National Daily

35 years of nation building through selfless service

THE National Youth Service Corps is probably the only institution in Nigeria whose critics openly accept the fact that it has made outstanding achievements, its shortcomings notwithstanding. It is the only institution that has genuinely impacted every clan, every hamlet and every village in Nigeria's 774 local government areas. It is undeniably the only federal presence that has been generously distributed across every nook and cranny of this nation. And to a great extent, it is till date the only identifiable government presence some parts of this country can sincerely attest to. To that effect, one can boldly say that its contribution to nation building is second to none. It all started in May 1973 when the then Head of State General Yakubu Gowon through Decree 24 of May 22 1973 established the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with the primary aim of instilling in the next generation the love for service to fatherland while strengthening the bonds that hold the country together as a nation. Though the Decree 24 was repealed and replaced with ACT 51 of June 16, 1993, the mission and vision of the scheme has remained unfazed. Set up to cement the “No Victor No Vanquished” post civil war policy, the NYSC has achieved beyond its original mission.

In the Beginning
The NYSC scheme, at its inception on May 22, 1973, took off with 2,364 corps members who were drawn from the existing six universities in the country namely: the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Ibadan; University of Ife; University of Lagos and University of Benin.
The take off of the scheme became possible through the doggedness and resilience of the then military regime to ward off stiff opposition mounted by undergraduates of Nigerian universities who were being targeted as the ultimate beneficiaries.

Thirty-five years on, the scheme has transformed into a vehicle that freighted about 1.5million graduates to heights of enviable endeavour. Thanks to the vision and ingenuity of General Gowon, who initiated it as an outlet for integration and national unity. Little wonder, when the idea to establish a befitting Corporate Head Office for the scheme in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory was finally practicalised, the choice for an acceptable name fell on no one else, but the founding-father himself.

When the idea of such a scheme was initially muted by General Gowon, it was greeted with widespread criticism and condemnation from various quarters, including the student communities across the country. This was in spite of the fact that the need for such a scheme was once orchestrated by a section of student leaders in the universities as a worthy avenue for mobilising the nation's youths into more purposeful national service.

Having survived in the past 35 years, the scheme has since recorded giant strides in various aspects of its operations. Similarly, the scheme has also contributed tremendously to the nation's socio-economic development efforts. For instance, the NYSC, as a scheme has witnessed in terms of structure and modus operandi amidst some daunting challenges.

Some of these include the inclusion of foreign trained graduates; inclusion and exclusion of National Certificate in Education (NCE) graduates; imposition of age limit; creation of zonal offices, as a way of decentralising administration to take corps services to the grassroots, among others.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the scheme has been repositioned significantly towards achieving the major objectives for which it was established.

To a large extent, the scheme has fostered national integration and unity through its policy of mobilising Nigerian youths from different parts of the country to render patriotic and selfless service to various communities in states other than theirs.

At present, the NYSC has become a household name in every family in the country. There is hardly any family that does not have someone who has passed through the scheme or currently serving.
Apart from the tremendous contributions to various sectors of the economy notably in education, healthcare delivery, infrastructural development, agriculture and other social services, the scheme has gone further to deepen collaboration with some government agencies and organisations.

This idea is to provide for the corps members veritable opportunity to impact more positively on the rural populace and to achieve self-reliance, empowerment and the value re-orientation.

But these giant strides recorded over time notwithstanding, the scheme, just like any other organisation, has had lots of challenges to contend with, but some of which are being addressed with changes in the operational strategies and modalities for policy implementation.

The scheme has maintained a high level of professionalism, dedication and a willingness to serve in Nigeria youths that there is a space for them to be mentioned in any form of activities done towards nation building till date.
Starting with the sole aim of inculcating a sense of patriotism to the young graduates by taking them to states other than their state of origins, thus broadening their horizon, eliminating ignorance by breaking the myths fueled by prejudice and instilled in them a sense of brotherhood that culminated into an integration that has kept the nation together within the confines of the precepts by which the programme was established.

