the engine room to its future. Thus was born the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, by Decree No 24 of May 22, 1973.

On the same date, 2023, the NYSC scheme became half a century old, an ample time to look back at the the long road it has travelled, the teething challenges it faced along the journey and the milestones it recorded in spite of the challenges, while not forgetting to take a peep into the future with hopes. This was the task before its Director-General, Brig-Gen. YD Ahmed, in the anniversary meeting he had with media heads on Tuesday, April 16, 2023, at Gowon House headquarters, Abuja.

Without any doubt, the NYSC scheme has come of age, haven shifted from a single-batch programme of slightly over 2,000 call-up Corps Members to its current and staggering multi-batch regime of over 300,000 and still counting. According to the DG, the NYSC has managed to raise the ante in its principal objective of raising the moral tone of the country’s future leaders by offering them the opportunity to develop shared experiences that are amenable to the development and enhancement of the peoples’ common ties, national mobilization and interest, all of which help to accentuate Nigerian’s common destiny. This, he said, has been the major task before minders of the scheme over the years.

Passionately, Gen Ahmed employed the meeting to re-emphasized the need for every stakeholder to be mindful of the NYSC core mandate-fostering national unity, a reason why it became imperative for Corps Members to be deployed in states other than that from which they originated. That way, they are imbued, through orientation, with a mindset that eschews the escalation of the people’s religious and other differences by not only appreciating the beauty of the Nigerian diversity but also accommodating the manifold interpretation of same. Certainly, he is not happy that a lot of parents and guardians still go out of the ways to encourage their children and wards from accepting postings out of their comfort zones.  

While presenting the NYSC narrative, Gen. Ahmed left no one in any doubt that successive DGs demonstrated a strong commitment to the ideals of the founding fathers of the scheme. In more ways than one, he encapsulated the contributions they made, particularly in the country’s socio-economic and general development, over the last 50 years. That the NYSC scheme is today, a household name, is a testimony to his position. For instance, there is hardly any doubt that the scheme has come in as a handy tool for fostering national unity and integration given the manner it has helped participants in developing broader understanding of the country’s multi-faceted reality through first hand experiences. The DG cited particular instances, including his personal experience before going on to serve in Ire, Osun state, far away from his Kaduna home, way back. More than that, he reminisced on the how much the scheme has helped in cementing inter-tribal relationships and marriages, including decisions among a number of participants to settle down as permanent residents in their areas of their deployment, far outside of their original homes.

The NYSC DG also highlighted other areas where the scheme recorded giant strides in the area of national development. This is evident in the far reaching development impact it has made on the country’s education, healthcare and general infrastructure sectors. Specifically, while the immense role played by Corps members in the nation’s electoral system is known to every Nigerian of discerning age, literate or otherwise, their celebrated role as catalysts in, for instance, the successes recorded in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, the highly contagious Ebola and Covid-19, are no less credit-worthy. That is, in addition to the pivotal role they played in the conduct of the World survey that resulted in the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

Gen Ahmed, is also enthused over the fact that the NYSC scheme has indeed, evolved over the years such that participants no longer consider job seeking as noble. Courtesy its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship development, SAED, introduced in 2012 in collaboration with international organizations to train serving Corps members in entrepreneurship, with emphasis on job and wealth creation in many areas, including but not limited to Agro-Allied businesses, Information and Communications Technology, ICT, tourism, film and photography.

In addition, graduates of the SAED initiative received financial support for start-ups even as the DG further reeled an impressive number of beneficaries that sign-post the success of the scheme. In the last count, over 1,925,142 Corps Members have gone through its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship sensitization, 517,486 fully trained and 37,246 already established in viable and verifiable business ventures.

Towards making the SAED initiative an intrinsic part of its programmes, the NYSC established the mega Skill Acquisition Centres across the country’s six geopolitical zones. This is in addition to the partnership it fostered with financial institutions such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Bank Of Industry, BOI, Access Bank, Unity Bank and among others, Bank of Agriculture, to, among others, secure start-up funds for graduates of the scheme. Thus far, N1.84b has been disbursed as part of requisite funding for the initiative.

