I write this piece as a contradiction/rebuttal to Emmanuel Onwubiko’s piece on Daily Post, which he titled The Immutable Relevance of the NYSC. He wrote the blog post to refute an editorial credited to the Punch newspaper. I read his piece and considered it an attempt to keep what is considered useful to the blogger/writer. While I do not know Mr. Onwubiko in person, I believe he passed through the corps unlike the founding fathers including former Head of State Yakubu Gowon who must be past the age limit and/or exempted for having joined the military. While I do not know his age and his state of service and place of primary assignment, my guess is that Mr. Onwubiko had a fabulous time during his own NYSC experience. I served with Air Force Comprehensive School, Ile Igbon near Ibadan, Oyo State in 2004-2005. I served alongside six (6) other corps members and all of us would have seven different NYSC experiences in the Batch B 2004/2005. The corps was supposed to be unifying, strengthening and reconciliatory, but what I saw was a show of cronyism, corruption, arrogance and even prostitution. Let me explain. It is different strokes for different folks with the NYSC but need not be so. I crave your indulgence in reading this long discourse.
I must admit that my NYSC posting to a military secondary school was not normal. I graduated the University of Ibadan (UI), Oyo State and served in that state same year. That was not my state of origin but it was my state of tertiary education. I was not married. I was and I am still single. The corps allowed for wives to serve where they were domiciled. I saw some UI alumna in the orientation camp at Iseyin whom I knew were married undergraduates. It was normal that they should be retained to serve in Oyo State due to their marriage. They chose to do so or were they compelled? I do not know. I did not fill any form of domicile with the Student Affairs of the University of Ibadan. A schoolmate and I had discussed the possibility of observing the NYSC with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan. This was, in my case, to experience agriculture beyond being a general studies course in UI. But it was not a do or die affair. I actually left Ibadan for Aba, Abia State where I was resident and worked briefly with a hotel (Terminus) as a telephone operator. I had studied Igbo at UI and graduated with a second class upper division degree. I was eager to serve wherever I was called but not to be in a volatile area or section of the country. Apart from that conversation with Ms. Philomena Ngozi Nwoko, I had no other conversation for NYSC posting until I arrived in Iseyin, Oyo State in September, 2004. I did meet with some lady at Aba, one Nkechi in a cyber café on Jubilee Road that she alleged belonged to her fiancé. In a casual conversation, she told me that she was awaiting her call-up letter as I was. Our conversation did not reveal postings or any such matter. She had attended the University of Calabar and studied Curriculum and Instruction. I was surprised that she was posted to Oyo State the night that I set out for Orientation camp. We boarded the same bus to Oyo State at Aba. She went ahead of me to the camp because I had unfinished business in the University. I had to pick up my call up letter and statement of result from Student Affairs and Exam and Records respectively.
It was with her that I had a conversation concerning a possible posting to a military establishment a week or two into the orientation at Iseyin. She told me that she was going to serve with the military and I enjoined her that if it was still available for another that it was not a bad idea for me. I did not know how things worked in the military as I had little if any interaction with them while an undergraduate at UI. The IITA conversation was not enforced and nobody informed me of any arrangements with my alma mater either. Some schoolmates served with the University especially those who earned a first class degree or second class upper division in the courses. Nobody approached me for a place in UI. The army posting came for Nkechi while I got the one to Ile Igbon. Ms. Nwoko was posted to Apati, or such place for teaching like all of us. She taught Literature in English; she told me so. My story is to tell you that the corps had better be done by bona fide graduates or it is rather a roundtable of con artists, harlots, impostors, cult members, prostitutes and criminals and thus a sham. If Mr. Onwubiko would agree that Nigerian graduates are the aforementioned criminal elements in the society then the corps is allowed to run on course. Otherwise, there must be measures put in place to ensure that the efforts and labour of Nigerian graduates are not wasted by opportunists, cults, the Mafia, cabals and other criminal elements that have so used the corps as a means to settle scores some lasting years and even decades.
