On monthly stipends of corps members alone, the Federal Government has spent at least N475.2 billion between 2020 and 2023, The Guardian estimates reveal.
At the estimated cost of N120 billion yearly amid austerity, the ideals of the National Youth Service Corps are in for relevance and sustainability crises, Iyabo Lawal writes.
Relatedly, the government increased the monthly allowance paid to corps members from N9,775 to N19,800, in March 2011. As of that time, they earned a monthly stipend of N19,800, N18,000 minimum wage plus 1,800 as transport allowance. In its 2018 budget, the NYSC revealed it spent N11,651,846,453 on kitting, transport allowances and feeding for 350,000 corps members. It was the same in 2019.
In 2017, NYSC stated it mobilised 297,293 corps members nationwide, spending N67,383,359,602 on allowances. The figures indicate a year-on-year increase in the agency’s budget as the number of corps members increased by about 50 per cent. Nigeria spends billions of naira annually to pay the allowances of thousands of graduates enrolled each year by NYSC. Since 1973, the scheme has become an integral part of higher education in Nigeria, following its integration as a compulsory service for graduates.
However, over the years, the benefits of the NYSC scheme have been questioned, especially as it gulps billions of naira in scarce funds annually and has regularly become a source of controversy due to the danger, economic hardship, and insecurity it exposes graduates to. Corps members are largely perceived as not adding further value apart from teaching at schools and working with the Independent National Electoral Commission as ad hoc staff during elections, except for a few with differing views.
Chukwu said he is not sure the Federal Government wants to expand the benefits of the scheme beyond the Skill and Entrepreneurship Development , a training programme to empower corps members to become entrepreneurs and create jobs. But the Director-General, Brig.-Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, thought otherwise. “Corps members are on reserve. They are part of the national defence policy of this country. So, where there is serious war, our corps members are educated. They are knowledgeable, and they can be trained . You see the drill and so on,” Ibrahim said.In the last general elections, corps members were subjected to violence. Previous years had been the same.
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