The National Youth Service Corps Scheme which was established by the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon, on May 22, 1973, maybe on the verge of being discontinued as bill seeking to repeal the Scheme, enters second reading in the House of Representatives.
According to the sponsor of the bill, Mr Awaji-Inombek Abiante, the Scheme is no longer serving its purpose which at the time, was meant to be a way of reconciling and reintegrating Nigerians after the civil war between July 6, 1967 and January 15, 1970.
Abiante made the statement in an explanatory memorandum of the proposal, where he listed the various reasons why the NYSC should be scrapped.
It 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.”