Those who are calling for scrapping of NYSC are ignorant of the scheme - Prof Adebayo Adedeji
Written by Taiwo Olanrewaju
Monday, 23 May 2011
Eighty-one year old Professsor Adebayo Adedeji designed the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme in 1973 in order to promote national unity and cohesion. He told Taiwo Olanrewaju why the scheme should be retained against the backdrop of Nigerians and interest groups calling for the review of the scheme or outright scrapping.
BEFORE the post-election crises of April 2011, there had been various calls for review or total scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), but the political violence that greeted the announcement of the presidential election result in the northern part of the country which claimed the lives of 10 corps members, however, increased the call.
This incident, attracted more agitations for the scrapping of the scheme despite the efforts of the government to sustain it. The president inaugurated a 22-man panel to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the post-election violence in the North.
Headed by a retired Grand Khadi of Niger State, Sheikh Ahmed Lemu, the panel was inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday, 11 May, 2011 at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. The panel has six weeks to submit its report.
Going down memory lane, Professor Adedeji recollected that “the British deliberately separated us and there was very little opportunity for the country to become a nation for development. Lack of understanding and committment on the part of Nigerians contributed to the civil war of 1967 to 1970.The civil war was very expensive and very costly in terms of lives lost and resources wasted”, Professor Adedeji noted.
He said the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, did for Nigeria, what South Africa did after the defeat of apartheid, by declaring that there were no victors and no vanquished after the civil war. The need, according to him, was to develop common purpose and common values, with all the prejudices buried. The main slogan, the Ijebu-ode indigene noted was to Go On With One Nigeria (GOWON).
As the Minister for Economic Development and Reconstruction from 1971 to 1975, Professor Adedeji presented a frame work and created an institution to develop Nigeria.Thus, for a whole weekend, Professor Adedeji designed the NYSC scheme.
According to him,”the development of the country depended and still depends very much on the young generation. Nigeria developed as separate entities. Many Yoruba did not know where the North was. The tribes developed alongside, not as friends but as competitors while the people saw one another as someone to be avoided or someone not reliable.”
Professor Adedeji, who is also the Asiwaju of Ijebu-land, said the need to mobilise the most educated Nigerians in their teens to promote the development and unity of Nigeria prompted the scheme and after discussion and consultations among the leaders of the different tribes and the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the NYSC was established in June/July 1973.
The Corps members were students who just graduated from the universities and there were only five Universities then. The University of Ibadan, Ibadan, University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University; Ile-Ife; University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Under the scheme, the graduates were to serve the country compulsorily for one year. Aside from the fact that the scheme promoted understanding and mutual respect, it was a platform for national unity, explained the Asiwaju, who added that the scheme’s guidelines were that no corps member would serve in his region or state,where his native language is the lingua franca. That, he said, was to make the corps members understand the country and one another’s culture, which would in turn develop common values.
At the outset of the NYSC scheme, most students did not like the scheme,in spite of the fact that government paid them the same allowances and made them serve as equals. Medical students, especially, wanted higher allowances which the government did not approve. The aim was for each corps member to experience a new culture, imbibe the culture and thus, gain a wider perspective thereby building a solid foundation to achieve a united Nigeria.
While condemning those people calling for the abolishing of or turning the NYSC scheme into a regional programme, the scheme’s founding chairman, agreed that the scheme needed to be improved upon and redefined.He noted that he had had contacts with many corpers and none had regretted serving the nation for a year because working outside one’s environment for a year promoted cordiality which brought friendship with the host community. “We are the same irrespective of our differences. We are all Nigerians,” he added.
He, however, noted that lately, there had been incidents of regret. “To kill, shoot or murder a corps member is an unforgivable offence. The corps members have helped and contributed to the development of the state where they served”, Professor Adedeji said emphatically.
He advocated for the provision of adequate security for corps members. The type of security provided for politicians, he explained that corps members were used to assist in the conduct of census and elections because they are non-partisan. They are fresh from the university and have not imbibed the evil of the society.
He said this was the new Nigeria that General Gowon was trying to create. And that it would be disastrous if the NYSC scheme, currently the longest serving institution, was scrapped. “We should not throw the baby out with the bath water inspite of the killings. All Nigerians must have a stake and show a sense of commitment. We should do all in our power to ensure that the scheme grows from strength to strength,” he added.
The octogenerian, who believes that it is the responsibility of all state governments to secure the NYSC scheme by giving the corps members the necessary protection while he considers the reaction to stop, scrap or turn the NYSC into a local or regional institution as negative. Even, he added, that the number of mad or murderous people perpetrating the heinous crime of killing corpers should be small and should be within the power of the law enforcement agencies to nip in the bud.
He also noted that lack of human security had become a factor in Nigeria, saying that, the government should beef up security for all Nigerians the same way maximum security was given to ministers, governors and other politicians.Professor Adedeji added that if the NYSC scheme was made regional, the politicians would influence “the corps members and the nation would be moving from the sublime to the ridiculous” if we make the scheme local and people could influence it.
“If you destroy the institution or undermine it in anyway, it would be tragic. Rather, we should strengthen it by providing adequate security for the corpers,” he reiterated.
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