A record taken from the forms filled in by several platoon representatives in Bornu State’s orientation camp last month, showed that eight out of every ten graduates had no prior understanding why it was necessary for them to respond to a call to serve their nation for one year; an exercise popularly called national youth service corps (NYSC) . I Know someone is warming up to say to me –well, isn’t that why we have the orientation camp and the activities that come with it? well that could be true , but I must say that so many of my friends from last month’s orientation exercise had hardly passed out through the gate when they sighed in endless complaints about how they have no idea what they should be doing in Maiduguri for the next eleven months.
The primary reason for this exercise, as coppers have been made to understand, is given in the NYSC’s scheme:- To promote National unity and engender a spirit of oneness ,which was a gesture following the end of Nigeria’s civil war. Well for those who don’t know, this is the reason graduates must become parliamillitary for one year in a civilian system such as we presently have. With such a scheme, while we are waiting for coppers to warm up to the dream of NYSC’s scheme of being the instruments for promoting religious, ethnic, and tribal peace, they are actually the victims to promote all such wars. Ouch.. hope this does not reveal a flaw to the NYSC exercise.
The big question is: what is the “State” of the NYSC’s scheme initiated sometime in the 70’s in comparison to all that it is obtaining today and is it still an expedient exercise?
I guess we’ll all just find out in my next article. Thanks for reading.
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Prince Adedayo
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umunadi mine