National Assembly plans scrapping of 48-year NYSC scheme

The National Assembly is working on a bill to scrap the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme which has been in existence for over 48 years to encourage national unity. The NYSC scheme was established by General Yakubu Gowon when he was Nigerian Head of State as a post-civil war policy to reunite Nigerians.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Alteration Bill, 2020, proposed to repeal the NYSC Act, has been scheduled for Second Reading in the House of Representatives.

The sponsor of the bill, Hon.  Awaji-Inombek Abiante, in a memorandum explained that the insecurity crisis in Nigeria has forced the NYSC office to send graduates on national service to their geopolitical zones, some to their states, defeating the essence of the scheme. This, he said, is the reason for the discontinuation of the scheme.

The lawmaker in the memorandum of the proposed bill highlighted: “This bill seeks to repeal Section 315(5)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended) on the following grounds:

“Incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism and ethnic violence; incessant kidnapping of innocent corps members across the country;

“Public and private agencies/departments are no longer recruiting able and qualified Nigerian youths, thus, relying heavily on the availability of corps members who are not being well remunerated and get discarded with impunity at the end of their service year without any hope of being gainfully employed;

“Due to insecurity across the country, the National Youth Service Corps management now gives considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thus, defeating one of the objectives of setting up the service corps, i.e. developing common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.”

The NYSC was established by Decree no. 24 of 1973, in the Nigerian post-civil war era for the implementation of the 3Rs -Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation – of the Federal Military Government in Nigeria, then, for the unity and integration of the country.

There are concerns that rather than the federal lawmakers making laws that would provide solutions to the insecurity challenges in the country, they are preoccupied with laws to provide Nigerians youths one year relative respite in this era of economic hardship and increasing unemployment rate.