By Jude Opara, Abuja
The Chairman of the board of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Ntufam Hilliard Etta says time has come for the country to use the NYSC scheme to further national development by ensuring that the young people who take part in the scheme were given vocational training to make them more useful and self reliant.
Etta who spoke to newsmen after a courtesy call on the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje said he has the blueprint of how the scheme could be properly streamlined to make sure that the university graduates who may be unemployable have other uses that can add to the development of the country.
He noted that in some other countries, such schemes were used even as a reservoir for the military even as reserves who could be recalled in emergencies.
“Of course with the population of over 200 million people, only about half a million in uniform is completely inadequate. Countries like Israel, and South Korea use this kind of scheme to enhance their security. It is possible for us to do so even if we must train them and put them in their reserves.
“What I think we should do generally when we come on board is to give the stakeholders and other Nigerians the opportunity to actually think through how this scheme can be used for entrance into the security agencies.
“There are so many things to be worked out whether it is going to optional or compulsory. While as I think about this, they are issues that I would need to consult with other stakeholders”.
However, the former National Deputy Chairman (South) of the APC said despite the laudable initiatives he has, there is little or nothing he could do because curiously, four months after their appointment by President Bola Tinubu, the board is yet to be inaugurated.
He nevertheless refused to apportion blame to any office or personality as responsible for the failure to inaugurate the boards four months after.
“I cannot say on whose table is responsible for what has happened to the process but I do know that Ministry such as Agriculture, Water Resources have had the inauguration of their chairmen. I also know that in the governing board of the NYSC, we have institutional representations, some from the Police, Army, Committee of Rectors, Vice Chancellors, among others. You may not know whether they are yet to nominate their representatives. This could be part of the reasons that may be causing the delay for the inauguration.
“On whether it has affected our operation, I will say definitely yes because I am supposed to manage the board and if I don’t have a composed board to chair, it will definitely affect the operations of the NYSC. The board is quite central to the operations of the scheme.
“Having said so, I want to say that the scheme could be used to create the biggest and largest empowerment programme that any government can possibly conceive. The truth is that most graduates of our High Institutions are no more employable. And because they are without skills, they have become a burden to the system.
“So, my intention is to use the scheme to change the narrative as we have it today in Nigeria. It is also possible for the scheme to create a process where every graduate from tertiary institution is trained properly. Good enough, the scheme has what is called Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) but I believe that it will be comprehensively overhauled and made the central focus of the scheme.
“There are so many things we will do with the scheme. In fact, take the uniform if the NYSC. That uniform was first fashioned in 1973 and even the most conservative military formation, the Army, has had its uniform changed overtime for about two to three times from 1973.
It’s quite embarrassing that the demography, between the ages of 18 to 30, that is the most fashionable in Nigeria is forced to wear the kind of dress they wear and call it uniform.
“It is also important that we look at the demography that is within that scheme that are in other parts of the world that are depended on to create new things, especially in the ICT and AI industries of today. If you go the 37 camps, apart from two or three camps, like Port Harcourt, Nasarawa and perhaps Bauchi, other camps are not all that conducive for these people to excel. I believe that we should do something about the camps because I believe that they should be upgraded to a smart camp to the point that they can be trained in ICT and AI. They should have the ability to do so much in the camps. But I am just the chairman designate and there is very little I can do without the board. So I will wait for the board to be inaugurated”, he concluded.
