By Emmanuel Onwubiko
At a recent star-studded symposium in Abuja in which there was an array of about six professors who delivered well researched and empirically verifiable lectures on the desirability and functional necessity of what is called NYSC’ Youth Trust Fund, I was ever the more convinced that the idea if it materializes will provide succor to hundreds of thousands of unemployed youths. Some of these University teachers who spoke on different but interconnected topic of the fundamental objectives for Nigeria putting up a sustainable platform from which creative minded and entrepreneurial youngsters that have had their one year compulsory National Service (NYSC) include Professors Ukerto Gabriel Moti, C.B.N Ogbogbo, Mutiu Matiu Adejo, Okpeh Ochayi Okpeh and Godwin Abu.
As a philosopher, the specific lecture that tickled my fancy was the one delivered by Professor Okpeh in which he summed up the overview of the imperatives of an NYSC Trust Fund. Professor Okpeh itemized eight solid and rational reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly should bring to life a legal framework for the establishment of the NYSC Youth Trust Fund. Professor Okpeh’s eight Professorial and empirical reasons backing the establishment of the Trust Fund for Youth doing the NYSC are as follows: Rapid increase in the population of the country since the decades of the decades after the Nigerian Civil War. From about 60 million in the early 1970s, the nation’s population is today above 200million; There has been a steady rise in the demand for formal education across all zones of the country. He argued that as at September 2021, the country have 170 universities (43 Federal Universities, 48 State Universities, 79 private universities); In addition, the country has 43 polytechnics (17 Federal and 26 state owned). Of course these figures exclude those illegally operating across the country. In consequence, there has been a steady rise in the population of the youths, considered to be the future of the country, he submitted. This, he said, has remained a constant factor in the proliferation of institutions of higher learning in the country in the last three to four decades. Besides, the learned mind affirmed that the number of corps members have also tremendously increased over the decades; From a mere 2,364 at inception, the scheme now mobilizes 350, 000 qualified Nigerian graduates, making it the largest youth social institution in Africa”. Professor Armstrong Mattie particularly thrilled the audience with his presentation which spoke to the issue of necessity to recalibrate the NYSC for the 21st Century nation building challenges just as he justified the call for the establishment of an NYSC’s Youth Trust Fund by President Buhari. Hear him: The idea of a national service has global roots but every nation creates its own national values and institutions in which its core national interests are reflected and to which its citizens are committed. The idea of national service is (thus) a critical component of citizens’ expressive solidarity with national goals.
It has been largely associated with the military service in its primary purpose of defending the nation. Okpeh Okpeh identifies three main typologies of national services globally and these include: compulsory military service/conscription, mandatory national service scheme and voluntary national service. The mandatory national service is the type in which youths are required to serve the nation for a definite period of time and they are trained to acquire requisite skills for future challenges. This is the typology in which the Nigeria scheme falls. The NYSC scheme, he asserted is also an instrument of credible motivation of the nation’s youth to patriotic duties, as well as encouraging the movement of labour. Consequently, the Corps members have had the opportunity of living and interacting with fellow Nigerians of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, at least for a period of one year. A second major contribution of the Scheme is in the area of labour mobility just as he noted that through its development policy, the Scheme has been able to reasonably reverse the trend of uneven distribution of high-level quality manpower in Nigeria as the members served in various sectors, especially in the rural areas. Thirdly, by implication and arising from the training programmes, the Scheme has done reasonable well in instilling discipline, focus and high sense of purpose use in the nation’s youth, he affirmed. The Professor then states that ordinarily, a Trust Fund is a legal entity that holds property or assets on behalf of another person, group or organization.26 It can hold a variety of assets such as money, real property, stocks and bonds, a business or a combination of many different types of properties or assets. The primary motivation for establishing a Trust Fund is for an individual or entity to create a vehicle that sets terms for the way assets are to be held, gathered or distributed in the future. He said given the need to recalibrate the NYSC scheme within the intention of keeping to the dictates of the 21st century, and to assuage some of the problems challenging the Scheme’s vision and mandate, especially to re-activate the NYSC investment platform and uphold and modernize the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) Programme, the idea of a Trust Fund is a necessity.
It will create partial or full financial autonomy for the scheme in funding its operations and providing window for drawing capital for the entrepreneurial exploits after the service year. Also, he stated that the benefits of the fund will include unburdening the government of being the sole financier as presently obtained; reduce the menace of unemployment; curb the increasing rate of crime by meaningfully engaging youths after the service. The good news is that there appears to be a favourable disposition of the federal government to this proposal, especially the President who is passionate about youth engagement and empowerment, he emphasized. For him, the objectives of a Proposed Bill for an Act to establish the NYSC Trust Fund (NYSCTF) among other things, provides insight into what is expected as it harps on sustainable source of funds for the NYSC for some of the following: Skill acquisition training and provision of startup capital for corps members; Train and retrain the personnel of the NYSC; Develop camps and NYSC formations and provide facilities; Improve the general welfare of corps members and personnel of the scheme. On the mandate of NYSC when viewed side by side with the proposal for a youth trust fund, the professor said: A core mandate of the National Youth Service Corp scheme as enshrined in the NYSC Act is to: S. 1(2)(c)The development of the Nigerian Youth and Nigeria into a great and dynamic economy; S.1(3)(d) to enable Nigerian youths to acquire the spirit of self-reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self employment; S.1(3)(e) contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy; S1(4)(f) to induce employers, partly through their experience with members of the service corps, to employ more readily qualified Nigerians irrespective of their states of origin.
Onwubiko is head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)