NYSC adopts new orientation course

The 2011 general elections that claimed the lives of some corps members, who were employed as ad hoc staff put government on its toes when concerned people intensified the call for the scrapping of the scheme.
Apart from the security challenges facing the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, there is also a financial burden, which the government claimed it spends N7billion on the exercise yearly without the guarantee of employment for the youths.
To arrest the problem besetting the scheme, a new posting policy was, last week, unveiled by the Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, as part of the reform agenda of the Federal Government to revamp the scheme. Abdullahi said NYSC was becoming moribund, which called for an urgent need to overhaul the scheme for better result after 38 years of existence.
The minister said the scheme lost its glory because of distortions in the system that brought about untapped potential among youths that can transform the country. “Current realities have resulted to the need to improve security for members of the service posted to various parts of the country,” Abdullahi said, adding that “interference by members of the elite is affecting the equitable distribution of the members of the service.”
He insisted that the consequences would be grave for the scheme if identified challenges were not addressed, mentioning rural health, education, infrastructure and agriculture as key sectors where the new posting policy of corps members would be focused. 
“The possible contributions of NYSC’s new reform policy include economic development, labour supply, strengthening value system, unity and national integration, patriotism and national loyalty to provide a sought-after experience that brings value to youths and the nation,” Abdullahi noted.
The Minister said President Goodluck Jonathan had approved the implementation of the reform, which he would personally implement with the assistance of the Director-General of NYSC, noting that there would be no preferential posting for foreign students.
To ensure inter-ministerial cooperation in driving the new policy, Abdulahi said, it made his ministry to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Health in the posting of corps members to ensure active participation in the provision of primary health care, especially in the rural areas.
The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi  Chukwu, wanted a situation whereby corps members would be deployed to areas that will help the ministry attain its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and midwives’ services scheme which were being handled in the 36 states of the federation.
Chukwu said corps members would be required to supervise all the components of primary health care, maternal health, immunisation, behavioural change education and disease surveillance. “We are not just talking about medical doctors but health workers that can form what we call a formidable department in our local government. They (corps members) have many things they can do, they can supervise immunisation, water sanitisation and so on.”