Oakton, Va. – Americans rarely look to Africa for inspiration or example, but given President Obama's efforts to ramp up civil service at home, a closer look at Nigeria's mandatory National Youth Service Corps is instructive. It points to an undeniable record of accomplishment in West Africa on one largely unreported front.

Conceived in 1973, in the aftermath of Nigeria's civil war that killed more than 1 million people, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was created by General Yakubu Gowon to bind the nation's deep wounds and forge more than 250 tribes into one nation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090619/cm_csm/yrodgersweb19

What do you think?

QLee:

Oakton, Va. – Americans rarely look to Africa for inspiration or example, but given President Obama's efforts to ramp up civil service at home, a closer look at Nigeria's mandatory National Youth Service Corps is instructive. It points to an undeniable record of accomplishment in West Africa on one largely unreported front.

Conceived in 1973, in the aftermath of [b]Nigeria's civil war that killed more than 1 million peopl[/b]e, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was created by General Yakubu Gowon to bind the nation's deep wounds and forge more than 250 tribes into one nation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090619/cm_csm/yrodgersweb19

What do you think?

In what way has the NYSC been able to solve the issue of tribalism and ethnic prejudice?

Another joke

I didn't know about this part of the article,

The year-long service stint often leads to marriages, many of them intertribal. If young Nigerians meet and marry during this period, the Abuja government reportedly pays them a $600-plus bonus. That's in the same ballpark as a year's earnings for the average Nigerian.

Is there any Nairalander who did this and got paid??

Funny Nation, Clown People

methinks this is the best legacy any previous Nigerian president has ever left.

beystwin:

methinks this is the best legacy any previous Nigerian president has ever left.

I completely agree with you, even though a lot of people have not stop to think about it seriously. They spend too much time on the negatives


NYSC conceptually and to some extent in practice is THE BEST thing that has happen for the UNITY of Nigeria.

We need inter tribal understanding, marriages and organizations. A simple raw poll on nairaland will tell you that we still have big and serious Tribal lack of trust for different reasons, some true and some not true.

Whenever you can get people of different Tribes and languages together and open up dialogue, inter marry etc, you are likely to have better understanding and mutual respect.

NYSC  have much challenges operationally BUT in terms of it as MODEL, it is like a BIG BRAND NAME, and  it is very succesful especially when young youth meet each other and become friends and even marry, they realised that we are just dividing ourselves out of the fear of the unknown, and bad history between good and great people of this country.

young people have lost their lives because they were serving their country.

NYSC is just a useless program and it is my opinon that it should be scrapped

tymoti:

young people have lost their lives because they were serving their country.

NYSC is just a useless program and it is my opinon that it should be scrapped

Can you elaborate on the bold part?