NYSC, TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

 

It is debatable if the national youth service scheme- a project designed by the Nigerian government nearly twenty five years ago to empower young Nigerian graduates with a sense of nationalism and pride-is meeting its set objectives. One of the project’s main aims was to make young Nigerian graduates learn the culture and ways of other parts of the country unfamiliar to the participant by posting them to these places.

The early participants of the programme in the 1970’s and 80’s often recall with nostalgia their experiences throughout the one year programme which eventually became mandatory for all  graduates   below the age of 30. The gains of the programme were immense, beside the socio-cultural exposure; participants were indoctrinated into the ideals of good working ethics. Also a number of graduates who excelled received national honors and quite a number were retained in their places of assignment. Their families with a sense of pride glowed at the resplendent sight of their wards in the brown khaki caps and pants with the white NYSC inscribed vests march in military precision down the parade ground during the corpers induction and passing-out.

But today, the story is totally different. A Large number of corps members view the scheme as a sheer waste of time due to the fact that more than 75% of them are made to teach in primary or secondary schools in rural areas where there are no basic infrastructure, no electricity, no telecommunication, no adequate water supply and even the accommodation given to some of the corps members is better imagined than seen. Though they are not expected to dwell in luxurious homes, I strongly believe that they need to be comfortable so they can serve their fatherland with some degree of dignity.

So where did it all go wrong? Redeployment which used to be a rather complex process is fast becoming the easiest way out of avoiding being sent to a remote part of the country; with the right connection ‘thy command becomes thy wish’ , corpers fraudulently doctor medical reports to avoid taking part in the physicals, even marriage certificates so they can redeploy to their choice locations. The most amazing thing is that a great number of the graduates don’t show up at their places of primary assignment instead in a clandestine arrangement with errant supervisors are paid off to be quiet; the dubious corps member however returns at the end of the programme to pick up his/her certificate after 11 months in hiding.

The big question then is why bother then with the scheme, the answer lies in a nation’s craze behind CERTIFICATES ; as longer as you have the NYSC certificate, it is your visa to a job. Getting it right means deemphasizing the ‘obtaining a certificate -at- all- costs culture’. Some have even argued that making the scheme non- compulsory would help reduce the heavy expenditure the government bears just in conducting a programme that is quickly becoming obsolete.

Jennifer, CONNECTAFRICA

A WHIFF OF RACISM

 Just when I begin to think racial discrimination is a rare and distant memory for many Londoners, it rears its head in my office. After a while of tremors and silent infighting, things erupt and suddenly the office is polarized into an unwholesome white and black divide.

Anyway, I work in an environment where for some rather strange reason; the staffs keep running off the black team managers. I happened to get pretty close to the one next in line to leave and was heartbroken to hear this week that she had handed in her resignation. Looking at her I wondered what and who could send such a resilient, tough-talking and intelligent woman from a job everyone knows she loves.

It just so happens that all they had to do was to isolate her. For example, she receives little support from her line manager. You know what I mean, in that sort of way that a policeman who shot an innocent citizen accidentally can be covered by his boss and by the association that covers him. In this case, once a black manager got reported by the most insignificant staff, there was absolute no back up.  At least, that’s what this team manager faced. In fact, she told me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when after all her hard work, managing at least 3 high-profile teams (one is usually the norm) without support and with outstanding expertise

She was the cynosure of every eye at a meeting of senior executives (and this grandmother is no young woman), the chairs were drawn away from around her and as they all watched her grim-faced, one said “so who made you team manager of these teams?”

She was put on the spot like a child and grilled about her work. She felt humiliated and belittled. Now even though this is not common practice especially when you have been left without support, one might say it might argue that this could happen to anyone from any race. On returning to the team, there were allegations against her by her team members that she was racially biased. She proved her innocence by showing she didn’t actually select the black people in the team nor did she interview the applicants alone. Still the non-black team members wanted her gone as they did the Nigerian manager before her (she’s South African). I say their fate is better than the Mauritian manager before them who died on the job one week to retirement!

It all boils down to this: it’s a stressful job (which explains why only blacks would take it). But it’s not all doom and gloom. I’ve seen the power of Christ expressed in firm love break through the dividing walls of suspicion and bitterness and racism and separatism and … the list goes on. But I’ve seen it happen over and over and over again

Life goes on and life is for the living. I say you’ve got to trust God in your daily walk wherever you are in the world and that’s the sum of it.

Jean, GUEST AUTHOR

STOPPING AN EXODUS

There is a popular Nigerian idiom that many people travel as far as Sokoto- the farthest point of northern Nigeria- in search of what is in their sokoto (pocket); a local pun  but in truth a candid explanation of why several Africans are checking out. In search of the proverbial Golden Fleece a great number of Africans continue to flood western foreign embassies, traipse the Sahara and swim the Mediterranean in search of greener pastures. Evidently the gloomy stories and gory pictures of illegal emigrants drowning in the deadly Mediterranean and several hundred shot dead at the Moroccan and Spanish border crossing by mendacious security forces failed to leave an impression. At several western embassies in Nigeria it is a common sight to see several youths pushing and shoving for an interview slot; many of them fail to go through the proverbial eye of the needle. A recent report by the British embassy in Nigeria revealed that only 20% of visa applicants from Nigeria to Britain received a positive response. Unfortunately, year in, year out the numbers increase and the vaults of the foreign embassies continue to grow as immigration regulations gets tighter. Foreign propaganda embedded in American entertainment; movies and music, where fast cash, cars and life are glorified have helped to spur the wandering appetites of several African youths into this surreal miasma of foreign exodus.

So armed with everything but nothing, that’s if they are fortunate to have a university education, the lucky emigrants arrive on foreign soil only to realize to their consternation that the movies failed to warn them of a hostile economic environment where the best jobs go the nationals and the migrants get the scraps. Those who are subservient take up menial jobs while the others take to crime and a very small minority gets on fairly well. In this polarized world it’s no reason why the numbers of Africans in foreign jails continue to soar. Getting it right means African governments may have to think deeper than just vague speeches and manifestos to get their countries off international aid organization’s daily hand outs. Rich African nations must grow their domestic economies with sustainable agricultural programs to meet the needs of poorer African countries,  for in that way we are indeed our brother’s keeper and maybe this cancerous exodus could be remitted.

Emmafemi. CONNECTAFRICA