NYSC and suicidal proposition

“To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind—-this is a choice which is possible for all of us and surely it is good heaven to sail for”.

Henry Van Dyke.

Ian Stewart, a professor of Mathematics at the University of Warmack, England, is the author of the concept of modern mathematics; Does God play Dice, flatter land, from here to infinity and nature’s numbers.

He once wrote on number symbolism, cultural association, including religious, philosophic and aesthetic with various numbers.

Professor Stewart wrote that: Humanity has had a love-hate relationship with numbers from the earliest times. Bones dating from perhaps 30,000 years ago show scratch marks that possibly represent the phases of the Moon.

The ancient Babylonians observed the movements of the planets, recorded them as numbers and used them to predict eclipses and other astronomical phenomena. The priesthood of ancient Egypt used numbers to predict the flooding of the Nile. Pythagoreanism, a cult of ancient Greece, believed that numbers were the basis of the entire universe, which ran on numerical harmony. The Pythagoreans’ ideas were a mixture of prescience (the numerical features of musical sounds) and mysticism (3 is male, 4 is female, and 10 is the most perfect number). Numbers were associated with names for magical purposes: the biblical “number of the beast.”

Speaking about numbers and their symbolism brings us to the reality that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) came into being on May 22, 1973, thus making it 48 years since it was established. As it is generally said that a fool at 40 is a fool forever,” the NYSC however is one institution that has never suffered foolery but rather is like that typical old wine whose taste is the sweetest.

An irony however is that in Nigeria with a lot of dysfunctional institutions messed up by those put in charge of them over time, the NYSC has gone through a lot of attacks from a variety of adversaries for different reasons. One such attack exploded exactly on the day that the NYSC turned 48 when it was leaked by the media that someone in the Federal House of Representatives had hatched the plots to destroy NYSC and bring its existence to an unceremonious end.

Immediately this sad piece of information became notorious, a wide variety of Nigerians from all walks of life, kicked against any contemplation to destroy NYSC by any means. One of such groups that immediately rejected the proposal and described it as a National suicidal proposition is the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA). In its reaction, it stated that:

“President Muhammadu Buhari should jealously guide against any attempt from whatever quarters to tinker negatively with the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme. As far as most Civil Rights practitioners in Abuja are concerned, this government has made remarkable milestones in the youth sector. The consistent strides made by President Buhari to sustain the only legacy that reminds us of our national unity which is the NYSC, have become a beacon of hope for generations yet unborn. On no account should any negative force be permitted to succeed in scuttling the NYSC. What we expect is for all hands to be on deck to consolidate on the gains made by NYSC and to strengthen its operational capacity.”

HURIWA and its continental arm- Association of African Writers on Human and Peoples Rights (AFRIRIGHTS) have appealed to speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and Senate President Ahmed Lawan to throw away the reported proposal through a constitutional alteration bill to abolish the NYSC scheme as moved by a member of parliament.
 
The House of Representatives is said to be considering discontinuation of the National Youth Service Corps scheme. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Alteration Bill, 2020, which is seeking to repeal the NYSC Act, is billed for the second reading.

The sponsor, Mr. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, in the explanatory memorandum of the proposal, listed the various reasons why the NYSC should be scrapped.

It read in part, “This bill seeks to repeal Section 315(5)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended) on the following grounds:

“Incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism and ethnic violence; incessant kidnapping of innocent corps members across the country;
“Public and private agencies/departments are no longer recruiting able and qualified Nigerian youths, thus relying heavily on the availability of corps members who are not being well remunerated and get discarded with impunity at the end of their service year without any hope of being gainfully employed;

“Due to insecurity across the country, the National Youth Service Corps management now gives considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thus defeating one of the objectives of setting up the service corps, i.e. developing common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.”

The military regime of General Yakubu Gowon had established the NYSC under Decree No. 24 of 1973 as a way of reconciling and reintegrating Nigerians after the civil war between July 6, 1967, and January 15, 1970.
 
However, HURIWA has threatened mass action should this negative piece of legislation be carried beyond its current status.

“We are very hopeful that both speakers of parliament and the Senate President are proud products of the Noble NYSC scheme and should ensure that no stone is left unturned to stop forthwith the retrogressive March to infamy which is what the proposal to end the NYSC Scheme represents. The tepid excuse of Insecurity as a reason for contemplating such a National suicidal move does not hold water.”