This piece is written in the interest of equity, fairness,
good conscience and common sense. NYSC is not a hook up – many corps members
use the corps as a means to seek prostitution and form or join prostitution
rings. It is not a marriage registry. While
the corps encourages love relationships there was no basis for shaming adults
who either sought or rejected love overtures during the service year. NYSC
is not the only reason to love or be loved, to marry or not to marry. It is not a fundraiser where money is
exchanged for sex, some spanning years and decades. It is not a (re)naming
ceremony (where people pick up new names and certificates from stalking real
graduates). It is not a marketplace – nobody is buying or selling any
education. It is not a place to show off pedigree (some corps members serve
while resident abroad because their parents have made arrangements for their
certificates to be shipped to them). It is not a cannibal carnival – many corps
members have been cannibalized or at least killed by fellow corps members or
host communities. Even elections have allegedly claimed the lives of Nigerian
graduates. It is not a ritual murder camp. During my time, there were many
impostors and others that became impersonators seeking the new title of
‘graduate.’ There was no identity card issued from the orientation camps and it
was not a very legally comprehensive exercise. Reporting delinquent corps
members to the NYSC secretariat was a witch hunt that had to happen through the
employer who in my time could have been a lover. Camp commandants were rogue as
the criminals on the highway. What is there to keep of such an exercise that is
merely window dressing and kept to massage the pride of many founding trouble
makers? You do not start a corps after ending a war that has only proliferated
the population and caused inflation and unemployment. Prevention is better than
cure. What caused the war? What ended
it? Do the young corps members know the answers to these questions? Perhaps the
answers do not matter but could provide more opportunity for national growth
and unity rather than the opportunism that the NYSC has entrenched in the
nation.
Here are ten (10) reasons why the NYSC must either be reformed, made voluntary or abrogated.
I. Stalking: I have experienced stalking before, during and after my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year. People from the NYSC bother members of my family who have since been in secret consort with them. I do not think it is the job of the corps to step into my family feud or problem if I have got any. Many stalk to monitor progress with my work, life and family. They are competitors who engage spies to monitor colleagues and can only do that using working with me or any other graduate for that matter as an alibi. The workplace is not a stalking festival. Helping schoolmates and classmates keep close tabs on me is laughable because I did not ask them to come to school with me. I find Nigerians to be irredeemable and shameless. I cannot stand their lack of logic and good conscience.
II. Piracy: Credentials are submitted during accreditation or registration at the Orientation Camps. While I am happy to be called paranoid, I submitted my statement of result and other credentials at the Iseyin camp in Oyo State since September, 2004 as did other people. Why was Nkechi in Oyo State as I? I do not know. Was she being used to stalk me and pirate my identity and credentials? I do not know. She must have ‘long leg.’ The cyber café where I met her is now gone even though I misplaced my cell phone, went abroad and lost many of my contacts after the NYSC. Are you unemployed? I am. Some impostor has got you covered, baby no thanks to the NYSC possibly pirating your and my tertiary education. Nigerians cry about corruption and bad leadership but do not consider their own activities illegal. How did we get here?
III. Porosity: The corps allows Nigerians born, bred and schooled abroad to join the corps. What if a Ghanaian has a means through the NYSC to become a Nigerian? They just have to bribe their way through our traditional rulers to become Nigerian with a fake certificate of origin. Signed, sealed and delivered. Secondly, we are forced to accommodate all sorts of people in the name of national unity. While it seems uniting, the NYSC is still discriminatory because some worthless people want everybody to be like them, that is, join their criminal gangs. Why?
IV. Absenteeism: I knew a corps member who was absent from the service for nearly all the time that we were in the corps. He was allegedly the son of the serving Chief of Air Staff. Nigerian youth must learn that Nigeria belongs to some people who must not serve with the riff raff. Go figure? The place of service never missed him. While some of us were forced to share a bedroom, he had a room to himself and was gone most of the time. Is this our idea of national unity?
V. Disparity: Age, income and career outcome disparities are huge problems in the NYSC. I was forced to live in the same bedroom with a woman who had five children and practiced voodoo. She was Igbo like me but why would I, a graduate seeking employment be relegated to such impotence? She had to play my radio for so long that the cassette player no longer works. Two records had to be played by Mrs. Ezeobi daily and I had to put up with that because I had gone to a university for formal education? I should be out there seeking and fulfilling an employment and not forced to befriend a trouble maker. Do we care what we lose in the lousy quest for national unity that has outlived its usefulness? Must it take the corps for Nigerians to meet and like one another? She should have served where her family was situate but Nigeria with a corps that allowed people to impersonate their children registered her at the Orientation camp. If somebody graduated at 22 and another at 29 or 30 years must they become friends by any means? And some could come at 40 if it was established that they graduated before 30 years. Nobody is happy living in a country that has no human face. Now she thinks she’s my friend. No, thank you. The PPAs do no pay the same allowance thus making income disparity a huge reason why people clamour for certain assignments and not the other. There’s also the possibility of being retained by one employer than another thus ensuring job and lifestyle security.
