University Alumni want NYSC Scheme to be voluntary
The Association of Nigerian University Alumni (ANUA) has kicked against the scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
However it recommended that the scheme should be made voluntary for graduates.
ANUA Chairman, Dr. Wale Fasakin said scrapping the scheme is a “no go area by the government or anyone”, saying, “If NYSC is scrapped, it will encourage most of the youths to go into crime because of the level of unemployment in the country.”
Daily Trust reports that a Federal lawmaker, Hon. Awaji- Inimbel Abiante (PDP Rivers State), recently proposed a bill for the scrapping of the scheme, citing insecurity and alleged exploitation of corps members in some places of primary assignment.
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But the University Alumni in a statement said the reasons identified by the Reps member Abiante were identified with the Nigerian society but not good enough reasons to scrap the scheme.
“It should be registered that these reasons are identifiable with the Nigerian society wherein the scheme operates, yet they are not very good enough pointers for the scrapping of such laudable programme like the NYSC which has served as one of the tools for the socio-economic development of the country,” said Fasakin.
He described the Bill as the latest in series of attempts to undermine the scheme.
Fasakin who is also the President of University of Ilorin Alumni Association noted that the scheme has served as a viable instrument of exposure for a very large percentage of the growing population of the youths in Nigeria through deployments of corps members to states outside their places of origin to contribute their quota to National development.
ANUA however advised that the issue of insecurity must be addressed frontally by the government in order to guarantee quality assurance of security everywhere in the country.
