The NYSC of the future, according to Professor Anthony Kila, has to be voluntary and aimed at national duties like security and elections.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Professors Attahiru Jega and Anthony Kila have asked the Federal Government to review its policies on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and to make the programme a voluntary scheme.
The duo stated this as Nigeria celebrates the golden jubilee of the NYSC.
Kila, a professor of strategy and development and director at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies, had in his book “Epistles” published in November 2022, advocated for a radical reform of the NYSC or its total scrapping.
Kila reiterated his position on Sunday, May 14 in a TV programme while on a panel 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 the meet of contemporary Nigeria. Prof Kila also frowned at the use of NYSC member to replace teachers in schools, for him “using NYSC members to meet the scarcity of teachers is a grave indictment of our understanding of education and an index of how little a value we place on education.”
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The NYSC of the future, according to Kila, has to be voluntary and aimed at national duties like security and elections.
In line with Kila’s position, Jega, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday in Abuja while delivering a lecture to commemorate NYSC’s 50th anniversary called on the 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 was launched in 1973 under the General Gowon administration as a means to foster unity and nation building among Nigerians.
President Buhari, in a statement, praised 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 NYSC has become a household name in the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