VI. Vulnerability: Corps members are vulnerable to cultures, states and people that are not nice or tolerant of them. Igbo people are the worst hit as most of them fall prey to the whims of the Islamic religion. You would think that touching a Quaran would only cause a riot in Kano. I almost got lynched at Ile Igbon for bringing out a Quaran left behind by a female student. A fellow corps member, Isa Abubakar, did not like the idea that an Igbo Christian woman would touch his holy book. He reported me to the commandant who supported his tirade and reminded me that something that little could cause more trouble in the North. Is that what a leader should say in the face of bigotry? I did not even meet the defiant Muslim girl who had left the book in her desk unlike her classmates. Why make Nigerian future leaders vulnerable to all sorts of pedants, fanatics, lunatics and bigots in the name of national service?
VII. Corruption: Illegal and dishonest activities take place in the orientation camps of the NYSC. Many people are given uniform, regalia or the garb in order to facilitate impersonation and imposture. This is why the NYSC is not being kicked against by people who have ‘workers’ in that establishment. The corps is used to plant spies in workplaces and sensitive places like the Central Bank of Nigeria, the military, the prisons, and other critical work areas and establishments both in the public and private sectors. There are insiders who are used by big shots whose wives and girlfriends cannot participate in the corps. If this is allowed what then is the fate of the country? Some people go to school while others who can pay their way get the job in the poor people’s name and identity. They kick against checks and balances. The bad economy is even used now as an excuse. The national ID slip no longer prints on watermarked paper and may encourage fraud except for the QR code whatever that is. What we suffer today is as a result of this incessant lack of accountability by all and sundry. The corps is a fraud. Many people who should be serving are represented; it is not the houses of assembly or national assembly. Of course, there have been changes since my time. For instance, biometrics has been introduced in recent time by the corps. There are now pictures on discharge certificates. This is to ensure that whoever registers for the corps gets the certificates as the pictures are not used from the camps or the workplaces. No. Whoever does the orientation and the assignment and the passing out and gets the discharge certificate is the graduate isn’t it? Not always so with the NYSC, if you have your way or know big shots or politicians. It’s all about dubious games and vendetta. How does Nigeria ensure that whoever registers for the NYSC whose picture appears in the discharge certificate is the person at the Orientation camp and at the place of primary assignment that is the real graduate? Enemies could actually use their contacts at the corps headquarters to arrange for the assassination and/or career relegation of their enemies or enemies’ children through the postings. And this fear has informed all sorts of confusion in the corps. So, which way, Nigeria? Primordial considerations should be kept where they belong – in antiquity! Forcing people to live together in the name of the NYSC is turning adults into children because of national development and arrogant leadership. What a shame.
VIII. Death: Many corps members have died due to accidents, terrorism or homicide during the service year. Death happens every day and everywhere, but targeted death, which is the point of my thesis, is criminal and the NYSC has often served as the incubator for this. Monetary compensation to the victims’ families has not shown any commitment of the federal government to mitigate use of the corps for cult or mafia purposes. Even the military in their love for power, crime, harlotry, corruption and witchcraft allow such bizarre disregard for the rule of law. Shame on them. Death in the place of primary assignment is unnecessary voodoo that I find very repulsive. The corps must not be responsible for the recklessness of the youth. Let them die in their homestead or wherever they have gone to do trouble. While waiting to draft or conscript youth of the NYSC into an unforeseen war, Nigeria has continued to lose her teeming youth to the whims of scheming criminals.
