Onyekakeyah: NYSC and exploitation of corps members

THE reported move by the authorities of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to levy N4,000 on prospective corps members is totally misplaced and in bad faith. The vexatious levy is insensitive and underscores the greed and exploitative tendency in this country. What the levy clearly shows is that the scheme is tired and in a way, it is time to consider scraping it, having outlived its usefulness. What else can we say if government could no longer sustain the scheme?

    It is good that the Presidency seems not to be involved in this rip-off. The NYSC management is the one spearheading what is obviously illegal. The NYSC Act did not require corps members to pay for deployment. Therefore, the Director General (DG) of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi might be alone on this matter and should be called to order. The National Assembly is the only legal authority that has the power to amend the NYSC Act. But since it has not done that, the controversial levy should be stopped forthwith in the national interest. The DG of the NYSC has no power to impose levy on prospective corps members. If he has needs to computerize his operations, he should do the needful by bringing such to the appropriate quarters and not act by fiat.
   The fact that the scheme has become over-bloated, with thousands of youths who are forced to wait for upwards of six months before being engaged is in an indication that all is not well with the scheme. If the truth must be told, the present NYSC is a shadow of its old self. The scheme has lost steam. The insecurity in the country has dealt a blow on its operation. Some states in the north no longer receive corps members from the south.
   Besides, most corps members now serve in their state of origin or at best in their zone contrary to original idea. Many changes have taken place, and that has whittled the scheme down. Consequently, many have called for its abrogation to save the youths of the mounting hardship they are subjected to. It is, therefore, inconceivable that NYSC authorities would attempt to levy the same corps members, when, as a matter of fact, there is a clamour for increased allowance.
    It was initially reported that the N4,000 was meant to computerize the issuance of call-up letters to save prospective corps members the trouble of traveling to their various schools to collect the same. The idea was tagged as on-line registration of corps members. On that basis, the NYSC authorities said the payment was not compulsory for every corps member but for those wishing to get their call-up letter on-line. How can that be? There will be confusion in the issuance of call-up letters if this option is adopted.
   But in an apparent shift of position, the same NYSC recanted and gave another more ludicrous reason. At a recent press briefing in Abuja, the Director of Press and Public Relations of the NYSC, Mrs. Bose Aderibigbe, reportedly disclosed that the DG had told the Special Assistant to the President on Youth Affairs, Mr. Jude Imagwe, that “the N4,000 being paid is not for call-up letters but just for the operation and provision of infrastructural facilities in all NYSC camps and its 37 secretariats and offices in the 774 local governments nationwide.” Imagwe had gone to the NYSC to find out what is going on about the outcry over the payment of N4, 000. That means the presidency was not carried along.
    What a wonderful and bogus proposal by the NYSC! Is it the responsibility of the NYSC management to provide infrastructure across the states for the operation of the scheme or the responsibility of the states and local government authorities? Is the job of the NYSC management not to operationalize the scheme using whatever facilities are on ground across the country?   When did it become the duty of the NYSC to provide infrastructure for state governments? It is clear from this assertion that the NYSC is only out to fleece unsuspecting corps members and their families. President Goodluck Jonathan should call the NYSC to order to save his image. Otherwise, the impression being created is that the President is behind the levy.
    The NYSC scheme was introduced in the country at a time when it was mostly needed. When the Biafran war ended in 1970, the country was left devastated from the pangs of the excruciating three-year fratricidal war. The defunct Eastern region was particularly ravaged as the people nursed the wounds inflicted by the war. The then military regime under Gen. Yakubu Gowon, being preoccupied with how to re-unit a divided nation and heal the paranoia of its constituent ethnic groups decided to establish the NYSC scheme. The scheme was established on May 22, 1973, with the overriding objectives of promoting national unity, integration and rapid economic development.
   There is no doubt that the idea behind the scheme was laudable and the objectives lofty. For instance, when the scheme was inaugurated, there was real need to re-unite the various ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria. The event of the war caused a mass movement of people from their places of residence in other parts of the country to their ethnic homeland. The NYSC served as a framework at that bleak period to re-distribute educated manpower from one part of the country to the other. That provided the youths who beheld the ravages of the war to appreciate the culture of the other ethnic groups across the country. That objective has since been achieved.
    No doubt, the NYSC has contributed immeasurably in alleviating the manpower need in some states, particularly the northern states that lacked trained manpower. Government establishments and employers of labour in the organized private sector have reaped from the “cheap” labour provided by the scheme. But it must be pointed out that the scheme more or less has helped to promote unemployment in the country. It is common knowledge that many unpatriotic establishments in the public and private sectors preferred using free corps members in their operations than engaging them on permanent basis. The post-war reconstruction effort of government at the time needed such trained manpower in different parts of the country. Again, the NYSC provided the framework for re-distributing the scarce trained manpower that was needed in different sectors of the economy.
   Another point that should be mentioned is that when the scheme was set up, the number of prospective corps members was minimal. With only 13 federal universities, the population of corps members was manageable. It was in the quest to boost the number of prospective corps members that made graduates of polytechnics and colleges of education to be included in the programme. Thus, NCE graduates participated. Today, NCE graduates, pregnant women and those aged above 30 are exempted all in an attempt to save cost. The NYSC scheme arguably fared well within the first decade of its establishment and the reason was that the economy boomed with industrial productivity. But from the mid-1980s, when the economy nosedived, the fortunes of the scheme declined. This was compounded with the establishment of private universities from the 80s that began to produce large number of graduates annually.
   The NYSC scheme, to me, was one of those good ideas that were put forward with the expectation that the country would move steadily on the path of economic progress and development. But this has not been the case. The country has disappointed all expectations. The NYSC and the economy are moving in opposite directions. While the population of prospective corps members has grown exponentially, the economy has shrunk beyond imagination.
    Given the present depressed state of the economy where thousands of industries have folded up, it would be foolhardy and indeed pretentious to still believe that the thousands of qualified graduates from the over 100 universities and more from the polytechnics must serve in the NYSC scheme. This is no longer feasible. The authorities should patriotically appreciate this fact and rethink the entire project. The last few years in particular have seen the worst of the NYSC scheme both in logistics and administration. The entire programme has become a nightmare and innocent graduates are the ones suffering. Many have lost their lives.
   Looking at the initial objectives of the scheme, it is obvious that today, many of them are out of tune with reality. Today, the country is not lacking trained manpower. The numerous tertiary institutions in different parts of the country are producing skilled manpower. No state is excluded. There is practically no state of the federation that doesn’t have a university or polytechnic within its domain. My candid opinion is that the scheme should be made optional or in the alternative scrapped.