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By Olakunle Olafioye
For fresh graduates who have had to depend on their parents, guardians and others from infancy and throughout their years in school as students, the prospect of earning their first official pay comes with an exhilarating sense of achieving financial independence. This is the exact feeling of Ademola Gbolahan, a recent graduate of Architecture of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, as he looks forward to being mobilised for the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) scheme.
Ademola’s elder sister, Modupe exited the scheme about three years ago and has been fortunate to secure a moderately paying job, which set her on the path of financial independence to the relief of their mother. The turnout of events has not only conferred the status of financial autonomy on the young woman, it has, in addition, eased their mother’s financial burden.
He is therefore eager to follow in his sister’s footsteps in order to further free their mother from the pressure of having to cater for him alongside their last born as he awaits his call-up for the NYSC scheme. “I cannot wait to be mobilised for the NYSC”, began the 23 year-old graduate. According to him, getting called up for the NYSC programme comes with a lot of positive feelings, including the prospect of earning the recently enhanced monthly stipends popularly referred to as “allawee” in local parlance. “Donning the crested vest together with the olive green khaki has been my dream and I appreciate God for keeping me safe to see it come to pass. I have heard from a few people who have gone through the scheme that it holds a load of prospects, including the possibilities of undergoing training and empowerment programmes, securing employment opportunity, getting monthly allowance and getting prepared for work life as well as meeting new friends and experiencing life in other part of one’s country of birth,” He stated in response to a question on his expectations ahead of his mobilisation for the national scheme. As lofty as his expectations appear, not many of those who had undergone the scheme in the past and nursed similar aspirations before the commencement of their service years have exciting stories to tell years after passing out.
In 2011, when the federal government announced an over 100 per cent increment in corps members’ monthly allowance from N9, 000 to N19,000, Mr. Enitan Aliu, who was among the next batch of prospective corps members awaiting their mobilisation at the time said he could not contain his joy over the pay rise. The increment in the corps members’ monthly allowance, according to him, further raised his hope of being able to save substantially and to kick-start his life after the service year.
And with determination and financial discipline, Aliu said he succeeded in saving substantially to start his poultry business which then served as his source of income until he was able to secure his first paid employment almost three years later. While many would commend Aliu for his determination and discipline which enabled him to plan for his life after the scheme, Aliu confessed that he owed the managers of NYSC scheme a debt of gratitude for putting in place a few training programme targeted at empowering corps members to become self-reliant after exiting the scheme.
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According to him, “One of the biggest mistakes any intending corps member can make is to go into the scheme without having any plan about what they intend to get out of the programme for the entire duration. The one year programme is one that has been designed to equip members with several skills and empowerment training starting from the orientation camp. In my case, my desire to get something tangible from the scheme was further bolstered by the sensitisations and training programmes we were given right from the orientation camp. When I was going my intention was to save money with a view to starting a business of my own. It was during the service year that I actually got the idea of poultry farming which I eventually ventured into upon my return from the service. That was what I did for close two to three years before I got employed in my actual field of study,” he stated.
Unlike Aliu, Modupe was fortunate to secure her first job barely one month after completing her mandatory youth service scheme. This, according to her, was made possible because she availed herself of the opportunities which the scheme offers corps members. Besides the sensitisation and training she received during her three-week orientation exercise, Modupe said she took advantage of the post-camp skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development training to learn and perfect new skills.
These skills, according to her, imbued her with fresh skills she leveraged to land her first job. “Since I was privileged to serve in a place where I was given a light schedule unlike some of my colleagues, so I decided to seize the opportunity to take a few short online tech-related courses and that paved the way for me to secure my first job,” she enthused.
Unfortunately however, a large number of people who went through the scheme in the past do not have testimonies similar to those of Aliu and Modupe as most of them not only returned from the scheme empty handed but ended up languishing in the already overcrowded labour market. While admitting that some corps members enjoy better advantage in terms of postings and accessibility to sources of enriching information and programmes that could aid their development, Mr. Felix Ariyibi, an entrepreneurship trainer, said a good number of corps members failed to take advantage of wide range of opportunities which the scheme provides.
“Granted that some corps members are more privileged than the majority of their colleagues to serve in areas where they are at advantage to access resources and training programmes which can help to further hone their skills, the majority of them do not see the necessity of investing their time and money in those programmes. Corps members in this category only realise their mistakes at the end of the service year,” Ariyibi stated.
The federal government recently commenced the payment of an enhanced N77, 000 monthly allowance to corps members and this, Ariyibi believes, should serve as an additional motivation to corps members to save money and invest in skills and entrepreneurship training in order to boost their employability and the prospect of becoming self-reliant after their service year. “I have heard people complain that even N77, 000 is not enough to feed an individual for a month. But what they fail to realise is that there are family men who earn less than this amount and still cater for their families. If a man with a wife and let’s say two children can earn and manage less than N100, 000 in a month, I do not see why a corps member should not,” he maintained.
He therefore called on corps members to cultivate the culture of saving for rainy days and delaying gratification. “With the enhanced monthly pay, corps members should learn to plan their budgets more effectively by spending wisely. Majority of them do not pay rent because their employers provide them with accommodation. Some of them work with organisations and a state like Adamawa that still pay something reasonable with which they can augment their allowance. The service year should not be seen as a year for reckless spending and living; rather they should see the period as a period to plan their future because after the service year, the majority of them may not be opportune to immediately secure jobs that will pay as high as what they earn as monthly allowance. After all there are graduates that still earn far below that amount, especially those teaching in private schools now,” he said
