By mercy ohagenyi, 08094145457
The National Youth Service Corps is a scheme set up by the Nigerian government to involve the country’s graduates below thirty years in the development of the country and integrate the young people with the diverse culture and tradition of different ethnic nationalities.
This scheme was established by former Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon in 1973 after the Nigerian civil war to foster national integration. It was at first all inclusive of university graduates, HND and NCE holders but later only degree and HND graduates are required to take part in the compulsory National Youth Service scheme.
The laudable scheme which helped most of our present leaders to have a patriotic understanding of fellow Nigerians by appreciating the uniqueness of different nationalities through living and mingling together is now being threatened by insecurity.
NYSC programme is for one year. This is known as National Service year. Corp members are deployed away from their states of origin or states where they attended their tertiary education; they are expected to mix up with people of other tribes, culture and background and to learn about the culture of the place they are posted to.
It was of course a welcome idea it came in handy after the national unity that was severely threatened by the civil war and it further fosters pluralism. This action is aimed to bring about unity in the country and to help youths appreciate other ethnic groups.
There is an “Orientation” period of approximately three weeks spent in camp away from family and friends. There is also a Passing out Parade (POP) at the end of the service year and primary assignment.
The programme has been met with serious criticism by a large section of the country. Several youths carrying out the programme have been killed in the places where they are posted to due to religious violence, ethnic violence or political violence.
A series of bomb and other violent attacks, especially in the North, rocked the country’s stability in the period preceding the 2011 gubernatorial and presidential elections. Most common of these attacks was perpetuated by Islamist and Muslim extremist group called Boko Haram “Boko Haram” means “Western Education is a sin” in the local Hausa dialect in Nigeria. The group Boko Haram is against Western Education and wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria’s Northern region.
Worst hit were corps members, some of whom lost their lives after April, 2011 general elections. As compensation the president presented five million naira (N5m) to families of those who lost their lives and promised to give jobs to the other affected corps members immediately after their service year. Years later, the jobs are still in a shelf and most of the affected graduates roam the streets looking for jobs.
Despite the killing of hundreds of people in Borno State by the outlawed Boko Haram sect, the national youth service corps has deployed 820 corps members to the state while their orientation course will be held in Gombe.
Thousands of people have been killed in Borno State and some other northern states since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009. This led to the Nigerian government declaring a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in may 2013.
Despite the emergency rule, however, the attacks by the sect worsened in 2014, particularly in Borno, also in Yobe and Adamawa, leading to the death of hundreds of people and burning of thousands of houses and vehicles which have brought about economic standstill in the states involved.
The mass emigration of Nigerian citizens who are non-indigenes of the northern region of the major conflict affected cities, is a formidable threat posed by Boko Haram to the economy of Nigeria.
The rush to escape from the north is already affecting the profitability of business establishments in that region. For example, banks have begun closing down their business outlets due to decrease in economic activities in the area.
Also, employees of these institutions are increasingly demanding that they be posted to less volatile areas. A massive departure from the northern region will not only constitute a depletion affair in the north, it will also throw those who are departing from the north into financial and psychological pressures.
Obviously the approach employed by the Nigerian military and other security outfits may have failed and the dialogue option too may have hit the rocks as well, as the insurgents have continued to be recalcitrant towards the possibility.
An option yet to be explored, may involve taking up the international community on their promise to help and such must go beyond mere intelligence gathering and provision of military aid, to include actual physical “boost on ground” military intervention.
The recent threat by the Boko Haram leader Mallam Shekau to hit Nigeria’s economic mainstay in the Niger Delta can be sold as a plausible reason for this intervention. The Americans can be made to be interested regardless of opposition that may likely be from the same Northern Nigeria suffering at the hands of these insurgents presently, or even from Southerners who won’t waste a minute shouting down the possibility of the violation of Nigeria’s sovereignty by a foreign power.
Nigerians may consider these unpatriotic, but that’s one of the solution’s I can come up with considering the situation on ground surely there would be other more sensible ones, may concern is for a speedy end to this insurgency and hopefully bringing to book the perpetrators of this acts of genocide.
In addition, the major solution to insecurity in the country is youth employment. If the issue of unemployment is tackled headlong, it would go a long way towards reducing societal ills.
The heartless killing of corps members in Bauchi and Borno states were all too fresh in the minds of Nigerians and coupled with escalating attacks by Islamic extremists, the concern for the personal safety of corps members is paramount and they should not be sent to volatile states until the security threats in the affected states have been satisfactorily addressed.
Having observed the menace of the Boko Haram in the country, there is no doubt that if nothing is urgently done to stem the tide, the National Youth Service Corps Scheme may soon be a thing of the past and if such becomes the case, the dreams of the founding fathers may have been defeated.
