CHANGE OF GUARD AT NYSC

1 There is no need to reinvent the wheel at NYSC
After two years as Director General of the National Youth
Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Johnson Olawumi
was recently redeployed by the military authorities. All factors
considered, Olawumi will be remembered as a man who made
the scheme more relevant by introducing a slew of
innovations and while he will be a tough act to follow, his
successor, Brigadier-General Sule Kazaure, should see that as
a challenge, rather than as a reason for despair.
Kazaure, the 17th Director General of NYSC at a time the
nation is facing serious economic challenges, has already
promised to prioritise the welfare of corps members and staff
and has started well, despite the financial constraints that led
to the postponement of the 2016 Batch ‘A’
(Stream 2)
orientation course earlier scheduled to commence last
Saturday. “I know that the tasks ahead are enormous and the
road is rough, but with unity of purpose we will make
progress,” he said. While we wish him well on his new
assignment, Kazaure will do well to continue with some of the
programmes started by his immediate predecessor.
When Olawumi was deployed to NYSC in January 2014, he
announced a vision to increase the impact of the scheme and
expand its value to critical stakeholders. The four-point
agenda he unfolded to drive that vision included improving the
service content of the scheme; enhancing the welfare and
safety of corps members and staff; expanding partnerships for
greater impact, funding and support; and increasing the
visibility and relevance of the scheme.
A major intervention of Olawumi was the Health Initiative for
Rural Dwellers (HIRD) programme, which was designed for
communities where access to healthcare facilities remains a
mirage. Under the initiative, corps members in the medical
field now render healthcare services to some of them on
assigned Saturdays, in addition to their primary assignments
at the teaching hospitals.
Considering that only those who are safe and healthy can
serve the nation effectively, Olawumi also demonstrated
sufficient commitment to the safety and welfare of corps
members. For instance, while 11 NYSC members were lost to
the election crisis of 2011, there were no fatalities during the
2015 general election and the only unfortunate death recorded
was in the course of the Rivers State rerun elections early this
year. That was because, on the eve of the election, Olawumi
embarked on advocacy visits to identified hot-spots where he
and his management team engaged with the leadership of
security agencies, political parties and traditional institutions
on the need to provide protection for corps members.
Perhaps the most controversial intervention under Olawumi’s
watch was the introduction of online processing of call-up
letters for prospective corps members at a fee of N4,000. But
the issue petered out when it became clear that online-
registration fee was optional and those interested in the status
quo of picking up their call-up letters physically from their
schools were still free to do so.
Olawumi also sustained or resuscitated interventions aimed at
improving the capacities of corps members for job creation.
Such included the War Against Poverty programme,
undertaken with support from the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) Office and the Skills Acquisition and
Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SAED) on which
the scheme collaborated with the Bank of Industry. With that,
enterprising corps members could access concessionary loans,
using their NYSC certificates as collateral while the Hope Alive
Initiative, another Olawumi intervention, accorded recognition,
grants and automatic employment for corps members who
incurred permanent disability during their service year.
What the foregoing shows very clearly is that there is no need
for the new DG to reinvent the wheel at NYSC. The structure
to build upon is already there. We wish Kazaure all the best in
his new assignment.