NYSC is National Youth Service Corps. A student crosses the hurdles of Jamb & aptitude test and gains admission into a university. The student then contends with a lot of things while he/she is in the university system including ASUU strikes. He/she graduates and the next step is the mandatory youth service. All graduates of tertiary institutions below the age of 30 are eligible for youth service. However in Nigeria the ideal age of a youth leader is between 50 – 60 years so an individual who is above 30 years is still “eligible” for youth service. What the person needs to do is to repackage himself/herself by trimming of facial hairs, adopting a low hair cut, tweaking of birth/age credentials and he/she is good to go! Yes. Since we are back to the season of open letters, this piece is an open letter to Tunji to have a rethink and shelve his plans because Nysc will never be scrapped. Contractors and suppliers are the major beneficiaries of the Nysc scheme. Contractors supply the Nysc kits: khaki caps, belt and jungle boots. According to Nysc procurement records the official cost of an Nysc uniform for a single corper is: Khaki Suits - N2,870, Jungle Boots – N1,789, Canvas -N1,709, Caps -N243, Belts -N232, Socks - N238, P.E Shorts - N404, Total - N7,485. Multiply N7485 by 100 thousand + corp members that serve every batch. You will arrive at a huge sum. It is a lucrative business. If you are an Nysc contractor won’t you frown upon any move by the government to scrap nysc? The Nysc kits are so good that the khaki tops and trousers sometimes get ripped off right in the middle of action on the parade ground. The buttons are so tight that they fall off readily. If you take a look at feeding on camp, you will discover that Nysc camps give corp members high quality feeding. Corpers queue up to collect watery beans, coarse bread, coloured water, okro soup etc. That is the reason why “mammy market” is usually flooded by well fed corp members. The camp officials are very selfless, they care so much about corp members that satchet water meant to be given out alongside with food at each mealtime at the different camp kitchens are sold to corp members on the sidelines. A contractor in charge of food supplies will break the head of anyone that dares to scrap Nysc. All the long drills and parades under the hot sun are very effective. Corps members can fight and disarm the boko haram terrorist group using the military skills acquired in camp. When postings to Places of primary assignment (Ppa) are carried out and a corps member gets to his PPA and is rejected by the employer, he or she is left stranded in a strange land sometimes roaming the streets for weeks in search of an employer. This will open him/her up to the environment. He/she will quickly learn the names of towns, streets, lanes and offices in the state as he/she moves up and down. Isn’t this a good way of providing orientation to a Nigerian youth? Majority of corps members are posted to teach in schools in the rural areas. These schools could have as many as five teachers who dont even bother to show up to teach. The school principal and subject teachers will rub their hands with glee and shout for joy when fifteen corps members show up with posting letters. They will scramble to secure corpers for their subject areas. Lazy teachers specialize in dumping their workload on corpers. Nysc definitely serves as a source of happiness to teachers. Why would anyone want to scrap it? Tunji you really want Nysc to be scrapped so that the teachers sitting under the big mango tree in Umukoro community development high school on Monday morning discussing when the governor will pay arrears of leave grant will be forced to go into class to teach abi? Stop that nonsense! There are male Corp members who take biological activities very seriously. They always end up impregnating the female students they were sent to teach. Call them morally bankrupt, spiritually deficient or whatever name you like, they are playing their part in promoting “national integration”, “cohesion” & “union”. The fusion of gametes from two different tribes producing hybridized Nigerian offsprings. Can you give me one minute please? I want to check up on the status of my Nysc discharge certificate. Whew! It is safe...the rats have not been able to penetrate my strongbox. The discharge certificate is precious. It is one of the important documents that you have to present if you ever want to get into a position to take your share of the national cake. Hehehe... Youth corpers always complain that their N19,800 monthly allowance is inadequate to take care of their needs. These corpers don’t seem to realize that they are serving the country! They want to earn fat allowances like the “honourable” members in the house of representathieves & Sinate. N19800 is even too much, the amount is sufficient enough to feed, buy clothes, shuttle between PPA and your accommodation, buy a car and even pay bride price. Corpers also complain that Nysc allowances aren’t paid on time. Inconsiderate corpers! They don’t want their allowances deposited in the fixed account of the state coordinator, Oga Zi & Lgi to yield enough interest for jollification of the officials before being disbursed to them. Digressing a bit……..Corpers are always said to be hungry beings who love eating on the go. Please stop for a moment and give that corp member serving in your school, office or living around your hood some food items!....erm…Don’t give any medical doctor who is a corp member your food items. Why? They walk around with an air of superiority and are treated as first class Nysc citizens. They oppress their fellow corp members because they are well paid……that was how Dr Aniekan took my friend Julie from me. I thought I had found a nice girl who will be cooking free Banga soup for me only for Dr Aniekan to step in and lure her away. She switched alliance when she found out that my 19,800 per month was nothing compared to Dr Aniekan’s N90000+ per month…..*sobs* Sorry for the digression. Banks and other private corporate organizations love youth corpers. They use them as full time staff working off their bones Monday to Friday 8am – 4pm (minus Cds days). Some of the male bosses love working with beautiful female corpers. They love them so much that they hire them as personal assistants/confidential secretaries. Sometimes the work becomes too confidential that it has to be carried out overtime in the privacy of hotel suites. Isn’t Nysc such a “lovely” scheme? These organizations will fight tooth and nail to maintain the status quo. Tunji have you heard of the body called Nysc foundation? The private firm that partners with Nysc in providing loans to Ex-corp members. These are the people that have been deducting N500 from the allowances of all corps members under the pretext of a revolving loan scheme since 2007. During the final clearance, corps members have to part with N500 naira or forgo the collection of their discharge certificates. Nysc foundation claims to have given out a “whooping” 14 million naira as loans out of the 300 million collected so far. What happened to the remaining N284 million?....Uche…sorry, Tunji face your work o. Calling for a review of the Nysc is akin to an exercise in futility. As long as the Ogas at the top are benefitting from the present arrangement, the scheme won’t be reformed. The federal government cannot give graduates a lump sum of 200 thousand naira at graduation to start up a business or advance their academic careers because the government is broke. The government is so broke that 20 billion dollars have disappeared from Nnpc coffers without any serious effort to recover the money. The government is so broke that 3 billion naira has been budgeted for the purchase of a new aircraft into the presidential fleet in this year’s budget. Nigeria is so broke that billions have been paid to kerosene marketers as subsidy without them actually supplying the product. The government cannot make the Nysc scheme a one year skills based training program for graduates, 80% of corp members must be flung into schools to teach while a privileged few serve from the comfort of their luxurious homes abroad or blue chip companies owned by their parents. Tunji I hope you can see reasons with me why Nysc will never be scrapped. All youths must obey the clarion call even if it means serving in Borno or Yobe states. What do you think? Should NYSC be scrapped or not?
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 08:35:35 +0000