One of the phases of the scheme that has contributed immensely towards nation building is the Community Development Services (CDS) rendered by corps members all over the federation.

Being among the few agencies that can confidently boast of having personnel all over the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, it's the ubiquitous nature of the corps members have gone a long way to readily make it possible for the execution of many official activities like census, elections, health care provision, education, immunization and advocacy achieved effortlessly with the zeal in the minds of the corps members to provide nothing but excellence in their respective endeavours.

Through the CDS programme many communities that had used to pass through an unpleasant experience in their bid to get drinking water now have bore holes, many pupils and students that hitherto used to receive lessons under the trees and unroofed classrooms now sit on seats in well furnished classrooms while many school libraries have been upgraded to a standard beyond the wildest dreams of the average student who cannot afford textbooks for there chosen subjects. Some communities got so lucky to have had a cottage medical clinic commissioned while many others have who may have died of ignorance of some of the deadly diseases now have the knowledge required to check some of the lethal diseases from affecting them.

The National Youth Service Corps is in collaboration with some international, national, regional and local agencies in many areas of human and societal developmental needs towards meeting the national and global challenges. The list of the special projects and programmes is inexhaustible, the collaborative efforts have generated series of activities, training and programmes with various agencies as under-listed.

The Journey So Far
The NYSC is worth celebrating because for the first time in its 35 years, someone who pledged to serve his father land under the rain and under the sun is today the President and Commander-in-Chief of this country, moreso, the Vice President and the Director General of the NYSC are all alumna of the Corps. Undeniable is the fact that the NYSC has had tremendous impact on all aspects of our national life. Undeniable still is the fact that it has built more bridges across the multiple divides that exist in this country more than any other scheme; be it government or non government.

To hundreds of thousands of the nation's youths, the service year has served as a critical eye opener to the vastness, richness and beauty of the Nigerian nation.

In the rural communities, corps members have served as important catalysts of socio-economic development. Their impact is felt in the area of education thereby assisting to provide the necessary teaching staff and virtually sustaining the sector at the post- primary level. Many rural communities depend on the services of these young corps medical personnel like doctors, pharmacists, nurses etc for their healthcare needs.

The same could be said in the area of agriculture with its demonstration farms across the country and introduction of farmers to more modern farming techniques and improved seedlings.

Other areas include contributions to rural infrastructural development on such projects as roads, bridges, classrooms culverts, health centres, bus-stops as well as advocacy campaigns on sanitation, road safety, just to mention a few.

In response to the near epidemic status of the HIV/AIDS incidences in the country, the NYSC in collaboration with UNICEF and NACA is actively involved in a wide spread enlightenment campaign and advocacy as part of government effort to combat the disease.

The scheme's collaboration with these organisations has been an avenue to create awareness about the dreaded disease to the students in the secondary schools who serve as Peer Educators in their various communities.
Despite the challenges being faced by these corps Peer Educator's Trainers, has made remarkable impact in the rural areas, as more people are now more aware of the HIV/AIDS scourge and its preventive measures.
The scheme could be described as one enduring valuable foundation stone laid for a more united and progressive Nigerian nation.

It also offers the young Nigerian graduates of diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds the opportunity to interact with one another thereby imbibing the spirit of tolerance, good neighbourliness and oneness.
Like every other worthy ventures, the NYSC scheme is presently confronted with myriad of problems ranging from the upsurge in corps population, to the issue of funding, rejection to post service unemployment, poor facilities and infrastructural development as well as challenges of fake corps members occasioned by activities of unscrupulous officials of some of our institutions.

The managers of the NYSC scheme have taken time to address the problems through regular meetings with stakeholders and governments.

These regular contacts have yielded good results as seen in the number of ultra modern orientation camps being developed by some state governments and renovation of old camps. States like Osun, Katsina, Edo, Kano, Abia, Nasarawa, Rivers, and FCT are in this category. It is expected that all the remaining states would soon take a cue by coming out with similar modern orientation camps.

