Lekwauwa Emmanuella
Most National Youth Service Corps members in Nigeria do not like working in the states they were deployed to and others prefer to look for lucrative places or companies for their primary assignments.
Ebube Ejiofor, serving with the 2023 Batch B in Lagos State, said opportunities after the NYSC are very few.
According to Ejiofor, the problem was compounded by Nigeria not having enough factories and industries, especially in the eastern part of Nigeria, in comparison to the South West. He said: “Even if I want to serve in Anambra State, it has to be teaching. And after teaching, what next? Nevertheless, moving to Lagos State, a place of opportunities, allows most corps members to find their feet after service. After completing NYSC in Lagos State, you’re likely to be retained, which means instant work after service, rather than one returning home and then beginning to hunt for jobs.”
There have been debates on whether to scrap the NYSC scheme or adjust its curriculum, considering corps members’ complaints over their places of primary assignments while fulfilling the one-year mandatory service year, whose aim was partly to promote national unity and cross-cultural coexistence.
Engineer Olumide Adegbesan, who served in Katsina State between June 1986 and May 1987, said that the NYSC scheme allowed corps members to learn new cultures, but today, things were different. According to him, in the past, places of primary assignment did not determine where you got a job after service. This, he said, made corps members eager to travel to any part of the country for cross-cultural reasons.
Adegbesan, who had his education at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ogun State, explained that during his era, there were safety measures on roads as corps members travelled to other states without fear of being kidnapped. He recalled when he had no sufficient cash at his disposal. He had to travel with herdsmen from Malumfashi to Lagos by truck, and they had exciting moments.
He said: “Securing a job is becoming more difficult for youths these days; after service, they still end up begging for jobs. Many corps members want to maximise their time of service to secure a place of primary assignment where they can be retained after service, and also considering companies with good remuneration, a conducive atmosphere, and terms and conditions of service. In those days, corps members received the same amount of pay whether they served in government parastatals or not, and were guaranteed accommodation with other accrued benefits. The indigenes of the land gave us gifts for being classified as Yaro government, which means government children, and there was no hostility then. But now, there is more hostility. All those benefits back then enabled us to save and feed ourselves, which cannot be said to exist in this present day and time. This is why most corps members are declining their initial places of primary assignments.”
Iheoma Ibekwe, from Abia State, is currently undergoing her NYSC (2023 Batch B) in Lagos. Ibekwe complained that most places of primary assignments do not have any relevance to their course of studies at the universities or polytechnics. She added that another challenge is the distance of places of primary assignments, which, she said, makes one rethink and start hunting for another place to serve.
“Even renting an apartment and transportation in Lagos is expensive. I barely feed well, let alone save enough for my daily upkeep. I got a place of primary assignment on the Island but rented an apartment at Ketu, of which I am not comfortable with the decision,” said Ibekwe.
Another serving youth corps member, Seyi Babatunde, 2023 Batch B, also in Lagos, said that a company outrightly rejected him at the place of primary assignment that he was posted to in Ikoyi, leaving him with no option but to look for another place. Babatunde recounted: “I reported to one of the companies in Ikoyi for my primary assignment but was asked to speak directly to the manager. I called him, and he asked me to check back or send him a reminder later in the day, which I did. Although, he promised to direct me to someone who would attend to me as he claimed to be out of town. He later refused to pick up my calls, I had to quickly get another request letter to be reassigned.”
Toheeb Davies, who served with Batch A 2021/2022, in Imo State, noted that NYSC had outlived its importance because back then, the government was open in its posting decision. He said parents were rest assured that their children’s safety was guaranteed and back then, there was nothing like changing a corps member’s place of primary assignment or applying for another posting.
Davies said: “Government should endeavour to extend the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme and fund it, as well as empower the corps members to establish their business after service instead of posting them to states where their lives are unsafe – at the same time beckoning on graduates to stay focused and determine to take advantage of some professional pieces of training organised by NYSC to build their career.”
A graduate of Lagos State University, Kehinde Alliu, was posted to Katsina State, but redeployed to Ogun State because of an injury sustained while in camp during the 2021 Batch A exercise. She maintained that the Nigerian economy could be more favourable as the cost of transportation affects corps members’ choice of serving at their places of primary assignments.
