No. I do not personally think so. The military service, I think, is quite a different thing from the type of programme that you have for the National Youth Service Corps.
Military service entails full military training and to give someone that kind of training, the person must pass through basic training in a military depot. In the case of the Nigerian Army, that kind of basic training lasts for nine months.
So, if you are going to convert the NYSC scheme into military service, it means the whole service year will almost be spent on military training alone. After nine months of this kind of training, a corps member will have only three months left to engage in active NYSC service year. What are you going to do within the three months left?
NYSC is a kind of civilian service with a bit of quasi military training at the outset to give the corps members proper orientation towards national service. It was not designed for full military service.
It should remain the way it is. If the government wants to beef up the training, fine; it can do that. But with the economic situation, as it is now, I do not know whether Nigeria is even going to consider doing so. All of us are aware of what is happening in terms of the economic challenges.
I do not know if there is money around to do a number of things that the Federal Government wants to do. At least, they tell us that the money is not available and we have no reason to doubt them.
We shouldn’t talk of embarking on a new thing that will involve a lot of financial commitments.
What I believe that operators of the scheme can do is to keep updating the scheme, reviewing its objectives and commitment to the service such that it will continually be in keeping with the ever changing situation in the country. If you do that, you update it and you find that every year, it has something new to offer the country.
That is what I think we should do. It should restrict itself to what it was designed to do from the very beginning. I will however suggest that it should be constantly updated to address modern challenges in order to remain relevant. •Col. Peter Obasa (A former Director-General, National Youth Service Corps)
If we convert the NYSC service year to military service, is the government going to arm them? Are you going to train them in the handling of weapons? To me, the talk about converting service year to military year is not reasonable.
The suggestion is not reasonable. The intention of the NYSC when it was created was to promote unity and national integration in the country and I think the scheme is still serving that purpose.
But there is no rationale behind converting the service year to a year of military training. This is because you are not going to arm them and secondly, this will negate the aim and objective of setting up the scheme.
Now, looking at the safety of corps members, you will recall that the NYSC authorities too have taken a decision not to post corps members to volatile areas. They now post them to areas nearest to their communities. In the interim and until the country stabilises, I think the NYSC should maintain the policy of posting corps members to non-volatile communities.
The NYSC must continue to consider the welfare of the corps members. •Mike Ejiofor (A former Director, Department of State Services)
Yes, it should be converted to military service. If this is done, it will take the National Youth Service Corps one year mandatory service to the next level. But my fear is: won’t the corps members face unnecessary abuse from the authorities? That it should be converted to military service does not suggest that the corps members should be sent to engage in daring operations or be sent to the battlefield.
It should only expose them to what military life is like. Maybe some of the corps members would be interested in joining the military after their service year. The skills acquired during the training would also serve the purpose of self-defence and help boost the nation’s security. It will also help in the prevention of some minor offences. • Mrs. Rianat Abdul-Ganiyu, (A Lagos- based teacher)
How can you convert NYSC to military service? Professionally, it is not advisable.
What training do our graduates have that would prepare them for such a conversion? Will you deploy them against Boko Haram insurgents that had been trained in guerrilla warfare? The fact that corps members go through endurance trek and other paramilitary training does not mean they can be converted to soldiers.
You would have to take them through the rigours of military training and you have to consider the health of the individuals. For any graduate to go for the national service he must have completed his university education and you know that everyone is entitled to education, whether you are physically challenged or not, in as much as you are ready to sit and learn.
You cannot begin to subject innocent children to military training because you are short of soldiers to fight an insurgency. I don’t think it should be done. If they need more men in the military, they should recruit those interested in joining the military.
Interest is very important. People have different talents, calling and abilities and so, you cannot subject everybody to something that is outside their calling. You don’t put a square peg in a round hole, it would not be proper.
If you subject those who are interested in joining the service to military training, fine, but you can’t convert NYSC to military training, nobody would want his or her child to go through such a thing. • Ifeoma Iheanacho (Legal practitioner/Executive Director, Advocate of Independent Democratic Forum)
The NYSC scheme should not be converted to military service simply because not all graduates have interest in military service. The scheme should rather be reviewed to give a viable alternative for survival as well as improve professionalism among Nigerian graduates.
The conditions in camp, the allowance and the duration of the service should be re-arranged to guarantee adequate welfare and improved skills. The camp environment, the standard of feeding and general administration must be improved.
The use of corp members as supplementary teachers should be discarded; Corps members should be posted to primary assignments strictly according to profession/course of study.
This will give the graduate an opportunity to practise a profession commensurate with his training in order to help him/her acquire practical knowledge which is currently lacking because of the poor state of our education system.
The NYSC should be reformed to serve the purpose of graduate internship, which will assist in providing the requisite working experience to prepare graduates for life after service.
The stipend paid as remuneration should be reviewed upwards to the level of fresh intakes into the civil service on grade level 08. To pay N19,800 to a fresh graduate in a strange land is not enough to sustain an adult. The service year should be extended to 2 years by this time the graduate must have gathered sufficient experience.
The period will also assist the graduate to save money to start business after the year of service in an event he or she is not retained in his place of primary assignment. This will assist in reducing idleness/unemployment among graduates as well as reduce crime rate and insecurity in our land. •Chinonso Obasi (National President, National Association of Nigerian Students)
Compiled by: Success Nwogu, Friday Olokor, Adelani Adepegba, Kamarudeen Ogundele and Olaleye Aluko
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