The NYSC management has also regularly met with scheduled officers from corps producing institutions to address the problem of fake corps members who over populate the Scheme. This has equally yielded positive results to the extent that the NYSC can now boast of reducing the number of fake corps member registering during the orientation course.

State governments are also positively disposed to the scheme by providing assistance to the scheme in form of logistics, vehicles for effective corps inspection, accommodation for state coordinators as well as office accommodation and corps members' lodges down to the local government level.

It is note worthy that in spite of all the challenges the scheme has faced over the years, a lot of achievements have been recorded ranging from fostering the much needed national unity and integrity to manpower development, free flow of skilled labour, healthcare delivery, agriculture, education etc.

Another area of challenge is the issue of rejection of corps members. The main essence of primary assignment is to provide the corps member with on the job training and experience. This also affords the corps members the singular opportunity of experimenting with ideas and translating such ideas into concrete achievements for national development. It is disappointing to see that some employers do no want the services of these young Nigerian graduates thereby leaving them to roam around the streets and in some other offices, corps members are left without any challenging schedules.

With its cultural festival, the NYSC recognized the potentials in the universally established roles of dance and drama as medium of entertainment, information and education which has helped the corps members to imbibe the culture of fair play and healthy competition as well as discover the abundant talents and leadership skills within them.
The NYSC also knows the importance of sports in the enhancement of the total development of the individual to be physically and mentally fit as well as a veritable creation of appropriate atmosphere for understanding among these youths. This, it has achieved through its sports festival.

The scheme has continued to strengthen its collaborations with many national and international agencies and organizations like UNICEF, NACA, SHF (Society for Family Health), NIM, INEC, CBN et cetera. The most recent collaborations are: NYSC/MDG Advocacy Programme where corps members are deployed nationwide to sensitize and create national awareness on MDG and NEEDS especially in rural area, and,
NYSC/ICPC Integrity Outreach Programme whereby corps members trained as vanguards of national anti corruption and integrity outreach meant to highlight the vice of corruption and virtues of integrity for sustainable development of the Nigerian nation.

Viewed from the successes recorded by the scheme, there are growing interest from other countries in establishing a scheme similar to what obtains in the Nigerian youth service. This is evident in the many enquiries from many countries.

Without doubt, the NYSC is one of the government Institutions that have stood the test of time.
This is because, after its 35 years of existence, the NYSC scheme has indeed promoted national unity and integration, which would continuously be cemented as the years rolled by.

International Cooperation
Being the first of its kind in the world, the scheme has attracted not only a lot of goodwill from international organisations but has collaborated with world-class institutions in several ways. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) based at the Colorado State University, USA has been part of the training of NYSC staff in the area of participatory process for Sustainable Development. This has gone a long way in impacting corps members with necessary skills for national development.

The John Hopkins University JHU/CCP Nigeria supported by USAID also engaged in the training of NYSC staff to acquaint them with skills in addressing issues on Good Governance and Reproductive Health.
Ea-Net Africa a non-profit, non-governmental organization on restoration of ecological balance has also engaged corps members as Ecological Vanguards.

The NYSC has partnered with Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) in the area of Renewable Rural Energy Project, which assists in training of a select group of corps members in the construction of renewable energy device such as bio-gas digesters, photo voltaic energy device, less wood stove et cetera
The United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has collaboration with the NYSC in the areas of Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support project using corps members as Peer Educators in secondary schools.

Also, Global HIV/AIDS Initiative Nigeria supported by the USAID is part this initiative by providing counselling, testing and Anti-Retroviral Drugs.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has used corps as independent monitors during poliomyelitis immunization in the country. They also participate in public enlightenment campaigns on immunization against deadly diseases like polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis as well as in the control of malaria, diarrhoea, et cetera.