Last week, I got some disturbing information as regard to the NYSC mobilisation of prospective corp members and I want everyone of us to be aware of the evil that is about to befall all fresh graduates and students if urgent measures/precautions aint taken.
It is no more news that the number of prospective corp members in all institutions for Batch B have been drastically slashed due to "tight budgetary allocation", I guess we owe this to the present economic recession.
Unizik for example has been slashed from 2314 to 894,hmmm that's jst like one third of the prospective members.Uniabuja not excluded can only mobilize 546 members,this is even less than the total number of graduates in three departments of the institution. My question now is what happens to the backlog? I guess the answer is they have to wait till the next batch and with this numbers, it is certain not all of them will make it to another batch.
It has been proved that 70% of Batch B(formerly batch C) corp members are those that had extra semester or their academic calendar was interrupted and d remaining 30% are fresh graduates from schools whose academic calendar are faster or barely interrupted. This further indicates that fresh graduates waiting for batch A may even triple this recent number. if my calculation is right, some of us might have to wait 2-3yrs before youth service. This would have been ok if without NYSC certificate I can
1. Be eligible to compete in the labour market.
2. Go for my masters degree
But the sad news is without the certificate we can't achieve all this,so all we have to do is 'wait'? Even if it takes years?
We understand the country is going through economic recession but should the lives of we youth also recede because of it? I say a capital NO to that! what happens to those that are close to 3o and hence might be deprived of NYSC programme if the delay should persist. So all those waiting period turns to exercise in futility. smh.
As much as I love to wear that khaki,I wouldn't want to waste precious years of my life at the expense of wearing it. In a country where most of us have used extra years in studying due to ASUU strikes and other internal strikes. In a country where your age really matters in the labour market. In a country where even after NYSC,70% of graduates are unable to get jobs untill after 2yrs or more. In a country where we give more attention and respect to what is written in the paper than what is 'in the head'. In a country where young graduates are being asked to present evidence of 5yrs of working experience before they can be employed.
We all need to rise and stop this evil before it stops us. Government shouldn't gamble with our future if they can't cater for all of us at once. let NYSC be OPTIONAL and stop making obnoxious decisions that are detrimental to our future.
Join me in spreading this message with #makeNYSCoptional #Livesofyouthmatters
We can no longer sit and watch while our future being toiled with. You can also attach your own reasons why you think NYSC should be optional. You may not be concerned but please for the sake of people around you who may be affected, let's all repost this message and #makeNYSCoptional trend till it gets to the right channel. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and God bless you all.