The senate president of the country was reported to have said less than three months ago that he would want a two year programme for the NYSC programme, the first for military training and the second for the regular village postings, so that Nigerian youths can be drilled properly. The first person I told the news asked me if the journalist conducted the interview in a bar and I cautioned him not to insult our number three man.
For most of the years after independence Nigeria has been ruled by the so called drilled people and they have gotten us nowhere. Although I would rather learn how to shoot guns and drive planes than teach agriculture to a bunch of student who don’t even want to learn, one year is on the high side, even the military short service is only for nine months at maximum so a six months military training in a proper military cantonment might be more appropriate.
On the length of the programme I believe that will just be another opportunity for Nigeria to use its youths for cheap labour, 9775 naira is not a lot of money. The youths should be inducted into the economy with good jobs where they can pay tax and move the economy forward, if Nigeria needs teachers they should employ the thousands of education graduates that leave school annually and pay them well so that they can remain teachers.
