How relevant is NYSC now for national integration?

BY PAUL ARHEWE

NYSC members

There are strident clamours for the scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in some quarters, in the face of the prevalent near intractable insecurity situation in Nigeria. Ironically, the national unity raison d’être for the establishment of the scheme in 1973, has come under severe assaults as the country slides into pervasive insecurity. By the NYSC Act, partici-pating graduates could be sent to any of the 36 states and FCT, Abuja. More importantly, no participant is allowed to serve in his/her state of origin. There are few exceptions to this rule. However, the implementation of the NYSC statute in the face of the worrisome security challenge posed by the exacerbating insurgency in the North has exposed the programme to attacks bordering on insensitivity.

 The post election violence last year, where 10 corps members were slaughtered in Bauchi State, has thrown up a cacophonous debate of the continuing relevance of the scheme. And when in the current 2012 Batch B exercise some corps members were posted to states considered high security risk, the debate assumed a frightening dimension and even the management of the NYSC came into further barrage of attacks. Many participating corps members, their parents, some state governments and even the National Assembly were defiant in their condemnation and rejection of the exercise.

All that was said about assurance of their safety was received with a pinch of salt.

Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan cited reasons why the programme could not be scrapped.

“The NYSC is a programme that is helpful to the Nigerian youth.

It encourages integration and creates an environment for youth to move out of his domain to learn other cultures”, was how he put it. I agree with Mr. President.



The scheme’s long term goal might seem defeated, but its total scrapping would pose dire consequences for the unity of country.

The prevailing security challenge in the country is mostly tied to intolerance and the insensitivity of the perpetrators.

The drive towards ethno-religious supremacy is fueled by ignorance. Many Nigerians do not know anything beyond their immediate environment.



Such people are intolerance and quick to exhibit cultural aggressiveness simply because they have not socialised sufficiently or traveled extensively to get firsthand experience of how people in other culture areas exist and coexist with Nigerians from outside their culture areas.

This is the core value the NYSC scheme is established to project to the participants.

My experience during my service year in Taraba State some years back is instructive.

I had a deep insight into life in some parts of the North, quite different from Lagos where I spent my growing up years.

During my one year stay there I really came to appreciate the culture of my host state and community.

I came to realise that Tarabans are not a core Hausa people.

It may come as a surprise that majority of the people are Christians.



Nevertheless, as laudable as the scheme is for national integration, it behooves on our leaders and the management of NYSC to be circumspect in the posting of corps members, especially in this critical period in our national life.

The security situation in the North has changed for the worse in the past three years.

Pragmatism should be the watchword of the authorities when it comes to the issue of posting of corps members.



The posting of non-northern corps members to parts of the volatile North is tantamount to tempting God and still expecting miracles.

Thank goodness, the rumour last week of the bombing of Bauchi’s NYSC orientation camp only ended up as the figment of the imagination of the psychotic purveyors of the news.

Imagine if this was true, the damage it would have wreaked on the fragile stability of the country would have been enormous.

Thousands have lost their lives, and properties of high proportional worth have been destroyed since terrorist attacks became implanted in North. We cannot avoid this now.

Last week, the Minister of Youth De-velopment, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, overruling the Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier-General Nnamdi Okore-Affia on the decision to reverse the posting of corps members to these troubled states, likened the participation in the scheme to “national sacrifice”.

I dare say the likes of Alhaji Abdulkadir in government would not in their wildest dreams send any of their siblings close to these troubled states for national service.

I challenge the minister to relocate his office from Abuja to Borno, and lead by example to show us the real meaning of ‘national sacrifice.’

Government should at this moment do all within its power to be proactive by averting avoidable security mishaps.

There is no sense in posting participating corps members from the South to states like Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna etc when it is clear that such a decision is tantamount to waiting for a ticking bomb to detonate.