One of the dreams prominent among the Nigerian children while growing up used to be; graduating from a Tertiary institution and getting kitted with the glorious NYSC khaki; that was a muse to study hard. It is obvious that the enthusiasm to partake in the scheme over years has dwindle prior to under-payments, insecurity of corps members and ineptitude of the NYSC board.
NYSC inconsistencies have sky rocketed to its peak since the beginning of the mobilization process of 2016 batch A set. It took NYSC much time to release the official timetable to the prospective CMs. Also, during the online registration, there were so many discrepancies in the process; from the epileptic website management and inability to manage traffic that leaded to delay in registration to the problems that arose during the payments of the N3000 that was indirectly imposed to print out the “green card” and “call up letter”, can make one conclude that things are not in order.
Another slap on NYSC’s face was the contradicting call-up numbers that were released cum the ability of some prospective corps members to check their state of deployment before the scheduled time.
The most appalling of their inconsistencies since the aforementioned hiatus in service has turned to the norms of NYSC is the continuous postponement of the orientation date. Firstly, it was rumoured to be March 2nd, which was confirmed by the admin of the official NYSC twitter handle. Later March 30th was said to be the official date, until it was changed to April 1st and now April 27th; we don’t even know when the next date will be yet. It amuses me that a said organized board can be inconsistent in this manner. There is no explanation so far with regards to the events that have occurred: they just think they can impose anything on elites.
I will oblige to the body to stop toiling with people’s lives and plans; some have resigned from their place of internship or rejected the offer while others plans have been put on hold since graduating mid-last year. NYSC should also know that, age is not on the side of the Nigerian graduates because most “graduate trainee” jobs requires people below the age of 26, so how can meet up with such expectation if NYSC process will take close to two years of my precious years?
NYSC board under the leadership of Brig Gen Olawumi should get themselves to order; if you can’t run a smooth mobilization process, then how can we be so sure of a smooth service year? If that is not possible, I will align with the Nigerians that opines that the NYSC scheme be made optional or better still, scrapped.
By Funsho Michaels
