By Samad Orijeminiyi III
My Dear Brother Ayo Olawande Wisdom
Honourable Minister of State for Youths
I don’t know if you have observed that Corps members no longer serve Nigeria with sense of pride and dignity. Apart from the fact that many of them are paranoid about what becomes their lot after the one year compulsory service, corpers in some parts of the country can no longer put on their kits because of fear that they may be attacked or kidnapped. Some years back, if you put on your kit while travelling, the driver would put you in the front seat so as to be able to appeal to the conscience of security agencies on the highways. Who will try that for interstate travels today? Your guess is as good as mine
Secondly, a sizeable number of state governments have resorted to permanently using corps members as tutors, hence, they do not recruit teachers for their schools. For instance, where I served in Ekiti State after my relocation from Katsina in year 2013, corps members at a time numbered 69 in the school. And that was a time when the scheme was only running batches A, B and C. There were no Batch “A” stream I and Stream II as we have today, which suggests that more youths are being mobilized months after months for national service. Perhaps the school will be recording up 100 corps members now and have no reason to request for employment of qualified teachers. My friend, Prince Tunde Atoyebi was our Liaison Officer in the PPA and he can bear me witness.
Meanwhile majority of the corps members that are posted and assigned to various subjects in schools did not train for the purpose. Somebody who read Psychology in the university would find themselves teaching Social Studies. What this translates to is low productivity and lack of quality assurance. Worse still, the students too will graduate in few years time and go back to the classrooms to teach subjects that are not very relevant to their discipline/training. By so doing, our situation becomes hopelessly complex. As we speak today, one of the Ministers in the Federal Cabinet is a corps member. Elected officers now get mobilized for NYSC too and they take the scheme as a national joke.
Is it not possible to review the whole body of this scheme to meet today’s realities and fulfil our national desires? Can we not remove the compulsion attached to the scheme and make it voluntary for fresh graduates? Will it not be better if we mainstream the service to focus on areas like Agriculture, Health, Digital Innovation and Education (for only graduates of Education courses)? I think we would save a lot of money from kitting of Corps members and the 21days Orientation Course if we reduce the number that are being mobilized for national service annually, and we can channel the funds into empowering those who joined the scheme after adequate training in the aforementioned areas of human endeavors.
I wish to plead that you and your colleague, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim Bio, the Honourable Minister of Youth Affairs look into this sir.
Do accept the assurances of my warmest regards.