The Chairman-designate of the National Youth Service Corps Governing Board has called on the federal government to amend the legal framework establishing the scheme, arguing that it has largely outlived its original purpose of fostering national unity and must now be retooled to serve as a driver of industrial and economic development through practical skills training.
Chief Hilliard Etta made the argument while speaking to journalists in Abuja, noting that the corps scheme was created in 1972 by former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon to promote unity in the aftermath of the civil war, yet Nigeria remained as divided today as it had been at the time of the scheme’s establishment, raising fundamental questions about what had been achieved over five decades.
He argued that the scheme’s legal framework needed to be amended to reflect current national realities and redirect the one-year service period toward intensive capacity building, entrepreneurship, and vocational training that would equip graduates with the practical skills demanded by today’s labour market.
“NYSC should now be repositioned to drive national economic development through industrial skills acquisition, entrepreneurship and vocational training. Our graduates are not employable; they have no skills. This scheme can be used to turn around the fortunes of Nigeria industrially,” he said.
Etta said corps members should complete the programme with marketable, globally relevant skills capable of contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s industrial ambitions, rather than spending a year in activities with limited economic utility.
On the long delay in inaugurating the Governing Board despite its composition in August last year, Etta said he had been informed during a visit to the Minister of Education that a presidential directive was still being awaited, describing the delay as unnecessary and long overdue. He also called on state governments to fulfil their statutory responsibility to build and maintain habitable orientation camps for corps members as required under the establishing legislation.
