For decades, the debate on the sustainability of the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has continued to fester and is obviously not going anywhere soon.

Established through Decree No. 24 of 22nd May 1973, the scheme was conceived as part of the 3Rs (Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reintegration) of the General Yakubu Gowon regime as part of a post-war initiative “with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity”. 

While the scheme can be said to have recorded huge gains in the last forty-eight years, there are huge sentiments that it has outlived his usefulness. Part of these sentiments is anchored on the issues of poor funding and the fact that a number of prospective members resist posting to other parts of the country since they can bribe their way to favourable postings.

Most worrisome is the concern about the security of the corp members who are victims of electoral violence as witnessed during the 2011 general elections, road crashes during inter-state trips during and after the service year and most recently, “incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism and ethnic violence; incessant kidnapping of innocent corps members across the country.”

These issues have prompted the House of Representatives to consider scrapping the scheme as the green chamber prepares for second reading, an alteration of Section 315(5)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended) covering the NYSC Act, which is the enabling law for the scheme.

As part of the reasons put forward by the sponsor of the bill; Honouurable Awaji-Inombek Abiante, he noted that:
“Public and private agencies/departments are no longer recruiting able and qualified Nigerian youths, thus relying heavily on the availability of corps members who are not being well remunerated and get discarded with impunity at the end of their service year without any hope of being gainfully employed;

“Due to insecurity across the country, the National Youth Service Corps management now gives considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thus defeating one of the objectives of setting up the service corps, i.e. developing common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.”

This action is one bold attempt by a legislature in recent years; towards looking into the calls for its restructuring or outright abolition, but any political conscious Nigerian knows that it will be a tall order to have it amended.

Expectedly, the development has elicited positive reactions by Nigerians across social media and if these sentiments are anything for the legislature to consider, then scrapping it may as well be a foregone conclusion.

Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq

Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.