The NYSC has, in collaboration with General Electric, GE, and Cognity Advisory, trained 40 SAED officers to help train and mentor Corps Members in evolving viable business plans, using the International Labour Organization, ILO, curriculum. In the same vein, the ILO sponsored nine schedule officers for capacity building to Turin, Italy, to also help actualize the SAED initiative just as the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria sponsored 8 officers on various vocational training programmes in China. That is in addition to the partnership it entered into with the British-America Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, BATNF, on Agro-Skill Acquisition and financial empowerment under which 10 Corps Members are selected for empowerment with business skills in the Agro-allied sector, through a competitive process, after which they also receive mentoring, farm partnership, inputs, finances, etc.

Others partnership programmes include the training and mentorship agreement with the Leventis Foundation, the financial inclusion initiative with the Access Bank, under the Lions’ Den programme, which offers a N3m business funding package to winners and the collabo with Entreprise Develoment Centre, all geared towards enhancing the entrepreneurship initiative.

If the above partnership and wealth/job creation initiatives thrilled the NYSC DG, the ventures embarked upon by the 50 year-old outfit makes him reel with happiness. They include the garment factory in Anambra, Nasarawa and Niger states which produce a huge chunk of the items used by Corps members. Others are the Rice Mill in Ebonyi state, the Feed Mill in Lagos state and the garri processing factory in Kwara state. The water bottling plannts and bakeries in the FCT and Nasarawa state, the printing press in Kaduna state, with more being planned for five other geo-political zones, the NYSC Farm Settlement in the FCT, Bauchi, Kebbi and Oyo states, all of which are equipped with modern Corps Lodges and serve as training grounds Corps Members under the agricultural sector of the SAED initiative, make up the long list.

Brig-Gen Ahmed is no less enthused by coming on stream of the NYSC Radio, on the 88.3 Frequency Modulation, FM, band, and TV on DSTV channel 365. Manned in the main by Corps Members, both stations have been playing pivotal roles in strenghtening the NYSC operations mantra through enlightenement and publicity while also serving as media trainings for Corps Members with interests in media practice.

Security or lack of it has kept all NYSC stakeholders on the edge over the years. For the same reason, NYSC took the initiative of not deploying Corps Members to troubled spots anywhere in the country particularly where there is no acceptable guarantee for their safety. However, where Corps members have had to be involved in matters relating to insecurity, including abduction and death, the NYSC lived up to its responsibilies with proactive measures. A case in point is the incident in Bauchi state where a number of Corps Members lost their lives. Besides being compensated, the NYSC took up responsibility of educating the siblings of the deceased up to university level. The injured have also been well compensated via the NYSC insurance scheme.

Yet, the NYSC is still contending with focus-hindering challenges even as it looks to the future with hope. Perhaps the most teething is paucity of funds for its initiatives, including the tasking annual mobilization of over 300,000 Corps Members. Anoother challenge facing the NYSC is the fact that some stakeholders, including states and council areas, have failed to upgrade their temporary Orientation Camps often meant for 2,000 Corps Members at any given mobilization year. Rejection of Corps Members by some employers, lack of transit lodges in many states, declining interests in the sponsorship of Corps Members’ community Development projects and in adequate office facilities in the scheme’s outreaches are other challenging realities facing the NYSC.

In spite of the challenges however, Bri-Gen Ahmed is confident that the future of the NYSC is one that has better days in stock for both participants and the country, given that it has been (and still remains) a national asset for obvious reasons. The DG is even more happy to tell Nigerians that for its intrinsic values, some countries in the continent have already approached the scheme with requess to help replicate the initiative in their countries. That and more sure provide the NYSC a good reason to cling glasses, as it marks its 50th anniversary.

Along with other Nigerians of goodwill, FreshNews is also wishing the NYSC family a Happy Half a Century of meritorious and unbroken service to nation building.