No doubt, Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) has been a programme which is usually welcomed with mixed feelings by all Nigerian graduates and citizens. The most vocal critics of this Programme is Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade.
Looking into the reason why NYSC has so many critics and supporters, you’ll may be confused who to support. In NYSC, there is always the epic tales – of good, bad, ugly and unbelievable experiences of young Nigerians during the nation’s youth corp programme which is mandatory.
Any Nigerian graduate (from Universities/Polytechnics or any other institution) who has undergone this compulsory one-year service will identify with the following challenges which I shared below. (However, for those who are yet to served their fatherland, I’ll recommend you to anticipate them).
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Posting Tension
Before facing any challenge in NYSC, Posting Tention is the first of many challenges. The fear of being sent to an unknown destination as their Primary place of Assignment (PPA) is one that prospective corp members usually have to wrestle with.
Truly, it does not matter whether your uncle is friends with the director-general of NYSC, there are times when you wonder what would happen if you’re posted to a remote town that has nothing to offer.
Although certain numbers of Corper’s will cherish the chance to explore a new culture, taste new meal, etc, Most corp members usually dread having to go far away from home or serve in a place where it’s not Bubbling.
Camp Activities and Morning Drills.
Camp activities is another challenge most corpers faced, including the early morning drills. Starting from registration to the 4 am morning drills, the 3-week orientation exercise (by the way, is very compulsory for all NYSC corpers) can be a nightmarish experience for corp members.
Camp activities includes daily lectures which the NYSC DG intends to educate and expose corp members to entrepreneurial opportunities, could drag on for hours without end. Programmes like these usually makes Corp members begin to day-dream of lunchtime.
Primary Place of Assignment.
Although few National Youth Corp members are spared of this challenge, most who are affected can testify to the hardship that one encounters when it comes to securing an organization to work with for the service year.
We discovered that many youth corp members eventually resign to fate and settle with becoming a teacher for the mandatory one year scheme, which was not their initial plan. It’s usually bad that these graduates are not sent to places related to the course they studied in School.
Monthly Clearance
One of the most difficult time in this programme is when it’s time for Monthly Clearance. When it comes for the NYSC monthly clearance, anyone that has gone through the NYSC programme, would understand how tiring the process can be.
Now, before you’ll say it’s normal process in Nigeria, you should know that getting the monthly clearance done is most often in four stages.
Before the scheme pays a youth corper their monthly allowance, they are first required to submit a clearance letter for signing, carry out thumbprinting, and write down their account details and eventually submit the files and await bank alerts.
This process, despite how easy it is explained above and it seems so, is hard to accomplished.
Accommodation
Youth corp Members usually finds it difficult to get accomodation in nice area’s, especially those who get posted to states outside their states of residence, accommodation can be a big problem, looking at how much is the salary of a Youth corper.
The truth is that you can get a comfortable place anywhere (Most likely), but the challenge there is to pay for it, and the usual N19,800 monthly NYSC salary may not afford you the luxury.
Catcalls.
Though this certainly affects the better half of corpers. If you’re a female Youth corper, then walking on the streets in your NYSC uniform has its rewards — catcalls.
It will be your choice to either decide whether to ignore or acknowledge the calls like “corper”, “Otondo” and every other nickname Nigerians have coined for corp members, over the years.
- What do you think of this?
- Do you think we missed other challenges faced by the National Youth Service Corps Members
- What challenges have you faced or currently facing as a Corper?
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