No to retrogressive bill to scrap the NYSC – The pillar of national unity and development in Nigeria, By Prof. John Imonbhio Abhuere

Our attention has been drawn to a sad and distressing news from the National Assembly. According to media reports, a retrogressive bill to scrap or discontinue with the NYSC sponsored by one Mr Awaji- Inonbik Abiante was entering its second reading at the Assembly. It purportedly seeks to repeal part 315 (5)(a) of the structure of Federal Republic of Nigeria to get rid of the NYSC because of (1) acute insecurity as exemplified by “incessant killing” and “kidnapping of harmless corps members ” across the country, (2) high rate of unemployment as represented by failure or refusal by employers of Labour to recruit ready people because of their reliance on cheap Labour of Corp members who are “discarded with impunity” and without any “hope for gainful employment”, (3) inability to post corps members to some parts of the country due to security challenge which according to the sponsor of the bill sa made the NYSC to post graduates to serve in their own geo- political zone thereby defeating the essence of national service which in his view is to foster inter- cultural ties.

A point of correction and observation here.The NYSC Act requires participants to serve in states other than theirs ,not outside geo- political zones as the sponsor of the bill asserts. In summary, insecurity, unemployment are the reasons for proposing a bill to discontinue with the NYSC. We appreciate the concern for such problems but they are external environmental issues that should be taken care of by the state and employers of Labour- government, private sectors, NGOs etc. While the problems should be solved by the a appropriate authority for the good of the country, they are not sufficient grounds for calling for the abrogation of the NYSC which had contributed so much to the unity and development of the country in the past and still has so much to contribute to the survival and well being of the country. The NYSC has proved itself to be a very reliable pillar and strength of national unity and development and the leading string that holds all else together as a people today. It therefore represents one of the wonders of today that such a retrogressive bill should even progress beyond first reading at the National Assembly given the sterling role of the NYSC in nation building today. There many reasons why the NYSC should not be scrapped but only few of them will be discussed here as follows:

The reasons advanced for scrapping the NYSC by the sponsor of the bill are weak, unreasonable and illogical. For instance, can we say we should scrap the military, the police or abrogate Nigeria state because of the prevalence of insecurity and unemployment? The logical step to take is to solve the problem.

The NYSC is a product of the environment. It will continue to affect and be affected by the environment. In particular, problems under reference insecurity , unemployment fall within the external environment of the NYSC that are beyond the control of the scheme. Insecurity as exemplified by “incessant killing and kidnapping of innocent corps members” “posting of corps to to their own geopolitical zone due to constraints imposed by insecurity and lack of employment opportunity in the country are of general concern and are not peculiar to the NYSC. Even policemen had been killed and police stations burnt down but that will not justify a call for the scrapping of the Police Force. Rather we would look for superior way to check insecurity to ensure safety of lives and property for all citizens and for the good of the entire society. For us they are not sound and weighty reasons to discontinue with the NYSC.

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The achievements and success of the NYSC are self- evident especially in the area of community development, national unity, supply of skilled man powers to the various sectors of the economy including the rural areas, tolerance, trust, deeper knowledge and better understanding of the country. The bill should therefore be killed forthwith as unhelpful and unnecessary development.

The proposal is anti – youth’s aspiration and insensitive to the patriotic and exponential yearnings of the youth to serve fatherland. Many youth see the NYSC as their own thing and they look forward to participating in it while at school. It is their noble platform for participation in nation building, their participation is a proud badge of achievement and thus many parents are happy to say their children had been called up for national service. NYSC has served as an encouragement to families and youths to pursue higher education.

Service in the NYSC has come to be regarded as a mark of great achievement and thus a motivating and inspiring factor for higher education. It holds some rays of hope for a better future. Understood this way, the bill under reference can be truly seen as a deliberate attempt to rob from the youth their cherished possession and to cancel their most assured and reliable platform for effective participation, development and empowerment and to deny the government or the state the rare but steady chance of winning the soul, patriotism and loyalty of the youth to cause of the state. The bill represents a monstrous seed of regret and thus a source of embarrassment and loss of shared opportunity by the youth, government and society at large. It should not be allowed to sail much further our shore.

