Absolutely scandalous
By Editorial 22/05/2012 00:00:00
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DG NYSC, Brig. Gen. Nnamdi Okore-Affia The NYSC has no excuse for delaying corps members’ stipends


ON the surface, it is the non-payment of the April monthly allowance for current National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members nationwide. But looked at more closely, it is a fitting metaphor for the preening contempt Nigeria holds her youths, the so-called “leaders of tomorrow.” With this sorry development, the Jonathan Presidency has plumbed ultra-low depth in incompetence, when the talk is public service delivery.

But the distraught corps members need not despair: they are not alone in the lack-of-service- delivery bog. After what seemed like eons in conspiratorial silence, Bolaji Abdullahi, President Goodluck Jonathan’s youth minister, finally said the non-payment was due to a change in payment protocol in the Federal Civil Service, adding that the payment delay was not peculiar to the NYSC alone.

He then announced, rather triumphantly, that he had extracted commitments from the NYSC Secretariat that the corps members would be paid latest by “Friday”. That Friday was May 18 – some 23 clear days after the traditional 25th of the month civil servants receive their pay! As at that day, when this editorial went to bed, there was no concrete report of payment, though it was not clear if the paper works had been concluded.

The Nigerian state would default in paying the old folks, the pensioners, would pay its present workers late and would crown that incompetence with denying NYSC members, youths by law compelled to serve as national ambassadors in locales other than their native ones, the N19, 800 stipends due to them! What service then do agents of the Nigerian state render?

Even then, the NYSC delayed payment is the latest of woes that make one to wonder if this country has youth welfare and security as top priority. Last year, serving NYSC members, despite being deployed to election duties, bore the brunt of election violence. And somewhere in Osun State, a female youth corps member was a victim of alleged rape by a traditional ruler, in a case still in court. Another female corps member, somewhere in the East, was a victim of alleged kidnap by a commercial biker, who had always ferried her on daily shuttles. She is still missing.

So, though these youths are national ambassadors and ought to be national treasure, compelled to serve their fatherland, they are killed, raped and kidnapped, with the state appearing helpless. It could, of course, well be said that these killings, raping and kidnapping are isolated cases, when one considers the number of corps members deployed. Still, given the status of youth corps members as special government representatives, even one isolated death is bad enough.

It is absolutely unfair for parents and guardians to spend so much to train their children and wards in tertiary institutions, only for those youths to be exposed to needless jeopardy by an unthinking government who, when the chips are down, has nothing to offer but meaningless apologies and pious nonsense.

The Federal Government may not pay its workers, though that is hardly salutary. The workers can take care of themselves. But it has absolutely no right to delay the stipends of youths it has literally plucked from the comfort zones of their parents and families.

Even the story about changing payment protocols is not acceptable. Some corps members in Nasarawa State, among them females, said they had abandoned their work because they were just too broke to make the office. That should give a good insight into the conditions of other corps members nationwide. The government should be wary of exposing these youth to needless danger and perhaps inducing them to embrace unorthodox or anti-social ways of eking out a living.

Whatever the challenges, let the NYSC pay its corps members immediately; and let there never be a repeat of this ugly situation. It is absolutely scandalous.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/editorial/47340-absolutely-scandalous.html

Well, long story! Garbage In, Garbage Out! Foolishness In Foooolishness Out! Goodflop In Goodflop Out! Next time, don't elect a president on tribal grounds!

HOW ABOUT THIS!!1



Military medical interns owed 8 months salary

Apr 09

Interns — doctors, pharmacists and others — serving in Military Hospitals across the country, at the weekend, claimed they were yet to receive “a dime” after almost nine months of stewardship.

Some of the affected medical practitioners narrated their ordeal to The Guardian last Friday, saying that they had suffered untold hardship as a result of the failure of military authorities to pay them their stipends despite series of requests and consultations.

They, therefore, urged President Goodluck Jonathan and Minister of Defence, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, to personally intervene in the process to ensure that justice is speedily done.

According to one of the interns, who craved anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue, there had been several unfruitful efforts to get their entitlement, as the authorities gave conflicting information and excuses.

But sources loyal to the Defence Ministry, yesterday, said that the payment was put on hold following a verification exercise that was ordered by the Ministry of Finance, based on the need to ascertain the actual number of interns at the Military hospitals.

Consequently the Ministry of Defence, which used to effect payment of the salaries, was asked to allow the Finance Ministry do so on its behalf through the e-payment option.

The essence, a source said, is to address the issue of ghost workers and cut down on costs. It was also learnt that the two Ministries are synchronising the lists of interns as submitted from the Defence Ministry and would soon begin payment of arrears accruing from the eight-month delay.

Interns are junior doctors or medical personnel usually resident in a hospital and it is customary that, as health professionals, they go through a compulsory one-year internship programme in accredited hospitals across the country.

The accredited military hospitals are under the Ministry of Defence.

- Guardian