The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a paramilitary scheme established by law on 22nd May 1973 after the Nigerian Civil War with the sole motive of strengthening and restructuring the Nigerian State as well as creating a greater solidarity among the members of the country.

The scheme is compulsory for every Nigerian graduate whose age falls between eighteen (18) to thirty (30) years irrespective of the country in which the university or polytechnic he/she attended is situated, provided it is a recognized institution.

Youth corps members can be defined as a group of Nigerian youths that are being mobilized to serve the country in their respective capacities having successfully completed their degree or higher diploma programmes in any recognized higher citadel of learning across the globe.

It’s noteworthy that the National Youth Service Programme is divided into three major segments namely; the Orientation Camping, the Place of Primary Assignment (PPA), and the Community Development Service (CDS) respectively.

The Orientation Camping, which is a core paramilitary training, enables the corps members to be physically and mentally prepared to face their subsequent endeavours. The PPA segment, which creates a platform for them to be posted to various establishments in respect of their respective qualifications, is an avenue for them to practice whatever they have learnt during their school days.

Whilst, the CDS section is designed to ensure that each of the corps members, either individually or collectively, contribute his or her quota towards the development of their host communities.

In recent years, many pressing issues have been raised regarding the real essence of mobilizing fresh Nigerian graduates under the aegis of the NYSC. The outpouring enquiries or questions from the general public were not unconnected with their quest towards ascertaining the actual socio-economic significance of the scheme.

Indeed, the most distinct feature of the NYSC scheme, which has to do with deploying the fresh graduates or the prospective corps members to states or zones they may have not been before, remains the major recipe that has enabled the scheme to genuinely contribute its quota to Nigeria’s economic platform.

For instance, considering electoral matters, a corps member who hails from Sokoto State and is being deployed to serve in Anambra State stands to be neutral if being assigned to function as an ad-hoc Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) official in any locality in Anambra State because he/she would barely know any of the aspirants or contestants or would in no way be a relative to any of them.

The above narrative would no doubt create an avenue for a transparent voting system at the polls since the corps member would have no personal interest in regard to the election(s) in question.

Furthermore, the recent introduction of the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) training in the NYSC scheme is simply not unlike placing a round peg in a round hole. The SAED programme was founded to enable the corps members to be well informed and orientated on the importance of entrepreneurship as well as equip them with the required skills towards the establishment of vocational outfits of their choice.

Since the invention of the platform, most Nigerian graduates who had successfully completed their NYSC programmes have been opportune to become self-employed or better still employers of labour in various fields of endeavour.

On the other hand, the role of the NYSC scheme in job creation cannot be overemphasized. Apparently, the scheme has enabled thousands of unemployed Nigerians to be gainfully employed, thereby making them financially independent or useful in their various families.

It suffices to say that the scheme has not only helped in creating a greater solidarity among the Nigerian youth as its aim implies, but has also succeeded in uplifting the socio-economic and political platform of the country.

Since the NYSC scheme has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that it is indeed a worthwhile scenario, there is need for the crusade regarding its sustenance to be intensified. Against this backdrop, it is worthy to note that reviewing some of its prime challenges is long overdue.

Currently, the corps members are being paid the sum of #32,000. Considering the present economic situation in the country coupled with the fact that most of these corps members are not provided with accommodation spaces by their places of primary assignment, there is an urgent need for the government to review the said allowance with a view of increasing the amount in question for the interest of the corps members, their various families, and Nigeria at large.

It is so pathetic to observe that most of these corps members are still being catered for by their respective parents or guardians due to the inability of their monthly allowances to properly take care of them, especially the female ones that are considered to be more demanding owing to their natural needs.

In view of this, the government should not hesitate to embark on an onward review of the said stipend that is presently causing several of our learned youths more harm than good, which could make them a nuisance to their various societies.

Also, the members of the legislature ought to as a matter of urgency endeavour to sign the anticipated new allowance into law as soon as the bill is made available to them by the executive arm.

On their part, the civil society groups must help to ensure that the suggested measure is considered seriously by the various arms of government. The relevant authorities must be continually reminded to do the needful.

Similarly, the SAED initiative needs to equally be reviewed for onward restructure. The essence of the technically-driven scheme must be intensified, having observed that the personnel meant to protect the initiative have on the contrary ended up abusing it.

Most importantly, every concerned stakeholder ought to acknowledge the fact that the proposed or anticipated reform is long overdue, therefore should not be taken for granted.

Everyday we get to hear and see in the news how aggrieved bank customers stormed into the banking hall to cause commotion and disruption of the banking activities until someone in the authority attended to their displeasures for the reason of being cheated by the banks or their monies stolen “by the bank”. 

The recent news of these was the man that invaded a bank in Delta state this week and carried the bank’s printer and another computing system for the bank having debited him unnecessarily and said he will take the bank’s computing equipment home to sell to recover his money unless the bank refunds him the money they debited from his bank account.

Customers that have resorted to self-help, invade banks to register their displeasures. These forms of crude behavior should never be encouraged and allowed to thrive in a sane and civilized society like Nigeria. Many bank customers have been seen numerous times causing commotions inside the bank hall, cursing and cursing the staff and management of the bank, and disrupting bank activities to the displeasure of both the bank staff and the bank customers present at the bank at the time to carry out their transactions. 