Scrapping of the NYSC is not a popular demand and No better option in the offing. As research has shown the call for the scrapping of the NYSC is not a popular demand. The record of remarkable achievement of speaks for the scheme here. As the youth often ask: what is the gain of scrapping the NYSC today to the stake holders? None !!! What will replace it? No option in the offing. We should learn to think before acting or proposing a bill. We should resist killing our best.

There are many blessings of the NYSC today. They include payment of allowances to young people soon after graduation,
training in nation building, some work experience, team spirit, training opportunities for self and national development, taming of the youth in the national interest, promotion of national sentiment based on some core values such as unity, oneness, brotherhood, patriotism, nationalism, development of the country. Generally NYSC has helped to sustain the collective consciousness of national unity and to motivate the youth to seek after excellence, patriotism nationalism, hard work, development of stronger national identity and loyalty than hither-to.

Consequently, today, unlike the adults- especially the political elite who are regional,ethnic and religious biased, thanks to NYSC, the Nigerian youth have a broad national perception of their country and are ready to gravitate to any areas of opportunity for growth, development and self fulfillment. Apart from making skilled manpower constantly available to schools, health centers especially in the rural areas etc.,the NYSC has boosted the economy of host states in so many ways including direct employment of staff, ad hoc staff hired for orientation course, contracts especially to citizens to sew NYSC Uniform, run “mammy markets” by local men and women in orientation camps, participation in various community development activities such as health and literacy campaigns and the deployment of corps members to employers for their primary assignments.

Nigeria should count itself lucky to have groups of youth that are interested in advancing her cause and a successful platform that promotes the positive development, proper empowerment and effective participation of young people in nation building as opposed to the negative participants such as Boko Haram, bandits and others who threaten the existence of the nation with words and dastardly actions across the country. Let us not take from the youth what belongs to them and that which they have learned to cherish. As Admiral Augustus Aikhomu observed many years ago any attempt at scrapping the NYSC today will not only be resisted by the youth, also, it will lead to serious socio- economic crisis in the country that will make the Boko Haram phenomenon to look like a child’s play.

Nation building is a continuous affair that thrives on sacrifice and honesty. Thus the objectives of the NYSC are timeless, ever relevant – at least till date. To recall, the NYSC was established to promote national unity and development, free movement of Labour hard work, inculcate in our youths discipline, industry, moral probity, sacrifice in the national interest, tolerance, hard work, Patriotism better knowledge, understanding of the country, etc – in short to bring about a better country. Evaluative studies show that the scheme has beyond reasonable doubts contributed to the realization of these objectives. Besides the NYSC remains perhaps the most successful public institution dedicated to nation building and more specifically to the promotion of national unity, development and to win hearts positively to the cause of the country. Such is not a material or candidates for the gallows.

The objectives of the scheme are still relevant and multi- dimensional aimed at the total development of the youth- mentally, physically and psychologically in such a way as to be able to show total commitment to the unity and development of the country. The scheme promotes discipline, industry, tolerance, greater understanding and deeper knowledge of the country, free movement of Labour, work experience, patriotism, nationalism, build trust, closer ties among participants, promote opportunities for employment and cultivate noble values such as patriotism that enrich and facilitate nation building. So far ,so good. All these will be lost, and the nation would be worse off without the NYSC. The time calls for the creation of more opportunities for the youth to flourish and not the closure of existing openings. The proposed bill is thus a mis- step.

NYSC can truly be seen as a Neo- nationalist and development oriented outfit. Properly understood the scheme is a neo- nationalist outfit with a pan Nigerian heart dedicated to nation building for the good of all citizens and the full realization of the goal and objectives of independence including modernization of society, democracy, justice and better life for all the citizens. Basically she was conceived too as a development outfit aimed at actualizing the original goal of Independence including the meaningful development of the country and the equitable distribution of resources. This is so because the NYSC has proved itself to be a veritable platform for youth positive participation in the development process. Among others, it provides opportunity for them to experiment with historical possibilities, to serve fatherland in all parts of the country under the rain or in the sun, favors the even distribution of manpower to all regions and in particular sends scarce human resources such as Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Teachers to the rural areas thereby helping to sustain education and health services in the local governments . Above all, the scheme inspires the youth and others to be Nigerian at heart, soul and and body.

