As Nigeria celebrates the golden jubilee of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Professors Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Anthony Kila, a professor of Strategy and Development and Director at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies, have asked the Federal Government to review its policies on the NYSC and make the programme a voluntary Scheme.
Prof. Kila had in his book, titled: “Epistles,” published in November 2022, advocated a radical reform of the NYSC or its total scrapping.
Kila reiterated his position on Sunday in a TV programme while on a panel of discussion together with Professor Bolaji Akinterinwa and anchored by Rueben Abati.
For Kila, “The NYSC as it stands today is archaic and redundant and does not meet need of contemporary Nigeria.’
Prof Kila, who also frowned at the use of NYSC members to replace teachers in schools, said: “Using NYSC members to meet the scarcity of teachers is a grave indictment on our understanding of education and an index of how little a value we place on education”.
The NYSC of the future, according to Prof. Kila, has to be voluntary and aimed at national duties like security and elections.
Corroborating Professor Kila, Professor Jega had on Monday in Abuja, while delivering a lecture to commemorate NYSC’s 50th Anniversary, urged the Federal Government to reduce the number of members called to serve in the NYSC programme and to make the Scheme voluntary rather than mandatory with high CGPA as prequalification for participation.
Jega also called for improved welfare for corps members and steps that will motivate staff administering the Scheme.
The NYSC, which clocked 50 this year, it was launched in 1973 under the General Yakubu Gowon administration as a means to foster unity and nation-building among Nigerians.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement had earlier commended General Gowon for his foresight in initiating the Scheme.
Speaking in Abuja at the same event as Professor Jega, the Minister of Youth Development, Sunday Dare, noted that the NYSC has become a household name in the socio-economic development of Nigeria.