The Rights group described the NYSC scheme as the most viable bridge to national unity even as the group said these trying times of divisions, calls for separation of the country by mostly younger citizens is even the best time to consolidate on the gains made by NYSC. It is tragic for any rational being to even contemplate scrapping the only institution that unifies the youths of all ethnicities.

“Can we once more remind the National Assembly that NYSC is meeting the legal obligations for which it was set up. Indeed NYSC is one institution that is helping to douse tension and check insecurity because it is such a watershed platform that keeps thousands of youths busy all year round.
 
The objectives of the National Youth Service Corps Scheme are clearly spelt out in Decree No.51 of 16th June 1993 as follows:
 
“To inculcate discipline in Nigerian youths by instilling in them a tradition of industry at work, and of patriotic and loyal service to Nigeria in any situation they may find themselves; To raise the moral tone of the Nigerian youths by giving them the opportunity to learn about higher ideals of national achievement, social and cultural improvement; To develop in the Nigerian youths the attitudes of mind, acquired through shared experience and suitable training, which will make them more amenable to mobilisation in the national interest; To enable Nigerian youths acquire the spirit of self reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self employment; To contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy; To develop common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration; To remove prejudices, eliminate ignorance and confirm at first hand the many similarities among Nigerians of all ethnic groups ; To develop a sense of corporate existence and common destiny of the people of Nigeria; The equitable distribution of members of the service corps and the effective utilisation of their skills in area of national needs ; That as far as possible, youths are assigned to jobs in states other than their states of origin; That such group of youths assigned to work together is as representative of Nigeria as far as possible ; That the Nigerian youths are exposed to the modes of living of the people in different parts of Nigeria; That the Nigerian youths are encouraged to eschew religious intolerance by accommodating religious differences; That members of the service corps are encouraged to seek at the end of their one year national service, career employment all over Nigeria, thus promoting the free movement of labour; That employers are induced partly through their experience with members of the service corps to employ more readily and on a permanent basis, qualified Nigerians, irrespective of their states of origin”.

Luckily, the appointment of Brig Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, PhD, as the 18th Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in May 2019, couldn’t have come at a better time. He mounted the saddle when the scheme had become despondent with existential threats. His timely arrival has rejuvenated and repositioned the scheme and rekindled public interest in its relevance as originally conceived.

Until recently, there had been calls for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme. The arguments of the proponents center on the position that the scheme had outlived its usefulness.

The call for the scrapping of the NYSC reached a crescendo at a point, forcing the Federal Government to publicly announce, through the then Minister of Youth Development and Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalong, that it would not be swayed by agitations from some quarters to scrap the NYSC scheme.

The NYSC was established as a response to the disunity faced by the country following the Nigeria-Biafra Civil war. The purpose of the scheme is primarily to inculcate in Nigerian youths the spirit of selfless service to the community, and to emphasise the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians, irrespective of cultural or social background. Necessarily therefore the benefits and objectives are to enable Nigerian youths to acquire the spirit of self-reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self-employment; to contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy and to develop common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration. All these noble values were well eroded by the time Brig-Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim took over.

Though the Federal Government had stated that it would not scrap the scheme then, without addressing the reasons that prompted and even justified the calls, the agitations against the scheme would have continued. Part of the measures taken by the Federal Government to revamp the scheme and restore public confidence was appointing Brig-Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim to head it and carry out comprehensive reforms. Within two years, the NYSC scheme has reemerged well rebranded after the rediscovery with the far-reaching reforms introduced by the intellectual soldier, administrator and reformer.

Brig Gen Ibrahim is a typical modern-day chief executive who knows how to keep abreast with changing times and often engage in what behavioural psychologists call Organizational Redesign, which was what the NYSC urgently needed before his assumption of office. Organizational redesign involves the integration of structure, processes, and people to support the implementation of strategy and therefore goes beyond the traditional tinkering with “lines and boxes.”

Brig Gen Ibrahim knows that today when organizational redesign of a place matches its strategic intentions, everyone will be primed to execute and deliver them. He, therefore, focused on the workability of the NYSC’s structure, processes, and securing the buy-in of the workers and corps members in order to make his deep reforms possible.

