The national youth service corps was introduced by the Yakubu Gowon regime in 1978 after the nigerian civil war.The aim of its establishment was to further promote peace and unity amongst its citenzery after the bloody war.
The regime was applauded by nigerians and foreigners alike for taking the initiative.But,i dare say,the programme has outlived its relevance and should therefore be scrapped.WHY? The nigerian factor is gradually rearing its ugly head in this scheme and it is now a man-know-man situation.Imagine a student graduating from the University of Ibadan and posted to oyo state,imagine a randy corper impregnating an ss2 student in taraba state,imagine three young corpers murdered in a religious crisis in jos,imagine corpers wasting away in death traps called in nigeria.These and many more is why the federal government should put a stop to this scheme.
Also,the number of private universities in every nook and cranny of nigeria is putting the scheme under immense presssure as this means more students will be introduced into the scheme,even when facilities at the various camps are overstrecthed.The conditions of living in these camps is nothing to write home about because of the lack of maintenance culture in this country.
Even the stipends accrued to the corpers are sometimes delayed,and in some cases not payed,not to talk of what the corpers go through in the hands of some organisations they are posted to.Recently,the national association of monotechnic students staged a near-violent protest at the headquarters of NYSC in abuja,requesting for them to be part of the scheme,because they are denied jobs if they do not present their NYSC certificates,they threathened to go violent if theit demands are not met.
One hopes the government listens to the voice of reason and scrap this agonising scheme graduating students go thriugh after four,five and six years they spend in their various higher institutions.
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