NYSC XP

After recently concluding the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, i want to access the service programme from the day we were mobilized into camp, up to the day of Passing Out. Thankfully, i was able to experience quite a large aspect of the programme (good and bad) and can really write from experience.
The NYSC is an arrangement by the Federal Government of Nigeria for all Nigerian graduates below the age of thirty (30) to serve the nation and get to experience other areas of the country outside their place of domiciliary. This is why sometimes, we find someone who studied in Delta state and resides in Anambra is posted to Osun or Zamfara. Recently due to the security challenges in the country, huge consideration is given to those who would like relocating from volatile areas of the country.
I am a graduate of Business Administration from Bayero University, Kano and was in Ghana when a friend called from school to inform me that the Batch B posting was out and i had been posted to Abia state. With a heavy heart, i set out for Lagos enroute Kano determined to be relocated to Lagos, armed with medical records to convince even the strictest NYSC official of why i could not serve far away from home.
The three (3) weeks we spent in camp were the longest 3 weeks of my life (i think), eating too much carbohydrate, unsalted soup, half-cooked meat (where it is available), and food the size that should be fed to 3 year olds fed to adults. By God’s grace (alone), we survived the 3 weeks in camp and i was relocated out of Abia State.
Getting to Lagos, i got to know (from fellow corpers) that after the initial registration, we had two (2) weeks to bring a Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) of our choice (otherwise we get posted to a random place which is supposed to be the right thing, and i later learnt you can doctor your posting letter ). I put in effort to find a PPA to no avail. Before the 2 weeks lapsed i got my posting letter that read that i had being posted to a bank. Ordinarily i would not like to work in a bank but after putting many things into consideration (money of course the major factor), i decided to take the offer. Meanwhile, my fellow corps members had started work in their various PPAs.
I reported at the head office of the bank and was told to return after a period (which i cannot remember). I was then sent to a branch for an interview which i attended (I remember being asked why i wanted to serve in the bank by an interviewer which i sarcastically answered that i was sent there by NYSC is why). I was told that they will get back to me and i thought, “I’d rather serve in the head office than a freaking branch”. A few days, connects and a note later, i was recalled to do interviews in two head office units (the first unit rejected me cos i put my NYSC registration over resuming to work first. When the unit later recalled me, i told HR i was no longer interested in the unit and HR agreed. Friction even before i started work was not a good omen). I started my service year in the latter unit around mid September and truly enjoyed the experience gained. Before the end of the service year, i was told that i would be required to stay on, but i politely declined.
From my days in camp up to the day i finally collected my certificate (which was not on the day of Passing out Parade (POP) for me but three days after), i discovered that people are so power drunk that even a gateman would want to “unnecessarily” show you that he is in charge and sometimes you have to grease your way out of situations. Added to this is the penchant to want to do things in a crude form (the monthly clearance comes to mind) and the degrading treatment meted out to corpers by their coordinators and staff of NYSC. Even the Community Development Service (CDS) (every corper is mandated to belong to a CD group and contribute to the development of the community he/she falls under) is a farce these days as what obtains is a mere signing of CD cards (which is a card used to monitor attendance). To cap it up, one can desist from attending CDS and still get card the signed off at the end of the service year for final clearance after greasing some palms. There is a computer in the office of the Local Government Inspector (LGI) of the Local Government i was assigned which i have never seen put into use. The whole thing stinks of administrative inadequacies and generational backwardness and any attempt to put in suggestions is met with contempt and automatic black-book entry.
Even with its lapses, i got a lot of experience from the 9 months spent in the bank and know including that in my resume has greatly upped the document. Can same be said of other corpers? Maybe for a minority because a majority end up in schools, and majority of this majority end up teaching subjects that they do not fully understand to children who would end up not doing well in external examinations and later get blamed for not studying hard. The minority of this majority may understand the subjects but lack the required expertise to impart knowledge and end up like their counterparts who know nothing. It is not mandatory that a First-Class Honours Student in Business Administration can teach commerce which is the sad misconception that guides the posting of corpers to schools.
Employers want to see work experience on the resumes of job seekers. Hence it is very clear and fair that a Second-Class lower Business Administration student who spent his one year of service in the marketing section of a multinational oil firm will get picked over a First-Class Honours Business Administration student who spent one year teaching English to Junior Secondary School students in a public secondary school.
I’ll just conclude by stating that the NYSC hierarchy needs to do something about the monthly clearance thing and get the whole NYSC process (from call-up number issuance down to certificate issuance and through the ranks) organized and fully computerized to take the scheme away from the stone-age it currently is struggling under. A proper look at the issue of PPA to favour corpers when they go out into the labour market is also something to revisit and re-organize.