Why I sponsored a motion calling for scrapping of NYSC —Reps member

Honourable Olufemi Fakeye, who represents Boluwaduro/Ifedayo/Ila Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, recently moved a motion on the need to investigate the death of Miss Rachael Dolapo Oladepo, a corps member who happened to be one of his constituents. In this interview, he calls for the repositioning of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. KOLAWOLE DANIEL brings excerpts:

 

Following the recent death of a serving youth corps member, Miss Racheal Oladepo, in Kano, you moved a motion seeking for the scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. Do you think the incident was enough reason to call for the scrapping of the scheme?

Let me first say this; the comment of the Director General (DG) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Sule Kazaure, was in bad taste, an afterthought and very shocking. This is because the refutal that the lady had some health challenges-that she has kidney problem-was even an indictment of the NYSC management. Too bad, he is saying this after the death of the lady because that ought to have been found out before she was being listed and deployed for the daily routine rigorous exercises. This is not rocket science; compulsory comprehensive medical examination of youth corps members should have been a mandatory requirement. At least, that would have confirmed the exact medical and physical condition of the youth corps members to guide the orientation camp managers on how to deploy individual youth corps member. Many people don’t even know they have certain health conditions and we have seen where prospective youth corps would insist on participating in the rigorous exercise, oblivious of their health conditions, thinking they are very fit. So, the managers of the scheme ought to have that at the back of their mind and plan for it.

I took a motion on this sad incident to the floor of the House of Representatives and it was extensively debated and one of the issues that came out was that if the NYSC does not have facilities for swift response to youth corps member’s distress call, then do not take them to the camp and subject them to excruciating exercises when they were not about to join the military. Even if you are joining the military, I am aware they have means of assessing the recruits medically because they have sent back some that I recommended on the basis of not being medically fit. Why can’t same thing be replicated at the NYSC?

For the DG to say the corps member died because of kidney condition is not fair and that is a failure on the part of NYSC, which means that they don’t even value the lives of those youth corps members, in the first place. We are discussing a situation whereby Nigerians need to know that this national service is not unto death. Yes, we are all going to die one day, but people in their 20s; our youths should not be dying while on their national service because of the Nigerian factor.

 

 But many people still see the scheme as a unifying factor. Do you still believed it should be scrapped?

This is not just coming from me, even the House is saying it, and which will be communicated to the appropriate authorities, that the country need to determine if we still need the NYSC. If you ask me, I think NYSC should be scrapped. I went through NYSC in the late 70s on the pretext that it brings unity and so forth. Well, I don’t believe Nigeria is more united now than it was in 1977. The fact is that the economic factors and realities of today and then is no longer the same. Back in 1977, my allowance as a youth corps member was N184.00. Out of that money, I lived large; from it, I regularly bought flight tickets from the defunct Nigerian Airways from Lagos to Benin at N35.00. Today, which corps member can afford flight tickets from the allowance they get now on regular basis and still have ample left to enjoy the service year? When I completed the NYSC scheme, I picked and chose jobs. Tell me, which corps member now have the luxury of choosing which job pick? The import of this is that the society, the economy, has left the youth behind. So, why can’t we leave them to face their future, rather than subjecting them to some unnecessary rituals that were sustained probably because some few powerful people were benefitting from it?

 

Some were of the opinion that it should be reorganized. Don’t you agree with them?

Well, the House has called for its reorganisation because there were some lawmakers that felt it can be reorganised to meet today’s challenges. On the other hand, there were others who wanted it scrapped because they believed it has outlived its usefulness. I belong to the latter class. For instance, what is most corps members deployed to the various states used for? Teaching. Are they qualified teachers? Simply because they graduated with Physics or Biology does that qualify them as good science teachers? Unfortunately, some states are leveraging on that and have refused to employ qualified teachers again. Of course, why would they bother when they can rely on cheap labour, forgetting that performance from cheap labour is always suboptimal?

Let me tell you, on the paramilitary routines, I studied abroad but when I returned home and was told that I must serve, I said no, I will not. Why? This is because then, I believed that Nigeria has not done anything for me to compel me to serve her. I went abroad by myself; had to fend for myself; sent myself to school and came back with my Masters at 25. No government is going to tell me where to work or force me to work for it. My dad however insisted that I have to do it. Eventually, I listened to him and did it, but grudgingly. What am I saying?

Let us be fair to our youths, most countries of the world regenerate themselves in their youths by making their youths vibrant and better than the past. What do we have in Nigeria? It is the opposite; Nigeria is eating up her youths. When I moved the motion on the floor, before we were done, five other names of youth corps members that died in orientation camps were added. What do you tell the parents of those kids that were supposed to be on national service? Who were being used as political thugs? Who were being deployed to perpetrate all kinds of crimes? Were they not our youths? We really need to tell ourselves if we need the NYSC. As for me, I don’t think we do, but that’s not for me to decide; it is for Nigerians to decide. As for me, if we want to keep it going, let us be very fair to these children; let there be a proper handling of their logistics.

Is it not sad, this lady left Osogbo Motor Park at 9am, as the father told me, and got to Kano at 1am the following morning; that is in the middle of the night. She had to stay in the vehicle till daybreak when she considered it safe enough to step out before proceeding to the NYSC Orientation Camp. She got to the camp and was immediately shoved to the registration line, with nobody paying attention to the stress of a long tedious journey she went through before getting to the camp. I did the registration in 1977 and the experience was not terribly satisfying then. I know it must be worse now. Good, she survived the registration. The following morning, she was frogged-jumped for reporting late for the morning parade, she told her father. All these are not humane. What is the military training for? Why was no attention paid to her physical condition as a human being to know whether she has any medical conditions or not? When these children have undertaken such long journeys, since majority of them were coming were from far, some consideration ought to be given, since we all know the condition of our roads; they (the children) are not stones.

 

What is the essence of these complaints after the deed had been done?

Well, we cannot reverse the situation, but we can use it to move forward. The father has not said to me that he wants to be compensated; the girl has died and compensation will not bring her back. All he wanted was that the death of his child should not be in vain. How? That the circumstances that led to it should not be glossed over by those in authority, but let it lead to reforms so that other youth corps members and people’s children and parents won’t have to go through this agony any more in the quest of serving their fatherland. All they are praying for is to have the feeling that Ifedapo Oladepo’s death was able to force some reforms. By doing this, her death wouldn’t be so painful to her parents, siblings and friends, if she is holding the torch for others to avoid the pitfall she fell into.