Alliu said: “The government should also ensure corps members receive good welfare starting from the camping stage, making the camping experience conducive. Moreover, there should be provisions for corps members to secure jobs and receive employment letters after service. “I will continue to tell everyone that the camping experience in Katsina State was horrible! I was injured, and all through my camping period, I was leaping. On arrival at camp, some corps members and I were fetching water at night, though we had no idea of the social activities scheduled at night. Furthermore, returning to our hostel, I saw some soldiers shouting and chasing corps members with guns. Eventually, one of them shot into the air. I ran for my life and stumbled on a concrete basement. Even after that, the soldiers got me arrested for not running fast despite sustaining injury. Aside from the incident, the condition of the hostels was terrible! It was more like an inmate’s prison.”
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A Law graduate from the University of Ilorin, Aisha Akanbi, who underwent her three weeks orientation camp at Edo State in 2021/2022, lamented over the wrong placement in her field of study. Akanbi said: “Before I redeployed to Ibadan, Oyo State, I got my posting to teach in a school as a Law graduate, so I do not know how that will help my career when a thousand people fit that position. The Director-General of NYSC should ensure that corps members receive posting to their place of assignment according to what they had studied. I do not know how you would put a medical doctor to teach in a school, and when you get to some of these Places of Primary Assignments (PPA), you do not know what to do, and as such, you begin to figure out what services you can render to them.”
A Physics graduate from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Abiola Shode, who served in Cross River in 2015, said the quest for extra pay warranted some corps members to turn down some offers given by the NYSC Directors to serve in a particular place. Shode noted: “Graduates these days no longer value the NYSC scheme but only take up the call for service due to the monetary offer attached to it. However, if they have their way, they will not look for any Place for Primary Assignment at all while they get paid.”
He added that the high rate of insecurity, extrajudicial killings and kidnappings in the country make many people consider changing their Places of Primary Assignment for their safety, especially those posted in remote parts of the town. He explained that most corps members prefer to stay in urban areas, where they can mingle with their fellow corps members, adding: “But economic reason is one thing that makes quite several corps members change their places of primary assignment. This is followed by the need to meet their necessities of life as some PPA do not have accommodation and good facilities for corps members.”
Shode opined that the government should reappraise the goals of the NYSC in terms of funding and set specific measures for every PPA to meet the basic needs of corps members with the aspect of shelter in view.
Another graduate identified as Rachael Oke, who served in Oyo State, 2021/2022 Batch A, Stream 2, appreciated the efforts of the Oyo State Government on the welfare of corps members while pointing out some of the challenges that led to the rejection of an initial place of assignment. Oke opined that the inability to reach an agreement between employers and NYSC Directors concerning the needs of the corps members was very important. She emphasised that the NYSC officials must balance the recurring issue of accommodation challenges. She stated that posting letters affirms that employers were to provide housing for corps members, but she doubts if some organisations abide by the said rule. According to her, one of the rules is that when the organisation that the corps members were deployed to could not provide accommodation, the next best thing was to give him or their money as compensation.
Oke said: “During my service years, the NYSC local government inspectors intervened over an accommodation issue and had to change affected corps members’ places of assignment. This was simply on account of employers’ behaviour towards corps members by mandatorily putting them on a tight schedule of working between Mondays to Fridays and, most times, Saturdays despite the distance to the workplace and the corps members not having accommodation. For instance, a lady was offered N15,000 per month at her PPA in addition to the Federal government’s stipend. She turned down the offer simply because it was a teaching job despite the liberty of the head teacher to come to teach twice or thrice a week. Instead, she negotiated and pleaded with him to take the money as a bribe and continue to sign her clearance.
A graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Prosper Ebere, who served in Edo State in 2021/2022, explained that in cases where the remuneration was not commensurate with the organisation’s projected service, the corps members tilt towards seeking other beneficial options. In contrast, others declined the offer given at their PPA due to their involvement with some activities before they arrived at the camp.
Ebere noted: “In my case, I had some activities already on the ground. I was into electrical engineering works, that is, installation of electrical fitting, which will require that I pick a PPA that will grant me the time to continue my activities, and so if the NYSC authorities give a PPA that will strangle my activities, of course, I will decline such an offer.” He opines that NYSC officials should allow corps members to choose their places of primary assignments instead of sending most of them to go and teach in schools.
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