The National Youth Service Corps: A Call for Reform, Not Abolition

The mandatory service in my country is the National Youth Service Corps which was established in 1973 to foster unity and bringing different ethnic groups together in the country. NYSC is mainly for those who have graduated from either the University or Polytechnic and also below the age of thirty years, any individual who has gone above the age would have to get the extension letter which means that he or she cannot serve due to age, such a person would then tenders the letter alongside his or her CV for work in the organisation that requested for it.

Nysc is a mandatory service that requires sending every graduate in the age bracket to serve their fatherland in various states in the country different from their state of origin. We have 36 States including Abuja which is the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

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The service is done for one year; one month of training rigorously in the camp and 11 months at their place of primary assignment (PPA) after which certificates are issued for the successful corpers and can tender at any organisation. Nysc certificate letter is a compulsory one that allows one to work in an organisation and without it, some companies do not hire them for work.

I am a Nigerian corper and would be ending my program by October and that would make it one year of serving my fatherland. In Nigeria, once you are done with school in the higher institution, you still have to serve the country for another year before you can finally be on your own, either to own a business with the money saved from the monthly allowance, of course, this is one of the goals of establishing NYSC so that youth can be wise in saving some amount of money and use it at the end of the service year to build themselves with business or career.

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When it comes to the question of whether NYSC should be scrapped or not, I would say it shouldn't be scrapped but some measures and changes should be done.

One important purpose of Nysc is to deploy graduates to rural or underdeveloped areas where they can contribute to education, provide health care and also enlightenment on how to improve lives with various vital services.

Another purpose is to connect people by uniting different ethnic groups while working towards achieving the same goal while in service. This is done by assigning corpers to different community development services where they cooperate in improving such community they are in. Also, allowing different people to connect and make friends together isn't excluded.

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The benefit of Nysc is the youth empowerment. In this case, NYSC provides training and opportunities for personal and professional development which includes skills, free courses with certificates and entrepreneurship programmes.

Also, Nysc helps to instil a sense of patriotism and civic responsibility in Nigerian Graduates as they are encouraged to add a positive impact to the nation.

These purposes and benefits are why NYSC — a mandatory service should not be scrapped but with some considerations, things should work well.

Considerations like putting into mind the safety of young youth who are posted to a far state where the security level is low and also poses a risk to them. I believe individuals who are ready to go for service to their fatherland should be posted to a state closer to their state of origin to reduce the burden of having to fund themselves when travelling.

Some youth that are posted to a far state find it hard to source for funds that would take them there and also, there is always a higher risk of bandits and kidnappers on the road.

There have been cases of young Nigerians posted to far states and on their way either kidnapped while asking for ransoms or that they are killed instantly and major accidents. Imagine posting an individual to a state where you can only reach there by water and such an individual has a phobia for such a thing, how do they cope? Perhaps when filling out the form, there should be a column asking for their conditions and phobias 😆 so they can know which state they should be posted to.

The purposes and benefits of Nysc are too great and helpful to be scrapped just like that but the proper look into how it should be improved should be a concern for the government.

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