The Association of Former Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in collaboration with civil society organisations across Nigeria, has urged the Federal Government to prioritise improved funding and comprehensive rehabilitation of NYSC orientation camps before embarking on reforms that could push the Scheme’s annual running cost beyond N1 trillion.

 

The groups, operating under the auspices of the Reform NYSC Campaign (RNC), said the welfare, safety and security of serving corps members must remain at the centre of any attempt to reform or reposition the Scheme.

 

In a statement jointly signed by the Coordinator of the RNC, Comrade Godsown Aigbe, and its Spokesperson, Princess Mariam Idris, the groups said many NYSC orientation camps across the country require urgent intervention to provide corps members with safe and decent facilities.

 

They identified inadequate accommodation, poor water supply, limited healthcare facilities, sanitation challenges and insufficient recreational infrastructure among the problems confronting some camps.

 

The groups consequently called on the Federal Government to undertake a comprehensive assessment of all NYSC orientation camps and introduce a phased rehabilitation programme capable of bringing the facilities up to acceptable national standards.

 

They also demanded increased annual budgetary provisions for the Scheme to enable NYSC management meet its obligations to corps members, particularly in the areas of allowances, insurance, healthcare, transportation, security and general welfare.

 

The RNC maintained that NYSC remains one of Nigeria’s most important national integration institutions, bringing together young Nigerians from different ethnic, religious and geographical backgrounds and deploying them to communities outside their states of origin.

 

According to the groups, strengthening the existing structure and addressing its current shortcomings should take precedence over reforms that could substantially increase the Scheme’s operating expenditure.

 

“The immediate reforms required in the NYSC are clear: government must improve funding and rebuild and modernise the orientation camps. These are the pressing issues that directly affect the welfare, safety and experience of corps members,” the groups said.

 

They warned that reforms that fail to address these fundamental challenges while creating additional layers of expenditure could turn NYSC into an increasingly expensive bureaucracy without necessarily improving its core objectives.

 

The former corps members and their civil society partners further expressed concern that some of the proposed changes being canvassed could multiply the Scheme’s annual running cost to well over N1 trillion.

 

They described such expenditure as difficult to justify amid competing developmental needs facing the country.

 

The groups, however, stressed that their position should not be interpreted as opposition to reform, but as a call for responsible, sustainable and properly prioritised reforms.

 

“Government should first fix what is broken before creating new structures. There is no wisdom in embarking on expensive reforms and jamborees when existing orientation camps require urgent attention and corps members continue to face basic welfare challenges,” the RNC said.

 

They urged the National Assembly to strengthen its oversight of NYSC funding and ensure that appropriations made to the Scheme are effectively implemented.

 

The RNC also called on state governments, corporate organisations and development partners to explore public-private partnerships with NYSC to rehabilitate orientation camps and provide critical infrastructure.

 

The groups reaffirmed their support for the continued existence and strengthening of NYSC, describing it as a vital instrument for promoting national unity, civic responsibility, cultural exchange and peaceful coexistence among Nigerian youths.

 

They urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Federal Government to make corps members’ welfare and the rehabilitation of NYSC infrastructure central to ongoing efforts to reform and reposition the Scheme.

 

The RNC said fixing the Scheme’s basic infrastructure and improving the conditions under which corps members serve would deliver more immediate and measurable benefits than creating expensive new structures.