When the debate on scrapping the National Youth Service Corps was raging awhile ago, it got to a point I thought the Nigerian University Students Union (NUSU as I understand it) should state its position, and I heard the executive of NUSU decry the call for NYSCs abrogation. In the course of time, I came to realise that it is not the university graduates alone that are serving the nation but also their parents who continue to bear the transport, feeding, and sometimes lodging, costs of the participants.Officially, a corps member receives N1,500 for transport, even when some distances require much more than that. Who pays the difference' Sometimes they have to spend a night on the way because of the distance. Who pays the hotel bill' Only on very rare occasions are the food served in the camp satisfactory, since Nigerians are known for opportunism, and parents who dont want their children to suffer must give adequate pocket money to make-up for the N19,000 monthly allowances.I heard that when some corps members are unlucky with adequate preparations on the part of their hosts, they have to secure their own accommodation which further makes the monthly N19,000 a pittance. Those in some rural areas have to travel long distances to town markets where they buy most of their basic needs, including "pure" (sachet) water. And to whom are they to complain' Their parents.Based on the foregoing discoveries, parents are still heavily burdened financially with the upkeep of graduates in the National Youth Service Corps scheme. To facilitate the scheme, I wish to restate my earlier suggestion that it be made voluntary on the part of the graduates and those who require their (national) services. Both parties must apply through the NYSC directorate. That way, there will be less cases of depreciation or inadequate preparation, and whoever disappoints should be made to pay a price.Whoever requests corps members (government or private establishments) must pay the full transport fares; provide adequate accommodation; and reasonable feeding allowances, based on local realities. I heard that the cost of daily transport to distant working places from their residences is borne by the corps members in some locations. Such financial burdens which revert to parents are unacceptable. Conduct a survey, and you will realise that most Nigerians are unhappy with the NYSC in its present form, which I learnt is an improvement with the N19,000 monthly allowance.The N19,000 monthly allowance seems much, numerically, but with the rising inflation, it means next to nothing for the monthly survival of an adult individual in todays Nigeria. I believe making the NYSC voluntary will make the scheme less clumsy, less financially burdensome, and funded adequately by both the government and others who request the services of the graduates.Complaints about the cost of running government, including maintaining the university system adequately, cannot be unrelated to such unwieldy programmes as the NYSC. Let the government think hard on priority and economisation. In addition to the foregoing, the graduates are put under avoidable insecurity.Nigerians should no longer ask student union executive members who have never served in the NYSC scheme whether they want it or not, because they lack the experience, and can easily be influenced by the powers that be. We should not ask some lucky members, but the majority who have suffered untold hardship in the name of the NYSC. We should not ask parents of graduates who lobbied to fix their children in some privileged places, rather we should ask the parents of graduates who bear the financial burden implied in the scheme, and who are anxious about the security of their children, or who have lost their children in the current orgy of violence whether they want the scheme to continue in its present form or not.Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D, University of Ilorin.
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