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NYSC: The Demise of a Nobel Idea By Maxwell James Odaudu
When
a nation begins to tailspin or is mired in an acme of anti-people
policies and stagnates into the abyss of indecision, like
This seems to be the case of Brig. Gen. Walter Oki, the Director –General of the national Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The whole scenario stated in the Nigerian gossip industry that is known with its rich insinuations that the DG was seeking a possible way (any means) of downsizing the number of prospective Corps Members of the 2004/05 batch across the country’s tertiary institutions. Its shroudness in excessive secrecy notwithstanding, the rumour turned out to be a fact with ill-fitting rhetoric.
To
be more precise, all most all newspapers reported the decision of the
NYSC DG to check the influx of “fake” Corps Members in various camps
by making JAMB admission letters a prerequisite for absorption into the
scheme. Dull trick! Being a Professional that he is, it will not be fair
to conclude that the DG is one of those leaders that have been swept
into office by the irate wind of collective hysteria, anxiety and with
the motive of extinguishing a noble idea. God forbid! Is
the DG claiming ignorance of other legal means of gaining admission into
Nigerian tertiary institutions? What has happened to our age long
remedial programmes in Universities and Pre-ND in Polytechnics and of
recent the Preliminary French programmes in Universities in almost all
Nigerian universities offering French Language as a course? Well, to
stop bothering you with rhetoric questions, the rumour has it that
Students who gained admission into tertiary institutions through the
aforementioned means are going to be schemed out because they constitute
the greatest number of prospective Corps Members. To
put the record straight, the hoopla was generated because of the
proposed ‘alawi’ increment, which the ever-reluctant Directorate is
considering in view of the endless agitations for increased allowance
for Corps Members. As a matter of fact, Oki and his men in the
Directorate who see themselves as demi-gods and experts in dealing with
youths actually feel that they deserve national applause and honour for
investing as much as N7, 500 monthly in a Nigerian graduate for serving
his fatherland! Expectedly,
the media did not give a generous space to the unpopular decision and
the prognosis of the DG as they see it as one of the jaundiced ideas
that will definitely sound its death knell. Before delving into the
so-called huge sum of money expended on impoverished Nigerian graduates,
I would like to refresh our minds on the large sum of money our
government spent on other non-viable ventures. If Gen. Oki and his
employer consider N7, 500 per month as too much to be spent on about 60,
000 Corps Members, ask how much went down the drain on CHOGM, not to
talk of COJA or the controversial ID cards project. Again,
considering the amount of money government spent on cuddling and
accommodating world despots like Charles Taylor, hw much is N7,500 in an
egregious economy like ours? How much does government spend on public
sector workers such that N7,500 or the proposed N11,500 is too much? This
policy is economically grievous and dumb in the context of the
unprecedented upsurge in youth radicalism, armed robbery and adult
delinquency that are motivated by high level of joblessness in our
country. It is on record that NYSC scheme has no doubt been the stop-gap
measure of sustenance between graduation and the uncertainties that
becloud our labour market. Let us remind ourselves also that poverty and
unemployment are the greatest threats to our national security. These
will spin out gloomy prognostication about the future. Any
leader that unleashes obnoxious ideas, wholesale on its youths who are
the trustees of posterity, without regard to the negative consequences
on the lives and livelihood of the nation, is nothing but an
irresponsible leader. How else can one contextualise this noble idea
that is being thwarted? NYSC, it is pertinent to note, is a miniature of
our attempts at unity in its philosophy and its methods. Though a Corps
Member’s destiny may look hopelessly irredeemable on his crested vest
tagged: Now Your Suffering Continues (NYSC), but I think the scheme,
from an objective standpoint, has been able to address our
heterogeneity. Over the years, In
terms of self-reliance, mobility and labour, in over 30 years of its
existence, the scheme has done a lot. Many Corps Members who prior to
their graduation, never left their homes or states are made albeit
compulsorily, to stay on their own and are taught how to promote the
unity in diversity of All
over the country, the physical contribution of Corps Members are glaring
like construction works. In a recent interview with the Director of the
Rivers State NYSC Directorate, Mrs. Adimorah, she emphasised on
contributions of Corps Members in the eradication of social vices in our
society. She said “recently, we have joined the campaign against
HIV/AIDS”. An imagination of 60, 000 Corps Members campaigning against
HIV/AIDS will ultimately leave one with no choice than to agree with her
that the more the number, the more the effective, the impact. The
cases of Corps Doctors and Scientists cannot be overemphasised. It is on
record that a large chunk of this category of Corps Members comes from
the basic sciences which the current policy is trying to excise. The The
idea of presenting JAMB admission letters could be a welcome idea
because that would tell the inefficiency of the body, JAMB. The
impression the two fraternised bodies are giving us is that they are
into a nocturnal deal to extort N4, 000 from prospective Corps Members
for admission letters delayed for 4 years! Whose fault? If actually that
is it, it is one piece of deal that is mad. It buttresses the
bewildering failure about JAMB because Students paid for two
self-addressed envelopes through which their admission letters were
supposed to be sent. What a breach of agreement! If
the idea is to check fake Students as we are made to believe, I think
there are better ways of doing it. The DG’s men can investigate the
authenticity and originality or otherwise of prospective corps Members
from their establishments of origin. All they need do is to, within the
period of collating such names, build strong and formidable intellectual
resources to investigate at the required momentum. In
point of fact, if the truth (no matter how bitter) must be told, the
present regime is setting a terrible precedent in our education sector.
Therefore, let no Nigerian Student think such policies are over, with
Obasanjo still in the saddle. I was astonished when the government
recently attempted to
introduce tuition fee through the backdoor (N10, 000 per bed space). In
the realm of human capital, unemployment keeps getting worse, with the
attendant rise in the rate of crime and other social problems including
hunger, prostitution and so on. With the present development, the
situation would be worse. It
is gladdening that Great Nigerian Students have risen with one voice
against this Anti-Nigeria idea. Aluta continua, Maxwell James Odaudu Regional Secretary African
Youth Council for No:
Jos
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