The NYSC fills an important gap today by serving as a subtle ideological training ground for nation building based on the concept of unity. One of the mistakes of our founding fathers was their failure to set a national ideology and to train the youths in nation building techniques, models, principles etc. Some of the results of such failure or omission were the near death of patriotic, nationalistic and altruistic spirits in the country and the emergence of strong ethnic, religious and regional loyalties and identities at the expense of strong national identity and loyalty. This is one problems the NYSC is helping to fix with considerable success.

Nation building is not a tea party but a serious business pursued on consistent basis. It requires sacrifice and diligent commitment by all citizens including the youth. The support of the Nigerian youth to nation building is remarkable and important because they the inheritors and transmitters of common heritage from one generation to another in society. As they say, when we build the youth, we build the nation. Their support of any program and empowerment could be enduring.To a reasonable extent, the NYSC has achieved much for the nation for instance using sports, dance, drama, manpower availability,etc to foster peace, cooperation, promote national unity and development. It has been involved in agriculture, education ,health service delivery, voters education and in the conduct of census and elections with salutary effects on the polity.

Still the scheme had its problems which the National Assembly could help solve. First is the problem of inadequate funding. The NYSC has been charged with gargantuan national assignment but starved of resources to do the needful. Patriotism , ideological orientation and the battle to win citizens to cause of the nation state, their loyalty and build strong identity with the nation had never been cheap or easy. It requires proper funding and due commitment. There is the structural problem. NYSC was deliberately made to be heavily dependent on the external environment by the founding fathers. Constant interaction was expected between the organization and its external environment – the NYSC and its collaborating agents. The idea was to ensure interest, support and participation of the public in the NYSC. Thus according to the NYSC Act, the federal government pays allowances of corps members and salaries of staff, the state government provides orientation camps, the local government provides accommodation, the military provides instructors and drill trainers, the police takes care of security, the women council or ministry promotes the interest of female corps members. Employers provides jobs or openings for corps members to serve, ministry of health to provide health care services, the higher institutions train the prospective corps members for national service etc.

This may be theoretically sound but practically difficult. As elementary management theory teaches, organizations have little or no control over their external environment. NYSC has not been different here. They could be innovative , adapting, or responsive to external events but they have no control over them. Though I have criticized the NYSC structure in the past for its “crippling, over dependency syndrome” (Abhuere 2000), the rationale for it is not in doubt. Having being charged with the cardinal responsibility of promoting national unity, development and molding the youth into patriotic, responsible citizens aimed at producing a new Nigeria of our collective dream, the task of running the task should be a collective responsibility too to be borne by all. The problem is that as Shakespeare notes “there is no act to to read the minds construction in the face: Some parties to the arrangement can default even willfully or by accident. The task of the the National Assembly is to prod up those who have failed in their responsibilities to the scheme. If anything goes wrong we should draw attention of the agency concerned. The question of security and employment should be tackled by the appropriate bodies to secure the life and property of citizens, create jobs and provide clean environment for National Service to thrive.

Another area of intervention is improvement of conditions of service of workers. The NYSC staff perform a twenty four hour job in trying to mould a new set of Nigerians to actualize the dreams of independence. They are teachers, parents, instructors, doctors, advisers, Nurses, mentors security officers etc everything to corps members . They are there for them in the day or in the night ,under the sun or in the rain for twenty four hours daily. Their salary and pension are too small for the sacrifice and demands of their job. They deserve special pay, special treatment and special pension. The National Assembly should look into this with a view to improve the situation. I retired ten years ago and can see things better including the importance of the NYSC in the life of the nation, the need for motivation of the staff and corps members and the need to remove environmental obstacles to enable the scheme achieve its objectives.

Given the worthy contributions, strategic importance and pivotal role of the NYSC in nation building efforts today, it seems bizarre , sickening and utterly senseless to even contemplate such a monstrous bill. The NYSC has proved itself to be a winner. It is not wise or proper to change a winning team or destroy the pillar of strength of a building. NYSC is is the pillar of national unity and development – the current last post of resistance to divisiveness and disunity and senseless agitations for separation. For what it has done and holds the prospect of doing, let the NYSC be supported to do much more for the country. For this and other reasons stated so far, the bill should be discontinued with. It should not go beyond the second reading.

▪︎Prof. Abhuere is Chairman, Centre for Child Care annd Youth Development, Abuja.