Shehu Sani, a former legislator from Kaduna Central, has refuted the National Youth Service Corps’ (NYSC) assertions that the program had brought unity to Nigeria.
According to Newsmen, Senator Sani responded to a claim made earlier by Brigadier General Yushau Dogara Ahmed, the NYSC Director General (DG), that the program has promoted national unity.
Taking to his Twitter page on Tuesday morning, the former lawmaker said: “The NYSC has not succeeded in uniting our country, but it has made significant & outstanding contributions in that direction.
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“It has lifelong established relationships, partnerships & marriages across the walls of our ethnic & religious identities.
“It’s a cement across our diversities and divisions. Not for the service, many wouldn’t have known any other part of the country other than their own. Thank you to General Yakubu Gowon, and Happy 50th Birthday to NYSC.”
According to earlier NYSC statements, the program has done Nigeria a lot of good and cannot be eliminated as certain individuals have urged.
According to newsmen, the University and Polytechnic’s one-year mandatory service program for young people was established on May 22, 1973, under General Gowon’s military rule.
However, some Nigerians have recently demanded that the program be abandoned. They said that it was no longer serving its intended purpose.
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Amusan Oluwole Julius, the director of the NYSC South West Area Office, responded to the citizen submissions by saying that calling for the scheme to be scrapped was needless and not in Nigeria’s best interests.
This was expressed by Julius during a speech he gave at a Unity Walk that was held in Osun over the weekend to commemorate the program’s 50th anniversary.
Speaking on behalf of Brigadier General Yushau Dogara Ahmed, the director general of the NYSC, Julius reminded Nigerians of the many records and accomplishments the program has amassed during its 50-year history.
Although there may have been problems in the past, he admitted that the NYSC’s difficulties do not warrant its abolition.
Julius said: “NYSC has done this nation a lot of good. The NYSC is felt in all the 774 local governments in Nigeria.
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“Calling for the scrapping is not the best thing anybody can talk of now.
“You will agree that NYSC has made giant strides in the last 50 years.
“When you look back from 1973 when this scheme came into being, areas like education, health care delivery, social service campaigns, national programmes, NYSC has made a lot of impacts in those areas.”
He reiterated that NYSC had met the expectations of its founding fathers.
“When you are talking of fostering national unity, through this scheme, inter-ethnic marriages have occurred, we have seen mobility of labour, corpers being retained in their states of service, many Corpers have established their own businesses in the various states where they are posted,” Julius added noting that the challenges of the NYSC are the same with any other organisation.
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“The major problem is the issue of finance that has not been adequate to meet all the needs but kudos need to be given to the government for their inputs in the last 50 years.
“They have been meeting expectations, but there is still a need for improvement in the area of funding,” Julius said.
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