Following the spate of insecurity across the country and the incessant killings of corp members who are posted to different parts of the country for the national service, the bill seeking discontinuation of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme has been passed for a second reading by the House of Representatives.
The NYSC Act, which was promulgated by the Yakubu Gowon military administration in May 1973, under Decree No. 24 of 1973 sought to unify and re-integrate Nigerians after a bloody civil war that cost the lives of millions of Nigerians.
While this was a noble cause, the sponsor of the bill in the lower legislative chamber, Mr Awaji-Inombek Abiante, also pointed out the various reasons why the NYSC scheme as it is, should be a thing of the past. The proposal he put forward read in part:
“This bill seeks to repeal Section 315(5)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended) on the following grounds:
“Incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism and ethnic violence; incessant kidnapping of innocent corps members across the country;
“Public and private agencies/departments are no longer recruiting able and qualified Nigerian youths, thus relying heavily on the availability of corps members who are not being well remunerated and get discarded with impunity at the end of their service year without any hope of being gainfully employed;
“Due to insecurity across the country, the National Youth Service Corps management now gives considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thus defeating one of the objectives of setting up the service corps, i.e. developing common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration.”
Meanwhile, the federal government in a bid to empower more Nigerian youths and lift more Nigerians out of poverty has increased the number of beneficiaries of the N-Power Youth Empowerment Scheme from 500,000 to 1 million.
This was revealed by the Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ari, while empowering the graduands of the 2020 National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), who were trained by the ITF in cosmetology, tailoring, and information technology (IT).
In his speech, Mr. Ari, charged the beneficiaries to make use of the training to create wealth for themselves and job opportunities for others – which he indicated is the aim of the government in providing them with the necessary skill and training.
Furthermore, he revealed that the FG has increased the N-Power slot for Nigerian youths from 500,000 to 1,000,000 in an effort geared towards lifting as many Nigerians as possible above the poverty line in the next 10 years.
His statement to that effect read in part:
“The Government also increased the number of beneficiaries under the N-power programme from 500,000 to 1,000,000 amongst other efforts designed to actualize its target of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
“Without the Government’s committed efforts, the unemployment and poverty situation in Nigeria could conceivably have been worse. But going by the report of the survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of Q4 of 2020, to the effect that unemployment was still hovering at over 33 percent while youth unemployment was as high as 44 percent, it is obvious that more needs to be done. What is again very clear is that the efforts of the Federal alone cannot completely solve the problems of poverty and unemployment and the attendant fallouts.
“The problems that stare us in the face today require Nigerians to pull together and synergize as institutions of Government, Corporate bodies, and Non-Governmental Organisations to fully resolve them,” he added.
The N-Power Youth Empowerment Scheme is a flagship Social Investment Programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration that was established in June 2016. The scheme is aimed at addressing issues relating to unemployment among Nigerian youths.
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