After seven grueling years (instead of five, time was prolonged due to lecturer labor unrest) of college/university education as a pioneering student at Lautech, it is exactly 22 years ago that I was deployed to serve the fatherland in Cross Rivers' state at the Obubura NYSC camp. It was a mixed experience of being swamped by multiple of mosquitos at the camp, to almost drowning on River Cross in a canoe on my way to my primary place of assignment - a village called Abijang after Ikom near Republic of Cameroon border, and that of friendship with fellow Nigerians from across every corner of the nation and locals in the surrounding villages where I was to serve.
The relevance of NYSC has been argued over the years. It seems the program has outlived its usefulness without any reform since its inception in 1973. We are as divided today as we were 46 years ago. NYSC program was supposed to foster unity, development and nation building. Instead NYSC has been used as a source of cheap labor for many organizations who pay peanut and would not retain most of these graduates; the spate of abuse of graduates by their employers, especially the female corp members and the military men who train them in para-military activities at the camps is hardly ever investigated, let alone prosecuted; the corruption within the program management office is monumental; the loss of life of many fresh graduates in road accidents, death from sickness due to inadequate healthcare during the service year, and violent acts (aftermath of 2011 election in Bauchi and Northern Nigeria is still fresh in our memory - our current president is partly responsible for instigating the violence against the corp members that helped mediated the election) within the community where they serve have cast aspersion on the program over the years.
Our lack of "continuous improvement" culture, where we continue to do the same thing for decades without considering changes to our society has made the NYSC program redundant and a wasteful exercise. Two options, scrap the program or completely or overhaul it to meet 21st century Nigerian needs.
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