1970 marked the end of a Civil which saw millions of Nigerians lose their lives, mostly from the Southeast and South-South of Nigeria.
At the very root of this war were strong ethnic sentiments whose effects saw Nigerians divide at every possible ethnic line.
The Head of State at the time, General Yakubu Gowon, had one task at hand; to rebuild the country. So he embarked on a mission aimed at reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation.
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former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon
The lovechild of this effort was born in 1973 under Decree no. 24 as the National Youth Service Corps.
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A batch of youth corps members
The goal of the scheme is to break those ethnic barriers by shuffling graduates to different regions in Nigeria, away from their states of origin. This, the scheme believes, will help foster National Unity and take Nigeria further on the path of true oneness.
Like everything else in Nigeria, implementation is the biggest problem. Over the years, Youth Corpers have complained of poor treatment from the government, and in some cases, have lost their lives mostly due to the failure of the government they set out to serve.
There were the election killings, there are the killings we might never know, and even most recently, the deaths of two corpers during orientation camp.
This begs the question; what future is there for the NYSC?
There's a divide here. Many people are of the opinion that the program is not doing the fundamental thing it was made for; fostering national unity.
Others are of the opinion that while it might feel insignificant, the NYSC is not completely useless.
Good point.
Though the real counterfactual is how more disunited we might be if it hadn't existed
Nevertheless it's time has passed IMO twitter.com/ebuka/status/8…
There are also those who strongly believe NYSC has contributed a whole lot, like how some people would never have considered travelling to their state of assignment if not for NYSC
There are those who believe NYSC should be replaced with MMM, but that is a topic for another day. We'd like to hear what you think.
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