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- Says scheme is fulfilling its purpose but…
From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) marks its 50 years of integrating and uniting Nigerians this year, a Zaria, Kaduna State-born educationist in the Linguistic Department, Kaduna State University (KASU), Professor Ahmed Kofa Babajo, has revealed how the scheme helped him to add ‘amala’ and ‘eweduz’ to his daily menu.
The Varsity Don who is the current Dean of Post Graduate School, KASU, while presenting a paper titled “NYSC: Five Years of Fostering National Unity and Development”, on the occasion of NYSC 50 years anniversary held at Government College, Kaduna said, the scheme should be allowed to continue but should be made more accountable.
To him, the deployment of thousands of young Nigerian graduates to states other than their states of birth has helped Nigerian rural communities have an all-year-round supply of human resources in education, health and rural infrastructure, hence his call for the sustainability of the scheme by way of making more funds available to it with a workable mechanism to make it accountable.
“I am among several Nigerians that have benefitted from the thinking of the NYSC founding fathers after the civil war. I remember very well that, at the end of that war, we were made to understand that there was no victor no vanquish. So, the leaders then thought of the need for healing of the land and came up with this programme.
“Although numerous problems and challenges tend to militate against the progress of NYSC, to some extent, it achieved the fundamental purpose of its establishment, that is, uniting the diverse communities of Nigeria.
“NYSC provided the youth a unique opportunity of understanding the nature of diversity in Nigeria without which they may not appreciate the socio-cultural realities in the contemporary existence in the Country.
“I served in Oyo State during my national youth service between 1981 and 1982 at Old Oyo Technical College, Awe. However, as a Zaria young man, I was used to ‘kunu’ and ‘kose’ as breakfast before the NYSC deployed me to Oyo where I learned how to eat ‘amala’ and ‘ewedu’ as breakfast contrary to what I grew up to know.
“Today, in my house, we have amala on our menu all because NYSC gave me the opportunity to interact and learn from other parts of the Country.
“I also maintain a healthy relationship with some of my friends who are Yoruba. Up till today, they still visit me in Zaria and I still visit them in Oyo. Our wives and children are also friends and that is how we should live as thought by the founding fathers then.
“So rather than calling for scrapping NYSC, the Trust Fund should be approved by the concerned armed of the government to achieve more than what it has achieved in the past 50 years”, he said.
Earlier, the Coordinator of NYSC in Kaduna, Mr Hassan Mahmud Taura said, the NYSC 50th anniversary lecture as one of the activities to Mark the landmark achievements of the largest youth mobilisation organisation in Nigeria was designed to assess the strength, weaknesses, and prospects of the scheme so far.
“This is why we invited a seasoned educationist who himself is an ex-Corps member who has risen through the ranks and is now the Dean of Post Graduate School, KASU, to come and do justice to NYSC 50 years of fostering national unity,” he said.