The scheme was initiated to foster unity among Nigerians and to promote service to the nation. The conception and founding of the corps were essentially for unity. In his inaugural address as the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy spoke his famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” This use of chiasmus can be seen even as a call to action for the citizens to do what is right for the greater good of America and Americans. The Gowon regime smarting from a debilitating civil war was determined to rouse Nigerian youths to the urgent task of nation-building and national unity.

Despite its nobility, after existing for more than 40 years, some stakeholders began to call for the scrapping of the scheme due to its dwindling performance. Brig-Gen Shuaibu however has been able to prove that the nation cannot dismiss the gains of the NYSC scheme in integrating Nigerians and stands firmly, through his landmark star achievements, for the sustenance of the scheme to continue in its capacity-building of Nigeria citizens and as an indispensable aspect of integrating the nation’s over 250 ethnic groups and cultures.

To achieve the total turnaround of the scheme in such record time, this ‘philosopher king’ and soldier promptly came up with a five-point policy thrust, namely:
·        Sustain effective utilisation of the potentials of Corps Members for optimal benefit;
·        Strengthen existing collaborations with critical stakeholders;
·        Improve on the welfare and security of Corps Members and staff;
·        Pursue a technologically driven organisation to deepen effective service delivery;
·        Reinvigorate the NYSC Ventures and Skills Acquisition & Entrepreneurship Department (SAED in line with the NYSC Act for greater impact.

In his dogged pursuit of sustain effective utilisation of the potentials of corps members for optimal benefit; and strengthen existing collaborations with critical stakeholders, corps members are fully deployed to help the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for credible elections. The members of the scheme are reoriented to remain impartial, intellectually equipped to consolidate and extend the Nigerian democratic frontiers, which they have done credibly well since 2011.

Brig Gen Ibrahim has ensured that corps members remain purveyor belt for development, behavioral change and nation-building and found in the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria where they are serving the nation in all the sectors of the economy. They drive the economy through their unquantifiable contributions to small and medium scale enterprises.

He has also ensured that corps members remain the major force in manpower supply in the education sector. Apart from election duties, the corps members help in the administration of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam, where they see to the successful conducts of examinations. They have also augmented the dwindling number of teachers nationwide where the profession is seen as not lucrative. This is aside from the health sector, where consultants are being harvested by foreign countries where they are paid heavily, corps members are standing in the gap.

In a sense, the scheme has ensured a reduction in unemployment. While in service, the government pays corps members a paltry sum of N33,000 monthly as a stipend. This is aside from the money being paid to some by the organisation they work for. Though this money is small in comparison to the service they are expected to render as graduates, it goes a long way to keep youths from societal vices by keeping them busy hence, the government spends less on security unlike when such doesn’t exist, the government will have to spend three times the money they are spending now on NYSC to combat crime. As the Nigerian population is growing geometrically, the NYSC smothers the harm that usually befalls a population that’s not planned for by giving the Nigerian youths a respite and nurse them to discover themselves on time before they could think of going criminal.

Brig Gen Ibrahim has ensured that corps members continue to receive the exposure as envisaged by the scheme. He ensures that corps members are posted to the states of the federation other than their own states of origin and exposed to the diversities and cultural differences abound in the country in the promotion of unity and respect for other ethnic groups and cultures.

Other achievements of this exceptional leader as the Director-General of the NYSC are: the production of an NYSC movie titled “A Call to Service” currently in its post-production. Apart from its entertainment value, the movie is being packaged as an enabler of a better understanding and healthy perception of the scheme by the general public.

The Director-General has also established the NYSC National Cultural Troupe to provide an avenue for corps members to hone their talents in drama and cultural dance, with the potential of shoring up the revenue base of the scheme through its activities when commercialized. This will add to the over N280, 000,000.00, which the scheme has unprecedentedly paid into the national coffers under him as internally generated revenue for the first time in the annals of its history.

Corruption, which has been ravaging the nation’s public service, has also engaged the attention of the NYSC Director-General. His concern for a corrupt-free Nigeria prompted him to organise a National Anti-Corruption Walk as the NYSC’s contributions to the fight against corruption. The programme involved thousands of corps members in the nationwide rally/road walk, which the scheme organised in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and carried out on 14th February 2020. The Director-General personally joined the corps members and officials in Kano State Secretariat for the rally, which was tagged “Nigerian Youths March Against Corruption.” 

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) and was a federal commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.