IX. Conspiracy: Envy breeds and leads to conspiracies among the corps members some beginning from their alma mater. Long laid conspiracies often hatch during the service year with all sorts of collaboration from within and/or outside the workplace. The GSM has only enabled such networks and syndicates of criminals to spring up around the country. Calls are made to camp commandants and their soldiers for huge sums of money or other largess to ensure that some corps members are sent where they would be tortured or ‘taught a lesson.’ Bullying is not a hallmark of national development or national unity. Politicians even use people’s education to do all sorts of magic for their campaigns. Nigerians are pagan in nature no matter how much we deny this fact. The NYSC is a fertile ground for all sorts of gossip and falsehood. Married women get new boyfriends or lovers and sometimes birth children from other tribes often destroying their marriages. One in my place of primary assignment went out most evenings in khaki knickers to visit with her lover in the compound or travelled to visit another corps member outside the school or who was absent from work and in Lagos State. She was engaged to marry another man in another state. Married men keep and hide new families in far away states often while engaged in national service. Serving the nation indeed? Maybe all those unguarded activities birthed national problems that we see today like Boko Haram, the secessionist agitations, assassinations, etc. Feeding liars to enshrine or foster national unity is fraudulent. I did the NYSC only once in 2004 but I graduated school before I turned 30 years. What if my school has continued to mobilize me in other people’s faces because the corps allows for such anomaly behind my back in some sort of racket? Loopholes feed criminals and encourage conspiracies and opportunism. How do we ensure that schools do not take their alumni for granted with the NYSC in the name of welfare for less fortunate people?
X. Irrelevance: The corps is no longer relevant in 2023. Corps members hardly get any hands on training in their fields of study during the service year. Many are posted to teach in rural or urban schools without any microteaching training while they had learned the sciences, arts, social sciences, and even engineering. This is not the PeaceCorps, which is voluntary in the USA and done for peace. The NYSC is mandatory for Nigerian graduates and has undergone all sorts of manipulation in order to avert or cause trouble. In the name of the NYSC, a whole year is wasted after much money, effort, time and resources had been expended seeking the Golden Fleece in diverse didactics. This is not counting the years wasted while waiting for call up or mobilization upon graduation. Some stayed home for one or more years while waiting to be ‘enslaved’ to teaching or any other such activity in batches and streams of the NYSC. What of the young children who are not taught by trained teachers? There was no microteaching exercise during the Orientation at Iseyin, Oyo State. Why send non educationists to teach? Are the school children getting quality education and motivation from the corps members and the corps? What of corps member and place of assignment relationship? Is it often without mischief and trouble? Corps members did not even work while engaged in their studies and lose at least four years of cognate experience as adults while completing their studies and awaiting the NYSC. The average Nigerian youth has not worked their whole lives until nearly 30 years old except for the NYSC.
Social media has even only recently contributed to the irrelevance of the NYSC. Pen pals wrote across the globe even before the NYSC was initiated, even before the Nigeria-Biafra war. People travelled far and near to be with their lovers. It did not take any NYSC for people to travel abroad for studies or professional development or to engage in inter-tribal marriage. The youth service year or NYSC has only sent people out of their home zones for the first time if they had not gone to school outside of their geopolitical zone or never visited with family and friends elsewhere during the holidays. I am from Aba and I had planned to study the Law in Ibadan in 1998. I did not get a space in the Law programme and settled for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Igbo, which I was offered, studied and graduated in 2004. This aided my ability to integrate and understand the Yoruba with whom I associated than any military imposed national service. There were no Yoruba corps members in my batch or the one before and there were nine of us corps members most of whom were Igbo or IBO – I Before Others. There allegedly were only two Northerners, one man from Kano State and another man from Plateau State. No Yoruba. One woman claimed to be from Agenebode, Edo State. All of them were in the NYSC garb; possibly fake graduates.
The NDE brought the Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP) to Nigerian graduates as a way to stem the tide of youth unemployment. Why not fund GAP and not the NYSC? Must juju join us together? And here comes the N-Power programme of the Mohammadu Buhari-led administration that has further stripped the corps of its relevance. Is the N-Power a local version of the NYSC or a continuous feeding allowance or 'allowee' for the Nigerian youth? Has it replaced the GAP? Let me stop here. Many have been integrated into work through the NYSC but that is by design than on merit on many occasions. So, why keep the NYSC? Is the NYSC Trust Fund going to replace the N-Power Nexit? Awuf dey run belle. Running all those programmes for the same group of people is greed and even avarice. Nigerian youth programmes should be reassessed and reviewed in order to determine their relevance to national development and curb national waste. What determines a successful NYSC year? Marriage? To whom and why? Work placement? Does it have mutual agreement and accommodation? Do the employer and employee agree that the work is desirable and leads to career development and advancement? Does the employment engage the appropriate stakeholders and engender national development? The NYSC must proffer an answer to these questions. Therefore, with my personal experiences, if any government programme for youth must go I consider the NYSC the one to go.
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