NYSC Scheme: Review or waste, which side to go?

When the federal military government under the guidance of Gen Yakubu Gowon (RTD) established the post-civil war of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1973, many Nigerians praised the plan.

The compulsory post-teriatory regime was part of the efforts to reconstruct, reconcile and reconstruct the country after the Nigerian civil war.

Today, in particular 52 years later, the program has been subjected to a serious control.

From the goal of the members of the body

For example, a potential member of the body named Michael has just been mobilized in the Batch A (Stream 1) of 2025 to participate in the National Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC) after graduating at the end of 2024.

For him, the prospect of serving as a member of the body is fascinating and worried at the same time.

He said: “I was sent to a state in the central-northern region and I can’t wait to recover in the orientation field.

“However, I don’t know what to expect with the current security challenges everywhere in the country; I hope my post is in the city center, not a remote village,” he said.

Iyabo, on the other hand, made its mandatory service of the body of young people a few years ago and was published by Lagos to a state in the southern region of the country.

He said: “The NYSC was as if I had lost a year of my life because I was already an entrepreneur since my years of graduation.

“Leaving my business for a year to go and return to unemployment did not work for me. If graduates were offered the opportunity not to serve but that the certificates were assigned after the field, people like me would have taken this option,” he said.

Therefore, Michael and Iyabo are on the parallel sides of a growing call for the revision of the NYSC program.

The opinion of a parent

A parent, Mr. Kazeem Salami, observed that the NYSC scheme had surpassed its purpose since 2011.

He said: “Post-electoral violence in some states that led to the death of a dozen NYSC members led to the fore the need to review the regime.

“I had to think about it hard and a lot when my son was mobilized the following year. In the end, I decided that his participation depended on where he had been sent,” he said.

Revision in line with current realities

The general insecurity and the safety of body members are not the only reasons why some stakeholders ask for a review or demolition of the NYSC system.

Some are opinions according to which the seven -point objectives of the scheme, as stated in decree no. 51 revised starting from 16 June 1993 were not reached.

The seven -point objectives are promoting national unit and integration, inculcating discipline and patriotism, develop self -sufficiency, contribute to national development, remove prejudices and ignorance, guarantee an equitable distribution and a correct use of skills and the development of a sense of corporate existence.

The NYSC has mainly been established to encourage unity between the various ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria because the participants serve in states and regions other than theirs. This aims to encourage the understanding, growth and tolerance of different cultures throughout the nation, in particular to educate them on traditional customs and practices in the communities in which they serve.

“Can we honestly say that we were able to achieve the objectives? When the governors begin to evacuate their natives from other states, did not question the minds of the Nigerians about the continuous validity of the regime?” He asked for an analyst.

However, other interested parties believe that the demolition of the scheme would be equivalent to throwing the child with the bathroom water.

According to them, as a model for national integration and a platform for value orientation, the NYSC scheme should be reorganized to cope with the 21st century challenges rather than being demolished.

They therefore requested a new scheme that should be adequately financed and divided into under-corps in which the energy and intellect of the Nigerian young people are used to provide for the critical sectors of the economy.

Miss Sarah Adejobi, supporter of youth Empowerment, states that a way to make the NYSC scheme practicable is to redefine her attention from post -war national integration to entrepreneurship for national development.

“The members of the body are some of the largest pools of human resources available in the most remote parts of the country; if we make an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Swot), this is a great strength.

“Therefore, I supported a system according to which they are divided into the body of engineering, agricultural body, medical body and educational body.” “

He said that the engineering body would be designed to help in building roads, maintenance and other engineering works in rural areas.

Adejobi added that the agricultural body would be designed in line with national food safety strategies with body members who teach modern agricultural techniques to rural farmers.

“The medical body should include members of Dr. Corps and other medical professionals motivated to provide medical assistance to the inhabitants of rural areas.

“In the same way, the body of education will provide qualified, arranged and motivated teachers in rural areas.

“This is the best way to use body members and maintain continuity, providing them with job opportunities,” he said.

He said that if administered in the spirit that reflected the changing world, the NYSC scheme would have highlighted the best in young people and infused them the virtues of hard work, diligence, company, patriotism and independence.

Interestingly, the debate on NYSC modeling has been in circulation for some time.

EX-MINISTER’s View

In 2012, the then Minister of Development of Youth, Bolaji Abdullahi said that a new agenda was adopted for the regime.

The former minister spoke of members of the body did not receive preferential places in the oil and gas sector or profitable factories in the so -called large states in which their services were underutilized.

He also said that body members would have been drawn up in rural areas for cultural diversity and internalize the challenges of cooperation and national integration to strengthen the credibility and relevance of the program.

The critics, who claim that the reforms were not of large -reaching, say that the rich and influential people in politics and the economy had basted the scheme by influencing the publication of their children and departments.

They also mentioned insecurity, financial unsustainability and bad living conditions such as some of the factors that play against the implementation of significant reforms.

The interested parties, including a member of the House of Representatives, Hon Philip Agbese are therefore making a strong case for a holistic revision of the NYSC regime and his leadership.

The suggestion that the NYSC must be made optional to choose people to choose whether to participate in the program or not – is a strong element of what is called.

In any case, the NYSC scheme has fulfilled its basic mandate from creation; Therefore, any call to see him is not abnormal because similar agencies established together with the scheme have undergone a constant revision in line with realities on the ground. The demolition, however, should not be an option for its consequences.