 |
| NYSC Official Logo |
Time to tweak NYSC
The National Youth service Corps scheme
is becoming a pain in the
unmentionables - just like several other
of true patriotism in our youths by
assigning them to jobs in states other
than their states of origin, the scheme
has now become a stumbling block in the
transition from student to worker. After
the rigours of acquiring a degree, the
Nigerian graduate now has to join a long
queue to serve his/her fatherland and in
the process waste away while the state
gets its act together to accommodate
qualified candidates.
It wasn’t like that in decades past.
National service was something
everyone looked forward to. You
travelled to new places, made new
friends, learnt new things about fellow
citizens in other parts of the country,
learnt enough of the local language to
transact business in the village market
and generally made a second home of
your new location.
Once you graduated, you proceeded on
NYSC unfailingly unless you were above
30 years. There was no congestion. You
were expected at your destination and
everything you needed was laid out
before you - like the rosy future which
beckoned following the series of
interviews you had had with reputable
firms before your graduation.
Registration was automatic and free.
The National Service year comprises of
four main segments: Orientation Course;
Primary Assignment; Community
Development Service; Winding-Up/
Passing-out. Until the last one decade or
thereabout, it all went according to plan
like a well-orchestrated song and all
graduates looked forward to it with
excitement.
Now, candidates pay N3,000 online to
apply to serve their country. After
payment, they may not make the first
call-up list as orientation facilities are
inadequate. They are told to wait for the
Second Stream. You now have Batch A,
Stream I or II; or Batch B, Steam I or II.
In the good old days, there were no
batches or streams. You were either a
corper or not a corper; your place was
guaranteed once you graduated. There
was no case of waiting in the purgatory
of idleness in order to make the paradise
of NYSC.
The present state of affairs is morally
indefensible. How do you tie down the
lives of young graduates because of the
inefficiency of a system which refused to
plan adequately for the ever-increasing
number of qualified candidates? It is
time to rethink the entire NYSC scheme.
First the law establishing the scheme,
section 12 of which states that: “For the
purposes of employment anywhere in
the Federation and before employment,
it shall be the duty of every prospective
employer to demand and obtained from
any person who claims to have obtained
his first degree at the end of the
academic year 1973-74 or, as the case
may be, at the end of any subsequent
academic year the following: One, a copy
of the Certificate of National Service of
such person issued pursuant to section
11 of this Decree; Two, a copy of any
exemption certificate issued to such
person pursuant to section 17 of this
Decree; Three, such other particulars
relevant there to as may be prescribed
by or under this Decree. It shall also be
the duty of every employer to produce
on demand to police officer, not below
the rank of an Assistant Superintendent
of Police, any such certificate and
particulars or copies thereof”.
Now, if it is a crime to evade NYSC, isn’t it
a greater crime on the part of the state to
be unable to take in qualified candidates
as and when due?
On the part of the administrators at the
state level, there are several glitches as
well. There are cases of corps members
who have to shop for places of primary
assignment by themselves. There are
also cases of employers who, for
example, applied for two corpers and
made accommodation and other logistic
arrangements for their welfare but were
allocated only one corper. Nobody in the
NYSC establishment gives a hoot about
your complaints or the financial loss
involved. I know employers who have
now decided to stop taking corpers
because it is simply impossible to plan
with NYSC’s planlessness.
The authorities of NYSC must now wake
up to the reality of their situation instead
of trying to ‘manage’ a rickety system.
There are too many qualified candidates
than there are places. Rather than make
fresh graduates suffer unnecessarily,
there is an urgent need to amend the
NYSC law to allow the issuance of
Certificates of Exemption to those who
cannot be taken in their due year. There
will always be more than enough
candidates to make up the number and
serve the country in their chosen fields.
But it is immoral to tie some down on
account of a law that was made decades
ago when the numbers were more
manageable.
Let’s get it clear: nobody is advocating
throwing away the baby with the birth-
water. The NYSC scheme is desirable. We
should do all we can to sustain it. But it is
time we reassessed the present inability
of the system to cope with the high
number of graduates. There is no shame
in admitting limitations and freeing those
currently in the bondage of NYSC queue
by issuing them certificates of exemption
to get on with their lives. Many of those
graduates already suffered delayed
graduation due to crises within the
university system. Having graduated, the
country should not hold them to ransom
in the name of an NYSC waiting list.
A notice on the NYSC website to all 2016
Batch ‘A’ Stream II prospective corps
members says:
“NYSC Management regrets to inform
you that 2016 Batch ‘A’ Stream II
Orientation Course in all states including
Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in Stream I,
has been postponed due to logistic
reasons. A new date will be
communicated to you in due course. Pls
accept our sincere apologies”.
Apologies? No. It’s time to tweak the
NYSC scheme and free its ‘captives’.
(Posted as Copied)
A Concerned Corp Member and Nigerian.
No comments:
Post a Comment