“Youth obey the clarion call. Let us lift our nation high. Under the sun or in the rain. With dedication and selflessness, Nigeria is ours, Nigeria we serve.” This National Youth Service Corps’ (NYSC) anthem still fresh in my memory, 20 years after completing my service to the nation. It is an anthem which every graduate is spiritually and physically committed to in the process of service to the nation.

The NYSC scheme, a once in a lifetime experience which every young graduate yearns for, was established on May 22, 1973 by Decree 24 to promote unity and develop ethnic ties among youths in their various states of the Federation. The thrills, frills and funfair usually associated with the programme, most especially the orientation part of it, make it enjoyable and inspiring for participating graduates from all parts of the country.

While some see it as avenue to explore other people’s culture and tradition outside theirs, others see it as opportunity to recreate, catch fun and make some savings for future use. In fact, the desperation of some young graduates concerning NYSC makes one wonders what is actually in it for them. There have been instances where some generate fake call-up letters while some others falsify their age just to be enlisted for the scheme.

However, away from the glorious and storied past of the scheme, presently the programme is searching for relevance. It has actually deviated from the original purpose it was meant to serve. It is now almost of little or no relevance to the economic aspirations of the country. Of late, the interests of corps members are not adequately protected, as it was in the past. Many public/private businesses enterprises that used to accept services of corps members have either closed business or downsized due to insecurity and general state of the nation’s economy.

Whether the large turnout of fresh graduates are overwhelming or not, facilities for orientation are sometimes inadequate for the population this scheme caters for each year. Political and religious insecurity have equally exposed many corps members to needless death.

To say the scheme needs an overhaul or speedy review is stating the obvious. Like most of our national projects, the scheme is fast declining in value and usefulness. It is no longer shocking that the scheme is broke with funds barely sufficient to cater for the young graduates presented for national youth service. Food/structural facilities, essential for the up keep of corps members are grossly deficient in some orientation camps.

Corps members now struggle with the problem of rejection. In desperate attempt to secure the few available ‘juicy’ placements, many now use personal influence such as letters from well connected ‘powerful’ individuals to secure favourable postings. It is, of course, sad to note that the crops of corps members that are to reconstruct and rebuild the nation are idle with unutilised potentials.

So bad is the situation now that some people are calling for outright scrapping of the scheme, arguing that it has outlived its purpose and outgrown its usefulness. Must we then throw away the baby with the bathe water?

With 923,768 square kilometers of land mass and over 80 per cent as arable land out of less than 40 per cent is cultivated, tropical climate, lots of rainfall and aquatic splendor, nothing stops Nigeria from being the food basket of the entire African continent, if serious attention is given to agriculture. In the years of regional government, Nigeria did not only feed herself from her rich and vast agricultural interests, but also generated employment as well as earned enough foreign exchange for development of each region. Then, revenue from agriculture helped the federating units to develop out their own pace without depending on the centre for any bail out.

The discovery of oil, however, has ridiculously turned things upside down for us as the federating units now wholly depend on the centre for bail-outs and hand-outs. Unsurprisingly, young graduates have equally developed job-seeking mentality. The youth that are supposed to drive agriculture with technology and renewed vigour would rather go job hunting for years, even when it is obvious that the jobs aren’t just there.

United Nations statistics estimates Nigeria’s population for 2015 to be 178,841,235 with a growth rate of 1.94 per cent, making the population 182, 307,178 by 2016, all things being equal. Yet, this population, does not reflect on the nation’s agricultural production. We import $4 billion worth of rice yearly to supplement domestic shortfall, despite the suitability of our land for local rice production. Nigeria tops the list of importing nations, growing other nations’ economics at the detriment of hers.

With an annual bill of N1.3 trillion, you may wonder where the money spent on importation of food comes from, in view of agricultural potentials of the nation. Of course, proceeds from crude oil settle the bill.

Now that the price of crude oil has dropped in the international market coupled with the instability in the Niger Delta, there is a dire need to look inwards and diversify our economy. The time is the time to move away from a mono-economy. It is high time the government of Nigeria looked at the strength the nation has in her pool of labour, most especially in the manpower being released every year into the National Youth Service Scheme.

Each state of the federation has a comparative advantage in specific areas of agriculture. The capacity of the various states to boost food production can be enhanced by the National Youth Service scheme with adequate structure and remuneration for corps members. The power, vigour, dynamism and adventurism of youth, the strength of the youth could be directed towards boosting the agriculture sector to address the twin issues of food security and unemployment.

Hence, the clarion call today is on our nation to rekindle youth’s interest in agriculture. It is a call for making the National Youth Service scheme very relevant by transforming it into a scheme that enhances food security in the country, thus supporting the growth of the national economy. It is a worthy call.

• Odumade is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.