House to consider bill seeking to scrap NYSC

By Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives is considering scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Alteration Bill, 2020, which is seeking to repeal the NYSC Act, has been billed for second reading.

The sponsor, Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, in the explanatory memorandum of the proposal, listed the various reasons why the NYSC should be scrapped.

One of the reasons, according to Abiante, is due incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism and ethnic violence.

The statement read: ‘’This bill seeks to repeal Section 315(5)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) on the following grounds-incessant killing of innocent corps members in some parts of the country due to banditry, religious extremism and ethnic violence; incessant kidnapping of corps members across the country.

“Public and private agencies and departments are no longer recruiting able and qualified Nigerian youths, thus relying heavily on the availability of corps members who are not being well remunerated, and get discarded with impunity at the end of their service year without any hope of being gainfully employed. Due to insecurity across the country, the NYSC management now gives considerations to posting corps members to their geopolitical zone, thus defeating one of the objectives on which the Corps was set up i.e. ‘developing common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration’.”