By Ike Wilie-Nwobu
A couple of days ago, a corps members, Rita Uguamaye, walked into stormy waters when a video she made went viral. In the video, the corps member serving in Lagos State lamented the rising cost of living in the country. While she decried the fact that she could no longer afford the things she ordinarily should be able to afford, she also had some stern words for President Bola Tinubu.
The video unexpectedly went viral. Her revelation that some officials of the corps were calling her to threaten her only added fuel to the fire as Nigerians waded in on whether she could criticize the president as a corps member and if her video had any iota of truth in it.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was established in 1973. It was one man’s idea of bringing some unity among Nigerians. The civil war had just ended and while General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) had declared that there was no victor and no vanquished, many people were not convinced. The NYSC was his idea for bridging the gap of unity in a country bartered by an internecine civil war.
Despite many adjustments and alterations down the years, the scheme has shown surprising resilience. Every year, fresh graduates from Nigeria’s multitude of universities descend on orientation camps in different states of the country where they spend three weeks of orientation before being posted to different places of primary assignment to serve for one year.
During the service year, they are posted to schools, hospitals, government organizations and offices to serve. Remuneration by way of stipends is provided to them. But as Rita Uguamaye has pointed out, it is barely enough.
The scheme has had mixed results over the years. There have been astounding successes. The scheme has pried patriots out of Nigerians, enabling some of them to travel to places they have not been to previously. Some corps members have also had the opportunity to conceive and implement meaningful projects in the course of the service year, impacting the communities they serve greatly.
There have been many positives from the scheme but also a lot of peril. For one, after decades of the scheme’s existence, its mystique seems to have been shattered, with many Nigerians calling for its abolition. Many young Nigerians go through the university, graduate, enroll for the scheme and enjoy the illusion of being employed for a couple of months. At the end of the day, they step off the cliff of the scheme and into Nigeria’s brutal job market, where unemployment is the most available commodity.
About two years ago, some corps members traveling from Akwa Ibom to Sokoto State to participate in the scheme were abducted by terrorists in Zamfara State. To Nigeria’s great embarrassment, some of the corp members ended up spending the entire service year in the den of their kidnappers.
As insecurity has taken root in Nigeria, corp members have been caught in the crossfire, leaving their families heartbroken.
The Federal Government currently pays corps members about 33,000 Naira monthly. This is way below the current minimum wage and the Federal Government is yet to successfully review it.
Like many things in Nigeria, the scheme appears to have outlived its usefulness. It is time for it to be scrapped.
• Wilie-Nwobu writes via email, [email protected]