NYSC has failed, only worked in the past – Sam Amadi

The Director of the Abuja School of Social Thought and Politics, Sam Amadi, on Friday said the National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, has failed, stressing that it only worked in the past.

Amadi said what he described as ‘self-select’ tendencies among the elite has undermined the scheme.

Featuring on Arise Television’s Morning Show, Amadi said: “Most elites now self-select, I can’t tell everybody who call me from my village that my son is going for NYSC, I want him in Abuja, Lagos, everybody self-selects so that defeats the fundamental framework of the scheme.

“The ministry that oversees it doesn’t have the resources to provide protocol that protects as we have seen stories of young people die so that also creates resentment as corps members are not happy, maybe they indulge in it because there is no job.

“I think that we need to tell ourselves the truth that this scheme has failed fundamentally. It worked in the past but Nigeria’s problems is no longer about knowing how people in Kebbi behave, we have got enough of those samplings, symbolisms, its not a question of state craft.”

Amadi noted that graduates should not be deployed to states that are unsafe.

“We have this tendency of sharing everything in common, the NYSC is not a representative position, if Imo State is unsafe to deploy people, don’t deploy people because there is nothing that the state loses that year. It’s not like we are sharing the national cake, Kano has got, Lagos has got, why did Imo not get?

“It should be about the students themselves, about the nation solving strategic national development. The point is that this scheme, there is nothing honourable about it and I also think that the number should be reduced.

“It was designed when we had a small population of graduates but today we are producing too many. Polytechnics are there, school of nursing are there.

“I agree that it should be suspended in some places and focused on national needs. Maybe it should consider not taking everybody who graduates so that students compete for this national honour so they get value and a badge,” he said.