This method of bank customers resorting to self-help should never be allowed to be the order of the day but when citizens feel they have been taken for a ride in so many ways and the court system is slow in dispensing justice then you will see reasons with the narcissistic behaviors displayed by some customers. 

Self-help is frowned at in every legal system, it is a jungle justice and when every aggrieved citizen engages in self-help then the judiciary will be of no use and the society will collapse into a jungle back to its raw state of nature which according to Thomas Hobbes,  the society will become nasty, brutish and short and this should never be the end-result of a man in a developed society like Nigeria.

Banks should take a thorough auditorial review into the incessant charges and debits that their customers face and get from the bank. Some of the charges are uncalled for and it can only be said to be stealing; it’s either the bank is stealing from their customers or the bank is experiencing system glitches, whichever it is, it should be fixed as soon as possible and this should never grant angry customers who cannot endure the charges and debits the push to resort to self-help in disrupting banking hall activities and leading to the break down of law and order.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has on many occasions made regulatory policies and rules to curtail and put in check the incessant bank charges and debits that bank customers get from commercial banks and it can only appear that some commercial banks in Nigeria don’t want to play by the good books of upholding the right banking ethics and obeying the CBN’s financial regulations. 

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (Fccpc) which is the governmental body established to look into issues of this nature are not doing enough in looking after bank customers and putting a check on the internal affairs of commercial banks in Nigeria. 

Commercial banks in Nigeria should endeavor to fix their system glitches and fish out the staff and if need be fire those staff that have displayed some level of kleptomania so as not to push their customers to start taking laws into their hands.

The last time I painstakingly checked, Nigeria had entered yet another political era that is meant to usher in another interregnum in the country’s political system. The last time Nigerians witnessed such a moment was in 2018.

We aren’t unaware that a period of this kind is usually characterized with a lot of intrigues and intricacies, hence this very one wouldn’t be exceptional.

Soonest various political parties domiciled in the country would, according to the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), be involved in their respective primary elections towards nominating the candidates that would be posing as their flag-bearers for the impending polls.

This implies that, at the moment, several aspirants are littered all over Nigeria in the name of looking forward to occupying the number one seat in the country, or any other post, as the case may be, after the awaited expiration of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

Presently, each of these aspirants is deeply involved in consultation tours across the length and breadth of the country. In the visit, he would be opportune to meet with the leadership of the political party in which he belongs.

In every tour any of them embarked upon, as the custom demands, he is expected to therein formally disclose to the hosting group his intention to vie for a certain political seat come 2023. He would equally be required to tender his mission statement. In other words, he would be expected to tell the people what he intends to achieve if eventually elected as the President or what have you.

A tradition of this type didn’t commence now or this year. It’s needless to state that it has been one of the features of any pre-electioneering era. It’s noteworthy that, in most cases, the hosting group is usually induced with a huge sum of money with the aim of seeking their collective support.

However, it’s also worthy of note that, at such a time like this, most of these aspirants are mere pretenders while just a few are contenders. What I’m saying in essence is that most of these men who have disclosed interest to emerge as Nigeria’s President, for instance, come 2023, are only pretenders whilst only few of them are truly seeking for the number one position.

It’s imperative for us to comprehend that those I referred to as pretenders are only interested in distracting the electorate. It suffices to assert that they do not have any iota of mission as regards the impending presidential race. Their only concern is to distract the mindsets of the unsuspecting Nigerians with a view to causing havoc at the polls.

This set of aspirants is very dangerous, to assert the least. Some of them are looking for an avenue where they would make money through the so-called aspiration. What they do is; in the long run, they would decide to merge with, or throw their support behind, other aspirants, hence would expect the benefiting aspirant to lobby, or present gratification to, them.

Similarly, some of them are only interested in making themselves popular. They are of the view that by printing posters and posing on various banners and billboards as well as social media, Nigerians would get to know that someone like them truly exists. Hence, in the future, they would irritably be criticizing the government in power by presenting themselves as one-time presidential aspirants or contestants.

The point is that this set of aspirants is visionless and lacks Nigerian blood in their system. This is so because, anyone who really possesses the said blood or who such blood flows in his veins will never attempt to deceive the good people of the country let alone looking forward to defrauding them.

Nigerians, therefore, are required to beware of this ugly happening. They must acknowledge that not all that glitters is actually gold. They must understand that among these numerous aspirants, most of them could simply be described as vampires, because their only mission is to suck the blood of innocent people of the country.

On the other hand, they must equally take into cognizance that we still have contenders in the midst of these aspirants. They need to comprehend that there are those who truly want to emerge the president of the country and actually possess genuine mission and vision.

The fact is that the contenders among the countless aspirants are just a few of them. Why it is amazing is that, if the electorate are wise and cautious enough, they can easily detect the pretenders amidst the aspirants. It’s very easy to separate the pretenders from the contenders because by their steps and speeches, we shall know them.

Against this backdrop, I challenge my fellow Nigerians to become wiser than the serpent. They need to become much more awake to enable them to separate the chaff from the grains. They cannot be able to do so if they refuse to become wiser than the serpent.

The pretenders need to be fished out as soon as possible with a view to enabling the electorate to concentrate on only the contenders towards averting any form of distraction at the polls. And, the time to do so is now.

We cannot continue to claim that Nigeria is made up of discerning individuals and groups, yet these deceits would have the opportunity to play on their collective intelligence.