The Director of the Abuja School of Social Thought and Politics, Sam Amadi, has declared that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme has fundamentally failed in achieving its original objectives, urging the Federal Government to reform the programme and suspend deployments to insecure states.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Friday, Amadi argued that the realities that justified the establishment of the NYSC have changed, while increasing insecurity and elite manipulation have weakened the scheme’s effectiveness.
According to him, the growing practice of influential Nigerians ensuring their children are posted to preferred locations has undermined the programme’s core objective of promoting national unity through inter-state deployment.
“Most elites now self-select. I can’t tell everybody who calls me from my village that my son is going for NYSC. I want him in Abuja or Lagos. Everybody self-selects, so that defeats the fundamental framework of the scheme,” he said.
Amadi also expressed concern over the safety of corps members, noting that the ministry overseeing the scheme lacks adequate resources to guarantee their security.
He said repeated reports of corps members losing their lives have created resentment among participants, many of whom only take part because of limited employment opportunities.
“I think that we need to tell ourselves the truth that this scheme has failed fundamentally. It worked in the past, but Nigeria’s problem is no longer about knowing how people in Kebbi behave. We have had enough of those samplings and symbolisms. It’s no longer a question of statecraft,” he stated.
The public policy expert further argued that graduates should not be deployed to states facing serious security challenges, insisting that no state loses anything if deployment is temporarily suspended.
“If a state is unsafe to deploy people, don’t deploy them because there is nothing that the state loses that year. It should be about the students themselves and about solving strategic national development challenges,” he said.
Amadi also proposed reducing the number of participants in the scheme, arguing that the rapid increase in graduates from universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions has made the programme difficult to sustain.
He suggested that participation should become competitive, with only a select number of graduates chosen to serve.
“Maybe it should consider not taking everybody who graduates so that students compete for this national honour, so they get value and a badge,” he added.
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