The National Youth Service scheme is becoming a pain in the unmentionables – just like several other well-intentioned national schemes. Far from its objective of encouraging a spirit of true patriotism in our youths by assigning them to jobs in states other than their states of origin, the scheme has now become a stumbling block in the transition from student to worker. After the rigours of acquiring a degree, the Nigerian graduate now has to join a long queue to serve his/her fatherland and in the process waste away while the state gets its act together to accommodate qualified candidates.
It wasn’t like that in decades past. National service was something everyone looked forward to. You travelled to new places, made new friends, learnt new things about fellow citizens in other parts of the country, learnt enough of the local language to transact business in the village market and generally made a second home of your new location.
Once you graduated, you proceeded on NYSC unfailingly unless you were above 30 years. There was no congestion. You were expected at your destination and everything you needed was laid out before you – like the rosy future which beckoned following the series of interviews you had had with reputable firms before your graduation. Registration was automatic and free.
The National Service year comprises of four main segments: Orientation Course; Primary Assignment; Community Development Service; Winding-Up/Passing-out. Until the last one decade or thereabout, it all went according to plan like a well-orchestrated song and all graduates looked forward to it with excitement.
Now, candidates pay N3,000 online to apply to serve their country. After payment, they may not make the first call-up list as orientation facilities are inadequate. They are told to wait for the Second Stream. You now have Batch A, Stream I or II; or Batch B, Steam I or II. In the good old days, there were no batches or streams. You were either a corper or not a corper; your place was guaranteed once you graduated. There was no case of waiting in the purgatory of idleness in order to make the paradise of NYSC.
The present state of affairs is morally indefensible. How do you tie down the lives of young graduates because of the inefficiency of a system which refused to plan adequately for the ever-increasing number of qualified candidates? It is time to rethink the entire NYSC scheme.
First the law establishing the scheme, section 12 of which states that: “For the purposes of employment anywhere in the Federation and before employment, it shall be the duty of every prospective employer to demand and obtained from any person who claims to have obtained his first degree at the end of the academic year 1973-74 or, as the case may be, at the end of any subsequent academic year the following: One, a copy of the Certificate of National Service of such person issued pursuant to section 11 of this Decree; Two, a copy of any exemption certificate issued to such person pursuant to section 17 of this Decree; Three, such other particulars relevant there to as may be prescribed by or under this Decree. It shall also be the duty of every employer to produce on demand to police officer, not below the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police, any such certificate and particulars or copies thereof”.
Now, if it is a crime to evade NYSC, isn’t it a greater crime on the part of the state to be unable to take in qualified candidates as and when due?
On the part of the administrators at the state level, there are several glitches as well. There are cases of corps members who have to shop for places of primary assignment by themselves. There are also cases of employers who, for example, applied for two corpers and made accommodation and other logistic arrangements for their welfare but were allocated only one corper. Nobody in the NYSC establishment gives a hoot about your complaints or the financial loss involved. I know employers who have now decided to stop taking corpers because it is simply impossible to plan with NYSC’s planlessness.
The authorities of NYSC must now wake up to the reality of their situation instead of trying to ‘manage’ a rickety system. There are too many qualified candidates than there are places. Rather than make fresh graduates suffer unnecessarily, there is an urgent need to amend the NYSC law to allow the issuance of Certificates of Exemption to those who cannot be taken in their due year. There will always be more than enough candidates to make up the number and serve the country in their chosen fields. But it is immoral to tie some down on account of a law that was made decades ago when the numbers were more manageable.
Let’s get it clear: nobody is advocating throwing away the baby with the birth-water. The NYSC scheme is desirable. We should do all we can to sustain it. But it is time we reassessed the present inability of the system to cope with the high number of graduates. There is no shame in admitting limitations and freeing those currently in the bondage of NYSC queue by issuing them certificates of exemption to get on with their lives. Many of those graduates already suffered delayed graduation due to crises within the university system. Having graduated, the country should not hold them to ransom in the name of an NYSC waiting list.
A notice on the NYSC website to all 2016 Batch ‘A’ Stream II prospective corps members says:
“NYSC Management regrets to inform you that 2016 Batch ‘A’ Stream II Orientation Course in all states including Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in Stream I, has been postponed due to logistic reasons. A new date will be communicated to you in due course. Pls accept our sincere apologies”.
Apologies? No. It’s time to tweak the NYSC scheme and free its ‘captives’.