The national youth corps started in 1973 with the aim of bringing and fostering unity in the country and also helping youths appreciate other ethnic groups. The program entails a 3 weeks orientation exercise (students are camped and drilled, after they which they undertake a ‘’pass out’’ exercise from camp) and eventually posted to various locations within the state they were posted to. Over the years the program has been reviewed by the federal government, currently corps members are posted only to government institutions and private institutions in areas of health and education. ‘Allowee ‘has been reviewed as well, corps members receive N19, 800 monthly.

In recent times, it is of note that, the experience of various corps members has gone from exciting, adventurous, and eventful to being just a compulsory exercise.

As a corp member currently serving Nigeria, I say it from the perspective of someone living the ‘compulsory’ experience. It is an exercise that graduates dread and only look forward to, because it symbolizes a change in their status of just being a graduate to being an employable graduate in Nigeria. What are the issues that have brought rot to the once celebrated program?

The main reason is that, the aims on which NYSC was initially designed and implemented is defeated. It is no news that the crisis in different parts of the country has increased the risk of serving in a ‘strange place’. Parents, guardians and the general public are concerned about the security of their wards. The number of corps members that have died as a result of violence, ethnic crisis, lynching, bad environmental conditions, road accidents, armed robbery ,assassination and worst of all ‘community victimization ‘ is alarming. It is a more disheartening situation because the victimization, pains and deaths are avoidable.

Moreover, what is the essence of the program now? Is the program still running on the aims it was first designed and implemented? Are the conditions to which corps members are thrust into considered? Why are corps members still posted to crisis ridden states? When will the program be deemed irrelevant &mundane? What example are the older generations showing youths posted to their communities, when they discriminate and victimize them? What justification does the government have to send youths to red flag states to serve their country? Can the government not see that funding the NYSC program is a waste of resources?Is the exercise more important than the ailing academic institutions that churn out these graduates? When will NYSC be scrapped?

It is important to note that if a program becomes a burden on the people it was designed for, then it should be scrapped. I feel strongly that the prevailing economic, social, political, cultural and even psychological conditions in Nigeria have made that notion considerable. The Federal government should SCRAP NYSC.

On this note, I urge my colleagues-Batch A corps members across the country to take heart, we have 5 months to go. My comrades ‘WE WOULD SOON BE GOOD TO GO’.
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