THE House of Representatives is
considering discontinuation of the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria Alteration Bill, 2020, which is seeking to repeal the NYSC
Act, is billed for the second reading.
The sponsor, Mr Awaji-Inombek
Abiante, in the explanatory memorandum of the proposal, 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.”
The military regime of General
Yakubu Gowon had established the NYSC on May 22, 1973, under Decree No. 24 of
1973 as a way of reconciling and reintegrating Nigerians after the civil war
between July 6, 1967 and January 15, 1970.
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